Gigabyte EP45-UD3L LGA775,

ok thinking maybe going for the

GigaByte EP45-DS3 LGA775, DDR2, SATA2, GBLan, ATX


just for crossfire and pcie 2.0 which i think the above ati card would be better to start with any ideas someone help as iam going in circles

hi no its not the T version just the http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/pr [...] BG-EP45DS3 do you think that board is ok plus any idea on graphics

That board is OK, but I wouldn't necessarily use overclocked memory with it. You could consider buying DDR2 800 MHz memory that operates at 1.8V, e.g., http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/pr [...] 24096HK80.

It will support 2 IDE devices.

About the video card, it depends on your budget. Since you're buying a budget motherboard, I presume that you're looking for a budget video card. Have you checked the new ATI Radeon 4770? It provides good performance both standalone and in Crossfire configurations. See http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2288.html and base you decision on what games you are interested in.

If your goal is to play Crysis, then you should let us know at what resolution you plan on playing the game, etc. Read article http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3554 and look at the performance of an E5200 using a GTX280 at 1680x1050. Tom's achieved great results with the 4770, but you can't expect the same with your much less powerful system. If you're not too demanding, you'll probably be fine at 1650x1050, but you might also have to add a second card and run them in Crossfire mode.