Hardware advice, please

[Mouseroo]

I'm looking to upgrade a few components in my tired old PC early next year, namely the motherboard, CPU, memory and graphics card.
I'm happy enough with my graphics card and CPU decisions (geforce 8800 gtx and intel core 2 duo E6850 respectively), but I'm a bit stumped with motherboard and memory compatibility.
I was originally intending to get an Asus striker extreme motherboard, but I've heard that it has a nasty habit of blowing memory modules - some kind of firmware / voltage issue apparently.
So my question is this:  Given that I'm not much of an overclocker (a stoning offense to some, I know  ), what would be the best combination of motherboard and memory (2 x 1GB) for "out of the box" ease of use?
I wanted to stick with a motherboard which supports socket 775 processors (for future upgrade to a quad core), and SLI graphics (for future purchase of a second 8800 gtx).

Thanks in advance.

[Gary]

To be honest you don't really need to upgrade at all. If you were looking to upgrade I would wait to see what comes out towards the beginning of next year, more mobos supporting DDR3 and up to 8GB capacity are coming out now and they will be more refined next year. But as I said, to be honest I would wait a good while, there really is not much point as of now, technology changes fast and there is not really a lot worth upgrading on that rig at the moment, maybe getting another 8800GTX for sli and if you have not, a modular 1000watt psu like the Enermax galaxy. Also next year the Quad core CPU's will really come into their own as well, what you have got is hardly tired. 

[mrapoc]

First off wait till november...u will shoot yourself if u dont (price drops, new cards, upgrades etc.)

You sure you dont want to overclock? I have a e6300 here (£50 now isnt it?) @ 3ghz from 1.8ghz and thats on air cooling!

TBH any ram will do you as long as its ddr2...2gb...dual channel and decent speeds/timings (800mhz, 5-5-5-12ish any pc2-6400 will do) - go for higher spec if you are overclocking.

SLI is a load of cr*p imo - Nt much performance increase compared to the price you pay for it plus you'd be better buying one top spec card than spending more on two lower spec in most cases.

A 700w psu will be fine tbh - You only need 1k psus for dual GTX and a heavily overclocked quad core. Go for a nice quality 700w imo.

If you have the cash go wild by all means but most of the time the performance difference between one piece of hardware and another is dismissable.

BTW in november the 8800gts 640mb is getting a new revision with even more pipelines unlocked so its even closer to the gtx...

[Mouseroo]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the advice, but I think I've mislead you somewhat.... oops!
My current system is nearly 4 years old, and is below average by today's standards.
The dual core processor and 8800 gtx graphics card I mentioned are to be part of the upgrade I want to make in the new year (believe me, if I already had them, I wouldn't be complaining  )
What I am confused about is the current world of motherboards, and especially which ones are good performers without extensive tweaking.

I just came across this article:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=869&num=1

But I think that would count as "feature creeping"   

Thanks mrapoc as well - useful to know that SLI isn't all it's made out to be.  That could impact my motherboard decision, since I wouldn't need to go for one with the 680i chipset.  Dare I spend the extra cash on a 8800 ultra???

[Gary]

First off wait till november...u will shoot yourself if u dont (price drops, new cards, upgrades etc.)

You sure you dont want to overclock? I have a e6300 here (£50 now isnt it?) @ 3ghz from 1.8ghz and thats on air cooling!

TBH any ram will do you as long as its ddr2...2gb...dual channel and decent speeds/timings (800mhz, 5-5-5-12ish any pc2-6400 will do) - go for higher spec if you are overclocking.

SLI is a load of cr*p imo - Nt much performance increase compared to the price you pay for it plus you'd be better buying one top spec card than spending more on two lower spec in most cases.

A 700w psu will be fine tbh - You only need 1k psus for dual GTX and a heavily overclocked quad core. Go for a nice quality 700w imo.

If you have the cash go wild by all means but most of the time the performance difference between one piece of hardware and another is dismissable.

BTW in november the 8800gts 640mb is getting a new revision with even more pipelines unlocked so its even closer to the gtx...

Sli works great imo, a 1000 watt psu is good future proofing and if you really want to go future proof DDR3 is the next up and coming memory technology. But we all have different opinions, buying this year will not make much difference, the old product price just drops, the new product launches next year will yield a greater performance hit than upgrading what you have now. All depends on your wallet.

[Gary]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the advice, but I think I've mislead you somewhat.... oops!
My current system is nearly 4 years old, and is below average by today's standards.
The dual core processor and 8800 gtx graphics card I mentioned are to be part of the upgrade I want to make in the new year (believe me, if I already had them, I wouldn't be complaining  )
What I am confused about is the current world of motherboards, and especially which ones are good performers without extensive tweaking.

