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Which motherboard?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - Which motherboard?

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Hi all. I bought an AMD Phenom II x2 550 BE per the advice of someone on this forum to upgrade my HP a6130n and found out later that they didn't know what they were talking about when they said I didn't need to upgrade my MOBO. Now, I need a new MOBO. Which one is the best?

I'll probably get upgraded RAM as well. I also plan on getting windows 7 64 bit. Which RAM should I get and how much?

I already put in a Radeon 4870 card and a new 585 watt PS.

Thank in advance....

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There are a lot of options to consider.

Do you want the least expensive that will adequately use the CPU and 4870, or are you willing to pay a little more for increased performance and a little more for future proofing?

What memory do you have now?

We are talking differences here of $10 to $20 more on the mobo and probably, I am guessing same on the memory, a little more if you want to OC. Do you want to OC the CPU and memory?

Also I am assuming you want 4GB of memory, is that true?

Message edited by rockyjohn on 10-17-2009 at 12:02:55 AM

------------------------------ There are 10 kinds of people in the World...Those who understand binary, and those who don’t!
Reply to rockyjohn

I will pay more for the performance. Not sure on the OC; just learned what that is about a week ago. Do you think it's worth doing for gaming/movie making, etc.?

On the memory, I will get whatever I need to for best performance. I have read that you can go above the 4GB on 64 bit systems but too much over is redundant. I had 6 GB in mind but again, if I need 20 GB, so be it.

My system now has 3GB of DDR2 SDRAM

I don't care that much on the cost; but want to be reasonable as I plan on just making this upgrade now, then starting from scratch in a year or two and build a super system.

Message edited by Anonymous on 10-17-2009 at 12:45:23 AM

Reply to Anonymous

OC is definitely worth it for both gaming and movie making - and your processor should OC nicely.

On the memory, right now the sweet spot is 4GB - few applications make use even of 3GB at the moment, even when multitasking. So get 2 x 2GB now and later, if necessary and as applications make better use of more memory you can add 2 x 2GB - and prices should be lower by then. Although the 4GB might be fine if you are planning for a new system in a year or two.

Message edited by rockyjohn on 10-17-2009 at 02:26:12 AM

------------------------------ There are 10 kinds of people in the World...Those who understand binary, and those who don’t!
Reply to rockyjohn

Here are my suggestions:

Note that you PC uses the smaller mirco-ATX mobo
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $89.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128397

OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $79.99AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] G1600LV4GK

Note that the memory is on the mobo compatibility list. Others with more knowlege about memory might know of something that is a little cheaper or has better timings (although these are not good for DDR3 1600 memory at 8-8-8-24.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ There are 10 kinds of people in the World...Those who understand binary, and those who don’t!
Reply to rockyjohn

rockyjohn wrote :

Great, thanks!

Reply to Anonymous

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