Need help with upgrade decisions

[Hussein19891]

^^ If the E8500 will fit in your budget go for it. It's a great cpu and an incredible overclocker.

E8500<$200 for a chip that can hit 4.00ghz almost guaranteed.

 

[tony8345]

I'm pretty certain that I'm going to buy the E8500 or one of the other intel CPUs, however, I do not know much about motherboards other than they act as a circuit for connecting everything. Will the one suggested in a previous post work effectively? I noticed that there is a discount for it it I bought it with the E8500. Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
I do not know what to look for in a motherboard other than the socket type and I noticed that they can range significantly in price. Would this motherboard work great with the E8500 CPU?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I would get the Biostar TP45HP, it's a great overclocker and also supports crossfire.

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TForce TP45HP LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

That gigabyte is also a good board.

 

[zmatt]

The tP45 is a great board. I should know I have one..... Its a great value. I have seen them hit 700mhz fsb which is way above what you will be doing most likely.

 

[tony8345]

The third thing I plan on getting is RAM for my motherboard. I already have 2 GB in my current computer, however, I want to get it up to 4 GB maybe even replace the RAM I currently have. Is there anything I should be looking for in RAM? RAM seems to be priced around the same amount, how do I find the best RAM to maximize my computer's performance. Any suggestions on what to buy? Thanks for the help everyone

 

[Hefemeister]

if you end up going with this board,
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

this is the memory it can run
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 1366+/1066

your old ddr memory will not run you will have to upgrade to ddr2. Go with at least 2gb up to 4gb and you should be great. either 2x1gb or 2x2gb

 

[Nagasama]

...asus...

 

[tony8345]

I was about to order the Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops and one of the suggested motherboards when I ran into a deal for a quad processor listed on newegg for 239.99 Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops but sold at a local computer store for 179.99. Would buying this quad processor be better than the E8500 in terms of gaming performance? Thoughts comments? Thanks.

 

[veg1992]

Stick with the e8500 tbh

 

[BongWizard]

Would buying this quad processor be better than the E8500 in terms of gaming performance? Thoughts comments? Thanks.

the e8500 will offer better performance for your intentions because of the higher clocks it can offer