need advice - upgrading my motherboard

[joe2k]

hi, this is my first forum post here so please be gentle

ok my situation is, i built a gaming pc a couple years ago (parts list provided by a friend). now a friend's son is 14 and wants a gaming PC. i was going to give him some of my parts and upgrade my system. but the motherboard market is so complicated that i don't know what to get.

here's my current box:
motherboard: asus p5w dh deluxe
ram: crucial ballistix ddr2-6400
video: ati x1950xtx
cpu: intel e6600 dual-core 2.4GHz

i'm going to give him those and build the rest of his box with spare parts i have.

now here's what i need help with:
my budget will be $800 +/-$200
planning to do this in june/july
so far i plan to get:
8800GT 512MB $250
4GB ram (i have no idea what kind/speed) $150
that leaves about $400 for mobo and CPU both.

for my motherboard i need (at least):
3 sata (for my HDD, non RAID)
1 IDE (for my 2 DVD-RW)
built-in lan
i do NOT need built-in audio, video, scsi, RAID, and i don't overclock because i don't like to mess with stuff i don't fully understand.
i prefer asus only because my last 3 motherboards were asus so i feel comfortable with that brand.
my main priorities for a motherboard are STABILITY, RELIABILITY, QUALITY. i want a board that will never ever give me any kind of trouble.
it would be nice to have a cpu upgrade path. i read about intel's upgrade path and "45nm" and "penryn" are mentioned but i don't understand how that will affect my options for cpu upgrades in the future. how long until they start selling cpu's that won't fit in my motherboard? i don't even know the current intel cpu's would work in my asus p5w.

i'll spend whatever i have left (hopefully about $250) on the best intel cpu i can get.

so now my questions:

a) does my budget plan look ok? ($250 gfx, $150 ram, $150 mobo, $250 cpu). obviously this is an estimate

b) what motherboard should i get?

c) what ram should i get? i don't really understand what DDR2 and DDR3 are or what the various specs mean. i just want some stable name-brand ram that won't be a bottleneck for my system. no overclocking necessary.

d) is the 8800GT 512MB still the best price/performance card to get for a gamer?

e) any other comments welcome please


edit:
i have a creative x-fi xtreme gamer sound card so i don't need onboard sound (and would actually prefer a motherboard without built-in sound)
i don't ever plan to get a 2nd video card for SLI so that's not a requirement. if i ever have the money to burn on a 2nd video card then i'll upgrade the motherboard again if necessary.

 

[ohGrFreak]

If you really want to spend that much on an ASUS mobo, here ya go... 120
Newegg.com - ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

DDR2, nowhere near 150 for good stuff, unless you want or need to spend that much:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

With the money you save from the 120 dollar mobo and 75 dollar ram, you can step up that proc to this:
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

If you can milk your budget, here's a 9800GTX for 295
Newegg.com - PNY XLR8 VCG98GTXXPB GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics

I have no idea about future upgradability, but for right now, the LGA775 is it, it's tops, it's ace.

Some people will tell you that the latency on the ram I posted is too high, but I say you'll like the 4 gigs as opposed to lower latency (which only really provides a nominal increase in performence)

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Since he is not planning on sli there is no reason to get an sli board. In your price range p35 is the best option and supports 45nm processors.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

You can actually get an 8800GTS 512mb for what you are willing to pay for a 8800gt.

Newegg.com - MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics

The P35-DS3L, 8800gts 512mb, and the G.Skill ram posted above are $390 leaving you enough money to get this processor for a total of $635 (before mir).

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

Also

 

[NightSurge]

I was just about to suggest the DS3L. Such a great board. You won't go wrong with it there. The G. Skill RAM is something I have also used.... actually, I've used the Q6600 as well! So, if you'd like information from a first hand user, all these parts are incredible and will be perfect for you. Not to mention well within your price range. At $635 you could probably even step up to the Q6700 2.66GHz processor for $550 or the newer 45nm Q9300 2.5GHz for just $300!.

 

[joe2k]

thanks for the tips

how much better is the GTS than the GT? i could probably find this somewhere on google but if you know off the top of your head, give me your opinion.

what kind of difference is there between ddr2-6400 and ddr2-800 ram? is it something i would ever notice as a gamer? i don't know exactly what faster ram would help with other than maybe loading times, which are already very fast.

as a gamer i should probably go with the faster 2-core (over a slightly slower quad) because most of the games i play (steam and battlefield 2142) are still single-core, and i've read that even for the next couple years games will be multi-core but not very efficient (e.g. 5% on the 4th core) so i'm not too worried about that. when the moment comes to buy the cpu i'll have to use pricegrabber or something to compare and see what i can get.

again, thanks for the tips

 

[ohGrFreak]

Whoops, didn't see two slots when I looked at the board.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

If you want to go with a dual core I recommend the E8400. It uses the new 45nm Wolfdale core so it is faster then the E6850 even though they have the same clock speed.

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

Here is a comparison of the 8800gts 512mb and 8800gt

There are more benchmarks here

AnandTech: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 & GeForce 8800 GT 256MB: Playing with Memory and G92

 

[joe2k]

thanks very much for all this info. it will definitely help me make a decision.

 

[Joeyboy]

oh about your confusion between ddr2-6400 and ddr2-800 ram. They are the same thing. PC2-6400 and ddr2-800 are the same.

Here's a few examples:

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX (2x1GB)

800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-12 Timings, 1.9-2.3v VDIMM, Lifetime Warranty with Corsair.


Crucial Ballistix 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT6464AA804)

800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-12 Timings, 2.2v VDIMM, Lifetime Warranty with Crucial.

PC2-6400 is another name for ddr2-800mhz ram, just as PC2-4200 will be 544Mhz ram.