need help with upgrade

[posito75]

Im upgrading my system that I baught and built 4 years ago.. Right now I have a ESC K7s5a with a Athlon XP 2100 (1.7) with 1 gig of Ram. I recently baught a Nvidia 6800 GT. My computer works well but when I play a game I have to put it on the lowest settings to get good frame rates. Obviously its not the Video card so Im thinking its the CPU and board. I dont want to buy another XP chip because well thats old technology. I have around $200-250 to spend and Ive been looking at Motherboards and the 64 chips. Im planning to buy a Athlon 64 3000 939 but Im not sure which board I should buy.. I want to buy a good board that I can overclock with and also later on upgrade the chip to dual processor. Can you guys help me pick which board is better for overclocking and also for future technology.

1. Gigabyte - K8NS-939
2. AS Rock America - K8 Combo-Z
3. Chaintech - S1689
4. Microstar/MSI - K8T Neo2-F

I like the Microstar/MSI - K8T Neo2-F but its the most expensive one. I was looking at the As Rock America one and it doesnt look that bad. Can I overclock with that one and can I later on put in a Athlon 64 X2 chip in it? I want to get a good board but not the most expensive one.

 

[Elbatrop1]

I would go with the MSI or Gigabyte. Dont expect any crazy overclocks, but you probably could a little bit.

I know that the NF4 chipsets (none of the ones you picked out use it) will support X2s but I dont know about the ones you picked.

 

[posito75]

Im not sure either if Nforce 3 will support X2's. Thats a good question.. But isnt Nforce 3 an Nforce 4 but with pci-e instructions? I read somewhere thats is basically the same thing. I dont want to buy Nforce 4's because I have a pretty good AGP card which I didnt want to buy for nothing.. By the way I baught it 6 months ago.

 

[MeTsU]

If you're looking for a good mobo to overclock with, I'd recommend a DFI or Abit mobo. I've got friends who are getting some pretty awesome results.

 

[Hacp]

I'm pretty sure that x2s will work with all 939 mobos, inclucding the nforce 3 by dfi which is a great mobo to oc with.

 

[posito75]

Okay, this is what I baught:

1. MSI K8TNeo2-F Via Socket 939 ATX Motherboard / Audio / AGP 8x / Gigabit LAN / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA / RAID (M452-2800)

2. AMD Athlon 64 3000+ / 512KB Cache / 2000 MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Processor with Fan (CP1-A64-30009)

THe question is, should I get a better CPU fan since I do plan on overclocking to maybe a 2.3?