Help in picking mobo and proc

antemon

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Jul 5, 2008
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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE:
two to three weeks time

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:
everyday computing, gaming, 24/7 torrent downloading machine? :na:


PARTS NOT REQUIRED:
almost everything, upgrading my ancient computer part by part. almost at the final stretch here and upgrading my mobo and proc


PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:
er... it's a local site (www.tipidpc.com, http://www.tipidpc.com/useritems.php?username=PCHub is the poster I woul prefer buying from)

PARTS PREFERENCES:
AMD proc
mobo doesn't really matter, but it would be great if it had DDR2 and DDR3 ram support, hybrid crossfire...

OVERCLOCKING:
maybe. I'm all for overclocking but I don't want to void my warranty - just yet

MONITOR RESOLUTION:
right now? it's a 20 or so inch CRT, max I think is 1280*1024 but I am planning on upgrading that as well in the future to an LCD. 20inch or so as well. Don't need anything bigger than that really

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
As I said, this little project has been running for a long time now and am now finally getting my act together to upgrade.
current gears that won't need replacing is my 4770, DDR2 RAM, Huntkey PSU 650 watts I think or was it 750 watts? and just about everything else will stay

I'm a little bit confused on what I should get
should I grab an Athlon II x 2 and decent mobo or
get the cheapest Phenom II I can and skimp out on the mobo?

from what I understand, there's a tool from ATI/AMD that you can use to 'effortlessly' overclock if one has a phenom CPU.

Right now I think I'm all set for
Athlon II x2 245 and
MSI 785GTM-E45 http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=4822782
as it's got hybrid crossfire support and... it's black :lol:
some other contenders are:
ASUS™ M4A785-M AMD 785G asus link
M4A78LT-M LE asus link looks great, but this would mean I need to purchase DDR3 RAM as this one does not support DDR2

cheapo boards:
ASROCK™ N68-S (AM2+) asrock link



but what do you guys think? Should I grab a Phenom II proc and just get a very basic mobo?
there's a couple in the list I linked earlier that's under the AM2+ but has AM3 support, but I can't seem to find it right now. I know it's an Asus board though
 

antemon

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Jul 5, 2008
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bump

so I got a plan here
grab a decent AM3 motherboard and maybe just a regular transcend or kingston RAM and get the cheapest AMD proc AMD™ Athlon™ II X2 240 or the 245 if I can squeeze it in


logic is pretty simple:
setting up a mobo is a lot of work :pt1cable:

any thoughts on which mobo I should get?