POST - CPU fail

[oboe]

What kind of board would you guys recommend?    One option would be to get new mobo/cpu/video card/hard drive and probably PSU.

I had priced out an example at Mwave using a Gigabyte EP45-DS3L board, 2 Gig Crucial DDR2 800, E8400 Core 2 Duo CPU, XFX 9800 GT, a 250Gb Seagate SATA drive, and an Antec 500W PSU for around $550.    Keeping only my case, keyboard/mouse, and optical drives.   Its almost a completely new build - it's tempting to spend a couple hundred more and do that.

 

[BaldEagl]

I had priced out an example at Mwave using a Gigabyte EP45-DS3L board, 2 Gig Crucial DDR2 800, E8400 Core 2 Duo CPU, XFX 9800 GT, a 250Gb Seagate SATA drive, and an Antec 500W PSU for around $550.    Keeping only my case, keyboard/mouse, and optical drives.   Its almost a completely new build - it's tempting to spend a couple hundred more and do that.

 

Something like this is probably the best bet.  Either direction you take look at the low-end Gigabyte motherboards.  They seem to own the low end of the market.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

You're gonna need to set a budget first and foremost.  What can you afford?  Integrated will 'get you by', but don't plan on maxing out any graphics on a game unless it was 5+ years old.  When you're figuring out your budget, get a list of items you can carry over to the new system to help cut costs.  Such as CD/DVD drive, case, keyboard etc.

There are a couple new integrated chipsets which give relatively good performance. Sure they're no 4870x2 but I think the best are knocking 7600GT performance levels already. That's pretty cool considering you don't have to pay extra for it. And most importantly afaik that kind of power already runs AH2 fine.

[Fulmar]

When you posted about the integrated video chipsets, I browsed Newegg for a few minutes and couldn't find any integrated boards with anything I found as a powerhouse.  Mainly 7050 or Radeon 3xxx series chipsets.  Can you find one?   It seems like an interesting idea.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

When you posted about the integrated video chipsets, I browsed Newegg for a few minutes and couldn't find any integrated boards with anything I found as a powerhouse.  Mainly 7050 or Radeon 3xxx series chipsets.  Can you find one?   It seems like an interesting idea.

Well the Radeon 790GX chipset includes HD3300 chipset - I'm not sure if that is enough to run AH2 properly but I know from the previous generation product (690) that it can do surprisingly well in gaming. My kids are playing titles like Madagaskar and Wall-E on it solely on the integrated graphics.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_15337_15742,00.html

If this quote from tomshardware is any indication AH2 might run fine, too:

Here’s an easy one. Even at 1024x768, all three of our integrated platforms offered enough graphics performance to keep Flight Simulator X pegged at its vsync cap.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-integrated-790gx,1988-9.html

In fact I'll run a test on the 690G chipset and report what kind of framerates I can get with Core2duo 2.6Ghz + 690G integrated on AH2.

[drdeathx]

nvidea 9600gt is around $120 if you search. Nice upgrade from 7600