Which Motherboard do I buy??

[wasabi-warrior]

Recently i got given a computer after its motherboard crashed. Im looking to replace it so i can get a working computer. Ive salvaged the parts from it, and need a motherboard to match the parts. Mainly, im focused on the CPU.
Its got an :
Intel Pentium 4 550 "Prescott" with
Socket 775 LGA

Which motherboard should i buy/look at?

 

[GhislainG]

Any socket 775 motherboard should work as long as it supports the 550 (very few motherboards don't support it). Your budget will determine which one you should get.

 

[wasabi-warrior]

What motherboards with this socket do i look for?? I dont mind paying up to 250.
A few names might help (im a noob with this sort of stuff, i need names so i can research, esp. since prices are different where i live.)

 

[GhislainG]

What motherboards with this socket do i look for?? I dont mind paying up to 250.
A few names might help (im a noob with this sort of stuff, i need names so i can research, esp. since prices are different where i live.)

As zipzoomflyhigh said, you could buy an inexpensive motherboard. What's the purpose of that system? I would presume that you're not a gamer since a 550 isn't very powerful. Any newer motherboard should support that 550 as well as Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad CPUs.

 

[wasabi-warrior]

Inexpensive would be fine. Purpose?? It was gaming, its just i was given the 550 for free, i figured it would be cheaper just to use that. Maybe its a bad idea. . .
No i dont have DDR2 memory.
and BTW. . .
EXAMPLE, PLEASE !
Any newer motherboard doesnt tell me much. As i said im a noob, im a computer user, not a modder, im only just getting into this stuff. Ive got no idea what motherboards are new or outdated. Sorry.
Would the motherboard zipzoomflyhigh had a link to be a good start?
I should probably say im looking to update the computer piece by piece as i get the money, and i know the motherboard has to keep up with that.

 

[GhislainG]

It was gaming, its just i was given the 550 for free, i figured it would be cheaper just to use that. Maybe its a bad idea. .

It probably is a bad idea because a new $70 CPU like the E5200 is much faster and better suited to gaming. The games that you want to play should dictate what hardware you need. If you want to run Crysis maxed out at high resolution, then you require a high performance system (fast CPU, high-end video card, etc.). If you play games on the Internet, then a 550 is good enough.

So you need to tell us what you have, what games you want to play and your budget.

 

[wasabi-warrior]

The comp i got was a dell dimension 8400. It had everything working except the motherboard. Thats what i was looking to buy. That meant graphics card (probably outdated, i dont know, its a Radeon X300 SE), SoundBlaster Audigy card, 1gb of ram, cd drive, hard drive (but ill probably get a new one), a cooling sytem, fans etc. (Remeber, im probably gonna upgrade these sometime in the future, so dont look at this as what im using, its just what i have on hand.)
Games:
NFS Carbon/Pro street
Overlord
Oblivion
Age of Empires
Stuff like that. I dont really need top of the range to run those, but i dont want to buy cheap stuff only to have to buy another part to upgrade.
Budget: Anywhere under $700AUD. I was looking at the 625 budget gaming PC, and the prices in there are similar to the prices we have over here now.
As far as CPU's go, im probably looking at a dual core, not a quad.

 

[GhislainG]

As far as CPU's go, im probably looking at a dual core, not a quad.

You're probably looking at a Core 2.

While the graphics card is not powerful enough, you definitely don't need a HD4870 to run those games. The $625 PC is a good start, but a HD4770 should meet your requirements.

 

[xExDiesel]

yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about the ATI Radeon HD 4770, priced right at about $100 us. I plan to use it in my upcoming build.

Search "HD 4770" on newegg.com and just get the cheapest one, not much difference between them from what I can tell. (someone correct me if I'm wrong)