Need help picking my next motherboard

[bendrummin58]

Hi guys,

My ASUS Striker Extreme just died on me and I need to get a new motherboard fast. I've been looking on newegg at some possible ones, but can't seem to figure out how to select one that's compatible with everything I have. I was hoping somebody around here could help me out. I play a lot of high-end PC games and here are my specs:

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 2x2GB 240-pin DDR2 800
(I also have a Kingston ValueRAM 2x1GB 240-pin DDR2 800 that I'd like to add in there for a total of 6 GB)

Video: Radeon 4890 PCI Express 2.0 x 16

DVD/CD Combo Drive: IDE

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz LGA 775

HDD: Western Digital SATA 3.0Gb/s

Thank you so much in advance! I need my computer for school, so you can imagine how crappy this situation is, lol.

 

[shagrathdex666]

ok here is an excellent o'c mobo and comes with cf compatibility
and it's the same chipset as your striker the p45.


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3991770&CatId=1533
__________________________________________________
asus p5q pro turbo/q6600 @ 3.4 ghz 24/7/asus silent knight II/
8 gb ocz sli edition/wd green 1 tb/seagate barracuda 250 gb/
antec 300/ gtx 280 @ 690 mhz/1572mhz/1300mhz,
apevia iceberg 680 watts/lite on dvd r/lite on cd

 

[capt_taco]

Since you do gaming, you might as well take this opportunity to ditch the old dual-core for a quad core by getting an AMD CPU/mobo combo deal.

I don't know what the deals are this week, but you can usually find a quad core with a DDR2 motherboard in the $160 range. Look around some. You'll be glad you did. Then go chuck your CPU at stupid people.

 

[bendrummin58]

shagrathdex666, that's quite an interesting board! I am a bit worried though because I have Windows 7 64-bit OS, and many reviews for that say the drivers are incompatible. You say it has the same chipset, does that mean I don't have to reinstall Windows 7?

EDIT: Also, does this mean in the future I cannot upgrade to DDR3 RAM? Is DDR3 a whole lot better and should this persuade me to not get it?

capt_taco, I've thought about getting a mobo/processor combo, but to be honest, I can run games like modern warfare 2 on extra high settings without any noticeable framerate drops. I just recently bought my new video card, RAM, and a PSU--so, financially, I think it might be best to just get a new motherboard now that can support quad core, but keep my old processor until it's unusable.

 

[capt_taco]

shagrathdex666, that's quite an interesting board! I am a bit worried though because I have Windows 7 64-bit OS, and many reviews for that say the drivers are incompatible. You say it has the same chipset, does that mean I don't have to reinstall Windows 7?

EDIT: Also, does this mean in the future I cannot upgrade to DDR3 RAM? Is DDR3 a whole lot better and should this persuade me to not get it?

capt_taco, I've thought about getting a mobo/processor combo, but to be honest, I can run games like modern warfare 2 on extra high settings without any noticeable framerate drops. I just recently bought my new video card, RAM, and a PSU--so, financially, I think it might be best to just get a new motherboard now that can support quad core, but keep my old processor until it's unusable.

Right, but the problem with that is, if you stick with your current CPU, you're only going to be able to upgrade to Socket 775 quad cores, which basically means you'll top out at the technology from late 2008. By the time it makes sense financially for you, you'll want an i7 and it won't make any sense to buy any 775 chip; they'll be out-of-date technology.. So you'll be buying a new motherboard and CPU at that time anyway.

If you go to an AMD board with an AM3 socket, you'll be good to go for any AMD processor that comes out for the next few years. Also, since AMD processors are significantly cheaper than Intel processors, you really can get a CPU and motherboard combo for not a whole lot more than a bare motherboard.

As far as DDR3 goes ... basically any board you get that will support your current RAM will limit you to DDR2 in the future. It's either stick with DDR2 for the life of this system, or make the leap now and throw away your RAM for a DDR3 set. At which point you'll basically be building a whole new system.

Personally, I don't see a hell of a lot of difference between DDR2 and DDR3 unless you're talking about the really low end of DDR2 (like 667) or the really top end of DDR3 (1600+). So I wouldn't mind keeping what you've got if I were you.

 

[bendrummin58]

You have a very valid point, capt_taco. However, as you said, it would require me to essentially build a new system (and since I've recently purchased the extra RAM, I don't really want to, haha). I liked the ECS board, but went ahead and visited Fry's Electronics and ultimately got a Gigabyte board for $79. I installed it and everything works great now!!

My Core 2 Duo and DDR2 RAM will probably be outdated in the future, but in my opinion, that future is far away. I can run Crysis Warhead on extra high settings with full anti-aliasing without any framerate issues--I'd say that's a pretty damn good computer, hah. Several years from now, when (and if) games start to outdate my system, then I will go ahead and upgrade to the new processor and whatnot. Until then, in my opinion, all of these new parts are simply too ahead of their time and I don't see it reasonable to pay a premium for them when what I have already does the best a game will allow.

At any rate, I really appreciate both of your comments and hope you'll be around a few years from now when I upgrade to the next step!

 

[bendrummin58]

Best answer selected by bendrummin58.

 

[shagrathdex666]

(we all surely be,this is what we live & bleed for ha ,ha.=)

no worries there ,win7 comes optimized with the latest drivers for most motherboards i have an p5qpro and when i installed win7 all the drivers where there upon first boot.
and if your c2d tends to be old due to time,there's always room for ovecloking when that time comes!


__________________________________________________
asus p5q pro turbo/q6600 @ 3.4 ghz 24/7/asus silent knight II/
8 gb ocz sli edition/wd green 1 tb/seagate barracuda 250 gb/
antec 300/ gtx 280 @ 690 mhz/1572mhz/1300mhz,
apevia iceberg 680 watts/lite on dvd r/lite on cd

 

[Mousemonkey]

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