I just came across this article:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=869&num=1

But I think that would count as "feature creeping"   

Thanks mrapoc as well - useful to know that SLI isn't all it's made out to be.  That could impact my motherboard decision, since I wouldn't need to go for one with the 680i chipset.  Dare I spend the extra cash on a 8800 ultra???

Right I was wondering  we all have different opinions I like SLI but that's just my opinion, Have a look around for user reviews of the motherboards you will get the true feel then and look for the manufacturer forums like the Asus one etc, as all the warts and nasties will be well trodden and shown there, the 8800GTX is sweet but power hungry, hence if you wanted to add more later having a more powerful psu I always think holds you in good stock to get more out of your pc for the next X amount of years, I agree with mrapoc as far as DDR2 goes, but make sure your memory is compatible to your mobo some can be picky and manufacturers generally give a list of memory modules that work best with their setups, my old Asus A8N sli premium prefers corsair but I managed to get two 1 GB sticks of OCZ platinum in, so have a look around join a few forums for overclockers and get the hardware you are want after seeing what they say. 

[Lance]

I agree with mrapoc when it comes to the SLi - all the reviews I've seen report SLi systems have only increased the performance by a maximum of 30% over a single card system on the same hardware. Maybe with directX 10  games which are due out soon, they'll be able to take advantage of the extra power available (assuming it is available!) but until that has been proven, I think you would be better off buying a single top spec card.

[Gary]

If you have the choice of one expensive card over two lesser cards I would do as lance says depends how deep your pockets are though, I think buy more than you need cpu, psu and gpu wise and the same goes for ram of course and your machine will keep up with the pace for longer, otherwise you will be constantly upgrading and that's a waste of cash, get it all first time round, and anyway as soon as you buy it, your out of date almost Amd are going to produce the Phenom a true quadcore cpu compared with Intels sandwich or two dual cores at present, but whether they can beat Intels's  performance like they did with the old 939 socket X2's as they did a few years ago remains to be seen so I would go for Intel as of now anyway, as for mobos this gets good reviews, Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard, and you can find some good deals on it at this time
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-135-AB&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=913

[mrapoc]

http://forum.overclock3d.net matey

Learn how to overclock...find reviews and get recommendations

On signup say I referred you :p You'll be very welcome

[Mouseroo]

Thanks to everyone for all the advise.  Looks like I'll have to wade through a few more reviews and come to a decision on the whole "is SLI worth it or not?" issue. 

Mrapoc - your forum looks like a fine place to start, so expect to see me there soon! 

[Kheldar]

i was about to the same with a new thread to upgrade my pc (and possibly Rach's to!)

i guess one question that sprang to mind on reading your original post Mouseroo was what led you to believe you need to upgrade ? what cant you do / run / play with the current pc that pushes you down the age old pc persons upgrading time.....?

i too agree that there are bewildering amount of mobo / memory types and grafix cards that (just like with plamsa/lcd's tv's) seem to have huge long model names/numbers that differ from another one at £5 difference by 1 character !

given technology moves on so quick i always try to hold off upgrading until i really need to cos something just wont run properly - usually a game !

[Den]

Wow!!!!!  Can you play games on a PC. Did not know that    At least not since I sold my Amiga. 

[Kheldar]

Wow!!!!!  Can you play games on a PC. Did not know that    At least not since I sold my Amiga. 

ofc you can.

everyone knows windows comes with solitaire 

[Mouseroo]

He! He! You got my number - it's a game 
I'm currently obsessed with the new Quake Wars game, but my poor old PC can just about manage a playable framerate at about 800x600 with low to medium detail.
So it doesn't look particularly pretty at times.

I've also just got the beta demo of Unreal Tournament 3, and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spore next year.

To be honest, I'm also a bit of a programming geek, and I desperately want some DirectX10 hardware to get my paws on so that I can see what eye candy I can generate 

[Kheldar]

ahha see I knew thats what it was, you cannot hide things from us Idnutters you know 

take a look in the gaming forum.

i recently got the UT demo and am back into CS atm.

also i think someone else mentioned the COD demo.

and i am awaiting the TF2 one (on friday ?)

i'm also tempted with Quakewars ET or whatever its called.


What spec is your pc atm then - esp grafix card ?

[Mouseroo]

Yes there's a lot of good gaming fun out there at the moment, although if I find many more, I fear my good lady will use my keyboard to beat me within an inch of my life

My current PC specs are:

Intel P4D 3.0GHz
Asus P4C800-E motherboard
XFX geforce 6600GT graphics card (256Mb)
1Gb RAM (can't remember the make, don't know the timings)
and about 700Gb of HDD space

The old beast has served me well over the past few years - only ever upgraded the graphics card as I went along.

[Ann]

You could always ask over at the BYO board http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/forums/

I haven't been there for a while so haven't kept up with what's new but the guys over there will know.