Question about motherboard and ram

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paperroll

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Help on buying motherboard and ram

Hello, I'm new here. Couple of months ago I built my first computer. Intel P4 533MHz FSB 3.06 GHz, PC2100 512MB DDR Cosair, Samsung 80 GB Hard Drive, SOYO SY-P4VGA Motherboard and an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 256MB. I kind of regret buying such a crappy motherboard and CPU, but it can't be helped. I got such a crappy motherboard from my cousin. I didn't want to be mean and not use it. I have learned many new things while building my computer. I now know that a 533MHz FSB CPU is bad. I plan on switching my old motherboard with an ASUS(Intel) Motherboard. Problem is I'm not sure which model to buy. My price range for it is US$100-250. I want dual channel in the motherboard. I also plan on buying new ram with my purchase of the motherboard. I plan on buying 2x512MB PC3200 Corsair XMS Series, but they are so many different kinds of them and I'm not sure which one to buy. Yes, I do know the ram is a bit much, but I'm willing to spend that money. I'm a hardcore PC gamer and I do not need the best of the best Corsair ram, but what I do want is a decent one. I also plan on buying a new CPU(800MHz FSB), but thats way later on. Could you guys please give me some advice?
 
Don't get an ASUS motherboard. They might of had good boards in the past but not anymore. I had one with an nforce chipset and it wouldn't work with my nvidia gfx 5700 card for some reason and they had terrible technical support. In choppy english said 'Buy new video card it, it work with motherboard' cause it was straight out of taiwan. Got an MSI board worked fine. From my experience MSI motherboards are a good way to go. you can go with a cheap MSI board that will have up to 400 FSB for that PC3200 ram you plan on buying and its all compatible with the XMS series because I asked their technical support about kingston hyper-x series.
 
first off.. asus is one of the top companies right now along with abit, both of their top boards usually benchmark right next to each other with many companies below them.. You can't say that a company is bad because you may of had one faulty motherboard.. MSI boards of course are good, but you won't get the same benchmarks from any of their boards against an asus board.

The corsair XMS is great but I got the standard corsair ram and it's overclocked very well.. Everyone has their brand of ram but I know for a fact that corsair, mushkin and ocz are some of the best. For a cheap buy that'll work pretty well, the kingston hyper-x series is great.
 
ABIT "IC7-G MAXII ADVANCE" i875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU

Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200

This is what I'm getting. Tell me what you think. For Intel CPUs I have a question. What do those letters next to the cpu speed mean? Like 3.0E GHz or 3.0C GHz.
 
If your a hardcore gamer, dont waste your money on a intel P4 system, go amd64, takes the cake easy, intel p4 only good for video editing, SO i would go and buy if i was you, buy at the end of this year, socket 939 3200+ or 3000+ money wise, and just get 1g of cosair Pro, do you fine and AMD64 chips will be cheaper than the intel systems in total, so dont waste your money! you would be glad you listened!
 
EE = 800FSB and 2MB cache (i beleive)
E = 800FSB and 1 MB Cache,
C = 800FSB and 512KB Cache
 
yup, if u can afford it get the p4 extreme edition. u could go amd64 like Vortexkrow, but u don't have to.

Nubius, Demalii is right, is asus and abit running the mobo show now. i believe the abit ic7-g like paperroll has suggested is one of the best boards money can buy. heard and read alot of good things about this board.
 
IMO...
OK, Don't throw the money out so fast.
Lets see, you have 333Mhz DDR ram already. Well, any GOOD MotherBoard you buy will be able to handle it, right?
I'd do this.
Get an 800FSB chip, but go up to the new LGA775 Socket. and get a motherboard that can handle DDR-1 and DDR-2 Ram (They aren't hard to find).
Use your current Ram on the new system with the new motherboard and processor.
Trust me, it'll not dissapoint you.
Save your money up till you can max out the DDR-2 Specs of your board! You'll be happy you did!
Other upgrades to consider which improve gaming
Upgrade to an SATA Hard Drive (load times are WAY lower.)
video card-video card-video card... enough said... But you may want to invest in the new PCI Express.
Think of it all this way... by not going into the high end ream department quite yet.
but get the new socket / chipset motherboard, it will last longer.
the PCI Express will be top end for a long time too.
Then you can use your current RAM and upgrade that later,
but your biggest boost will come from the new PCIE and 800 FSB processor! (get 1MB of L2 cache as well)
I may go out of your price range... but if you save up for another month, or two, you'll be much happier, and have a much more versital computer which you can upgrade other areas later.

a way to put it:
You can afford the Ferrari... But if you hold off, and play it smart, you can have the Lamborghini ;)
 
Thanks for the information, but I'm sticking to Intel. I do not plan to buy a new CPU yet. I just wanted a new motherboard and ram. The one my friend help me choose was a total of US$359.25. I'm an 2nd year in highschool and currently do not have a job. So money is a problem. I don't want to keep asking my parents for money either.

Edit: When I do get a job. I plan on putting all my money towards my computer. I do not pay any bills for the house or anything so that is a big plus. I think I remember hearing about the PCI Express. It is suppose to be faster than AGP. Correct? Wouldn't I need to then buy a PCI based card then?
 
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