Upgrading questions CPU/MOBO

[sayaprayer]

My current system is a P4 1.6. My mother board and cpu are the only remaining pieces from my sony vaio. I'd like to upgrade to a 3GHz idealy. I'm not really sure on good mobo's just looking for some advice on maybe brands or what to look for when shopping for cpu and mobo. And anything else that may go with them. I've build my other pc from a barebones kit. And i've done all my own upgrades on my vaio. HD's and ram aren't too tough. But I don't want to mess anything up with the CPU.

 

[_SiLv3R_]

well nowadays if you want a budget pc with intel id suggest you go with socket 478... take a look at the following mobos... i trust all of them and have used them befor ein customer computers and theyve never given me troubles

mobos:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-164&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-027&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-136-129&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-236&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-186-002&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-139-139&depa=0

when it comes to brands i would stick closer to abit, gigabyte, msi, soyo, dfi, and foxconn... foxconn is a relatively new company that has been turning some heads lately so keep your eye on that.. and also i would advise you to stay away from asus as i practically depsise asus lol (altho i have an asus board but i got stuck with it in my vaio).. anyways yea asus has gone down in quality a lot lately and there customer service is just horrible as nubius will be glad to tell u lol.. and as for cpus u have a cpl of choices:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-171&depa=1
and
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-171&depa=1

well i hoped i helped... if your lookin for something differnt than what i suggested just tell me and if be happy to help you... good luck!

EDIT: and btw.. welcome to the forums!

 

[sayaprayer]

Thanks for the help. I was looking at that cpu actually, but I see one with 512k L2 Cache and one with 1M. I'm not sure what thats for but I can only assume more is better. Since I'm replacing my mobo and cpu, will i need to reformat my hard drive?

 

[brinks]

You don't need to reformat your hard drive

 

[_SiLv3R_]

no but you neeed to do a repair installation of windows xp on the harddrive so it detects the new mobo and cpu and installs accordingly.. otherwise it wont boot.. but just do a repair isntallation and you wont lost any date on the hd