asking for advice on new MoBo/CPU/Vcard

[Yeager]

Am preparing to upgrade.  Need new MoBo/CPU/Vcard

What would make a real good trio?
===
Ahhh.......   let's move this to the appropriate forum.....m'k.....ehhh.....thanks

[Denholm]

We need some information from you first.

Firstly, what is your budget? Secondly, do you have any preferences? Thirdly, what type of power-supply do you have (Wattage and Amperage on the +12V rail(s))? Fourthly, can your case support an ATX or a MicroATX motherboard?

[Ratpack1]

Have you ever seen a grown man naked? Do you enjoy gladiator movies?

[Yeager]

Oh No sir!  I've never even been in a airplane before 

I would be willing to spend 400-500 on all three items I guess.  I have used AMD and Nvidia for several upgrades now
and would honeslty like to get back to Intel and try ATI but am looking for what others have had good success with.

[Ghastly]

Avoid ATI.  The constant driver issues are tough to live with.

You'll also likely need to budget for a power supply and memory to take advantage of newer CPU/Mobo/ Video Card.

<S>

[Reschke]

Yeager,

There are a few threads dealing with this right on this page. I just posted my most recent purchase in this thread...http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,269085.0.html

Also this one by Mace2004 http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,269352.0.html details a barebones kit from Tigerdirect that isn't a bad deal except no one seems to have heard anything good about the power supply or much of anything about the power supply before. Here is the barebones kit link. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4936535&CatId=333

On a video card there are plenty of deals on GTX2** cards at the various online retailers. I just picked up the following from Newegg. EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI ... - Retail Item #: N82E16814130433

Yes I know this is outside of your stated price range but there are some AMD setups on Tigerdirect for close to the same price range you are looking for.

[eagl]

I think you'll be happier if you can stretch that budget...  You can save some by going with a slower Intel cpu now and then upgrading later, but don't go AMD.  They hosed everyone with their socket 939 debacle and I don't trust them to let me keep using the same mobo.

I like ASUS motherboards for quality and features right now, intel dual core cpus for price performance ratio and upgradability, and nvidia vid cards.  To avoid having to replace it soon, I'd go for the cheapest nvidia GTX 260 you can find.  For memory, you can get 2x2GB kits.  I'd go DDR2 instead of DDR3 as well, for price, even though DDR2 is a dead end when intel finally retires core 2 duo.  But for now you can get a lot of performance with core 2 duo cpus and DDR2 at half the price of a new i7 cpu/mobo with DDR3.

I've had good luck with gskill memory, their prices are great for "name" memory, and my one return/exchange with them was easy.

A quick look at newegg gives me this:

mobo - ASUS P5Q $118.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131295
CPU:  Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 $167.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
Memory gskill 2x2GB DDR2 1066 $47 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231241 (you can save $5 by going with DDR2 800, but why?)
Vid card:  ASUS Nvidia GTX 260 (216 core) $164.99 (free shipping $144.99 after $20 MIR) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121316

That's $498 before shipping, a bit over $500 after shipping.  You might save some by finding more rebates or seeing if a combo deal exists for those or similar parts.  While it has nice upgrade paths, you won't need to upgrade it anytime soon.  Upgrade options down the road (especially if you go to win7) would be more memory and maybe a fast quad core cpu since win7 deals with that better.  Win7 also lets you use DX10 with that vid card.

This is my "bang for the buck" shopping list, and it's nearly identical to what I'm running right now...  You can save a bit here and there but you'll lose a lot of performance and features while saving only a little money.

[Ghastly]

This might could go into another thread, but...

I kind of go back and forth about the limited lifespan of the socket 939.  I'm one impacted (or hosed) - but on the other hand, most of the time, when I've needed to significantly upgrade a processor, there has also been a pretty compelling reason to upgrade mobo's anyway.

But on the other hand, I would have liked the choice of SOME sort of possible upgrade for the few machines I have based on the A8N-SLI, other than "sorry, toss all but the case and DVD drive and start over".

<S>

[Getback]

Avoid ATI.  The constant driver issues are tough to live with.

You'll also likely need to budget for a power supply and memory to take advantage of newer CPU/Mobo/ Video Card.

<S>

Never ever had driver issues with ATI. Own a 3850 and 3870. In fact the driver issues I had were with Nvidia.

[Chalenge]

eVGA or XFX 780i Triple SLI motherboard for an Intel E8400 can still be had through Amazon for about $220. E8400 runs about $170 I believe. You will also need memory and 4GB goes for $45-90. Video card will run about $200 for a single.

ATI is not a good flight sim card in my opinion but they work well enough for AH. I would still go with a good eVGA card. With AH all you need is an 8800GT but they are pretty scarce now. Anything like a 280 will actually be bottlenecked unless you plan to overclock (which I dont recommend whether everyone does it or not) by the CPU.

Everything I mentioned is pretty much low end stuff anymore with the new i7 MBs out and E8600 being the best Core 2 Duo (I still like the E8400 just fine).

Amazon is not a bad place to shop actually with their rapid delivery and usually have items long after newegg or mwave sell out.

[cattb]

gigabyte has some nice motherboards worth looking at, also some very comparable prices to other motherboards on the market.
bout 3 months ago i bought new 1066 OCZ platinum memory,I had problems with them and returned them,there seems to be some issues with some of the ddr2 1066 memory sticks and not just the platinum, the Rep told me they were coming out with a new line of stock,maybe this has been cleared up now.
cattb

[TilDeath]

MB: GA-EP45-UD3P (Hands down IMHO best DDR2 out there at this price point 135.00   less 20 rebate
CPU: Intel E8400                                                                                   168.00
Video: EVGA GTX 260 896-P3-1255-AR                                                      180.00  less 30 rebate

Total 483.00 less rebates = 433.00 plus shipping say 450 add the memory below and your at your Max but with the best bang for your buc

Something I didn't see in this thread... your most likely going to need new Memory to go or take advantage of a faster board.

OCZ Blade series DDR2 2 x 2GB  OCZ2B800C54GK    50 less 10 rebate or this set is faster yet but 30 more.
OCZ Blade series DDR2 2 x 2GB  OCZ2B1150LV4GK  80

TD

[Yeager]

Excellent info guys!  Way more then I could have come up with on my own!  Thanks <S>

Will post what I end up ordering but most likely will look alot like eagls sys recomends with tildeaths memory recomends.  Still need to digest it all though!

Thnx again all.

[Skuzzy]

Avoid ATI.  The constant driver issues are tough to live with. <snip>

Don't tell my computer with its ATI 4850 video card that.  It only runs the new version over 150FPS (tests with vsync disabled) with all but shadows turned on, and only costs $110.00 for the Sapphire Vapo-X 512MB version.  Very quiet as well.  Butter smooth as well.

NVidia has had as many driver problems lately as anyone.  If you are running Vista, ATI actually has better drivers than NVidia does.

Some people like ATI, some like NVidia.  I really do not care.  I have to support both and have used both.  In the end, it is what you personally prefer.

This is not an endorsement.  It ust gets tiring hearing that sad ole "ATI has sucky drivers" bit, when point of fact, both companies have thier moments.

[Stogie]

Avoid ATI.  The constant driver issues are tough to live with.

ATI 3850 here.  Never had a problem with it.  I also support ATI and Nvidia cards for my clients and would recommend. either.