Hello,

New to the forum but been looking and reading this website for a while. I am trying to upgrade a system and wanted to know what some people think about some of the parts i have been looking at. I am starting with the motherboard, CPU, and Ram. This will be an AMD upgrade btw.

CPU
Athlon 64 X2 6400+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103228
or
Athlon 64 X2 6000+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103773

only $10-$12 diff so just looking for what is better.

MB
GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128014
or
ASUS M2N-SLI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131246

On the MB's I am open to suggestions or opinions looking for a MB that i can put the 2 video cards that i have and upgrade them in a few months.

Ram i will probably get 4GB DDR2 800

Price range for CPU/MB/4GB Ram is $300-$360

Thanks
Krone

Either of those boards would be a good choice. It just comes down to which feature set you want most.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131246
Compared side by side you can see the feature differences.

I don't think you really need help figuring out which is the better CPU

Unless you're in a big hurry you might want to wait for the new 750a motherboards to start dropping into the market in just a few weeks. If nothing else you might get a better deal on the 560/570 motherboards you linked.

You could probably swing a new 750a motherboard (~@$150), X2 6000+ ($153) and 4GB DDR2 800 RAM (~@$65) and still not bust your budget.

To keep costs down a bit a new low power X2 4450e 2.3GHz (~@$80) or X2 5600+ 2.8Ghz arent bad options either.
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14582
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36625/135/

I thought I just saw a thread about how GA-M57SLI-S4 causing data corruption on SATA. The only fix is to use MS drivers with a speed penalty.

Consider the 790 chipset like ASUS M3A. It's AM2+ ready. No burn-out issues with high-power Phenoms like the 780.

Thats an option I didn't even think of, shown how work can kill you. I am not in a hurry just that if i don't do it now ill just end up buying something else (lol). but thank you for the reminder about the 750a's i forgot about it.

I saw the same thing but i have had good luck with Gigabyte MB's (knock on wood) so that is why i went with it.