What motherboard and processor would be good?

[gottarollwithit]

I'm looking to do the exact same thing as you. I take it your goals are.... a big bump in everyday usage speed, while keeping the price under control? Not too much heavy duty gaming, right?

For under $400 i'm going to use:

Mobo/CPU/CPU fan combo -

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6498119&CatId=4297

It's basically an Asus board with an Athlon 2 quad core 635

Some Corsair ram

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5082127&CatId=4527

A Cooler Master power supply - Ya can find better quality stuff, but we're on a tight budget

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3441837&CatId=1078

A Western Digital HD 1Tb

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5659779&CatId=2459

Oh, and ya can hunt around for a copy of Win 7.... I bet you can find some school that's cheap to enroll in that'll give ya a copy of Win 7, or at least give you a giant price break.

[Satex]

Newegg.com has deals going on everyday.

Newegg is an excellent source for a wide range of motherboards. The review statistics will also give you a crude measure of how good they are.

are there any specific brands some better than others or they all generally similar?

All known brand names (ASUS, ECS, etc...) are the same consumer grade quality. I wouldn't frown on any manufacturer that had a motherboard with the feature set I want. For the part 15 years, I have stuck with AMD based systems. The cost a bit less and perform as well as Intel based systems.

[cpl_dan]

thats right on the money.... good info

[cpl_dan]

was thinking of getting this for 235.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.456515 then http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102859 for 135.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145260 keep the chip and change the mother board for a better one keep cost down to 450.00 total.. not so much on heavy gaming like you said but i want a increase of speed

[JDay]

AMD > Intel
ATI > nVidia

AMD CPUs are cheaper, run cooler, and faster for the given rating. Also handle overclocking very well, with minimal modifications done to cooling.
Been hearing people have been frying their nVidia graphics cards on Star Craft 2. Apparently Star Craft has no FPS limit, thus the cards have been working too hard and frying. So far no ATI users have complained about any problems.

If you want overpriced technology, go Intel.

Don't forget http://www.tigerdirect.com/

AMD CPUs do not shut off unused cores, use triple channel memory, or many of the other things that Intel CPUs do. Not to mention Intel CPUs run much faster in everything not game related (encoding, databases, video/picture editing, 3D rendering, compiling source code), you know, real work.

[JDay]

All known brand names (ASUS, ECS, etc...) are the same consumer grade quality. I wouldn't frown on any manufacturer that had a motherboard with the feature set I want. For the part 15 years, I have stuck with AMD based systems. The cost a bit less and perform as well as Intel based systems.

ECS boards tend to be stable but they are just your basic motherboard.

[JDay]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102859 for 135.99

I wouldn't go with anything less than the 5770, the 5750 is kind of slow. A 5850 or better is preferable, especially if you are into gaming. I would recommend going with a GeForce GTX 460 for around $199 since these cards are currently the best bang for the buck. It beats the Radeon HD 5870 in benchmarks.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-the-200-king

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434

[gabe123]

Frys got good combo. You can save a bunch with their CPU+ motherboard combo. With your budget, and requirements, I don't think Intel/ AMD make much of a difference. In any case, go for 4 cores instead of 2 ( AMD Athlon/ Phenon X4 would better fit your budget, Intel i5 750, and i7 are better, but usually overkill ) I have good experience with Gigabyte and ASUS motherboard. I'd would pick motherboard that has chipset (north/ south bridge) made by the same company that make CPU ( Intel and AMD), and avoid EVGA , or other company to keep it simple.

Make sure you spare about $100 for RAM too.

[JDay]

There is nothing wrong with EVGA, they make good stuff.

[Noobert]

I stand by EVGA. They are good, like DD in AR terms

[Paragun]

I would ask more questions like how many HDD's you use, how many CD/DVD player or burners do you have or need. IDE more important or SATA?

Oh yea, and is your current power supply enough for a new board?

[ejhc11]

Searched and saw this for you - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB..._-NA-_-NA-_-NA

I personally gave up on building my own PC, not enough time and cost almost as a Dell Vostro desktops nowadays. Check this site for electronic bargains. http://www.techbargains.com/?r=1