Upgrading motherboard and CPU.

[35g700]

My E7300 is starting to show its age, and I'm sick and tired of this Biostar motherboard. I've been out of the loop for a while now but it looks like if you want a good upgrade at a good price AMD is the way to go now. Currently I have DDR2-800 RAM and if possible I would like to keep it unless upgrading to DDR3 is completely necessary, or it improves performance a lot.

I've decided that I would like to get the AMD Phenom 955, but I don't what board to get. I want to get a good overclock out of it and would like it to support DDR2 memory. I'd like to get a full ATX board not a micro ATX because I still use some PCI card slots. The price range for the board is a max of $120.

Thanks for the help.

 

[veg1992]

This Biostar board, won't be crappy like that P43 one:

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

You can go LGA 1156, but you'd have to pay for DDR3 also.

 

[35g700]

That Biostar motherboard looks good but I can't find anything about it on Biostars website, and I can't find anything about a good warranty.

This board is by Asus, its cheap and has a good warranty: Newegg.com - ASUS M4A77D AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards The only concern I have would be quality because it's so cheap.

How much would a good set up be with LGA 1156 and how much better performance would it be over AMD after overclocking? I'm guessing it would be easier to OC with AMD because you can easily get a chip with an unlocked multiplier.

 

[35g700]

I'm sorry for the double post but I can't edit my last one.

I'm hoping to order tonight or tomorow and am looking for a good combo deal with a PII CPU and a DDR2 motherboard for preferably $230, $250 max and I would like a board that OC's well.

 

[james.wired]

I have that mobo that Vern showed you and it works really well. Hikaricloud uses the same one and he likes it also, got a monster OC out of his x3 720. That and the PII 955 should do good, also falls well under your budget.

 

[35g700]

Is their any Combo deal including the CPU and Motherboard that I can get? that motherboard and CPU cost $280 and I don't think I'll have that much.

EDIT: I found this combo, its not the exact same board though its $5 cheaper but it looks to be very close. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.321825

 

[james.wired]

Whoops sorry dude not sure why I thought that came out under budget

 

[35g700]

Haha, it's cool. That combo I posted seems to be good, it looks like the same board accept it doesn't support the AM2 socket, only the AM2+ and AM3 CPU's.

EDIT: Does anyone know about the overclocking settings in the BIOS for biostar boards? The board I have now sucks for overclocking. You can adjust the FSB, the multiplier and all but when you want to increase the voltages you only have the options of 5%, 10%, and 15% which is a pain.

Is this board any good? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131367 It looks good and it has SLI, which is a big plus for me because I have an nvidia card, it looks like a fairly good overclocker too.

 

[aliasaid]

but when you want to increase the voltages you only have the options of 5%, 10%, and 15% which is a pain.

my MSI board is like that too, so you might encounter it on a different brand as well.

 

[james.wired]

My board does not increase by percentages at all...just by increments of like .125 I think.