motherboard buying advice

M

MattN

New Member
im building a pc really soon.
im using my 550 watt powersupply in my dell and the ram and my hard drives and cd rom drives and also my gpu.
the only thing i need is a proccesor and a motherboard and a case. i want to go amd. i need a proccesor from up to 120 dollars and a motherboard for up to 100 dollars and a case below 50. if anybody wants to help me out that would be awesome i dont know if i should go with the fx series or just the phenom x4. im looking for of a better proccesor for gaming. also should i get 1800 mhz ram? or should i just use my 1066 ram for now?
 
what exactly is this going to be used for? what was the old processor? do you live near a microcenter? what are the old psu and gpu?
 
jonnyp11 said:
what exactly is this going to be used for? what was the old processor? do you live near a microcenter? what are the old psu and gpu?
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well i do haha. like 30 minutes away i have always wanted to go there. the old proccessor was a dual core amd anthlon. i just dont think it was enough power for me. i really want a quad core. my old gpu is a radeon 4670 i think and the powersupply is a rocketfish 550 watt. this is before christmas and my birthday thats when i will be buying my new gpu.
also im going to use it for casual gaming and just the web.
 
id go to microcenter and get an i3-3225, better for gaming at stock, if you want amd then an fx 6100 and a decent cooler would be best so you can overclock it (stock speeds sorta suck) but it still might not be as good as the i3 since most games wont use over 4 cores. Get a decent gigabyte motherboard combo'd with the i3 and it's 50 off or with the amd it's 40 off (although promo is with almost all, check their site). Not sure how reliable rocketfish is, might want to replace that before upgrading graphics cards. as for the case, i'd grab a thermaltake commander (black or MS-I snow edition) or nzxt source 210, the thermaltakes seems to have better cable management and look cooler but could be too flashy. as long as it's 4 to 8gb's of ram your good, 1066 is fine.

You'll need to contact microsoft and say your mobo failed so your upgrading to get a new key so you can re-install windows, the surrent version (unless you bought a retail copy) will be locked to the motherboard to prevent piracy
 
jonnyp11 said:
id go to microcenter and get an i3-3225, better for gaming at stock, if you want amd then an fx 6100 and a decent cooler would be best so you can overclock it (stock speeds sorta suck) but it still might not be as good as the i3 since most games wont use over 4 cores. Get a decent gigabyte motherboard combo'd with the i3 and it's 50 off or with the amd it's 40 off (although promo is with almost all, check their site). Not sure how reliable rocketfish is, might want to replace that before upgrading graphics cards. as for the case, i'd grab a thermaltake commander (black or MS-I snow edition) or nzxt source 210, the thermaltakes seems to have better cable management and look cooler but could be too flashy. as long as it's 4 to 8gb's of ram your good, 1066 is fine.

You'll need to contact microsoft and say your mobo failed so your upgrading to get a new key so you can re-install windows, the surrent version (unless you bought a retail copy) will be locked to the motherboard to prevent piracy
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well im quite the pirate. im currently running windows ultimate. oops haha. i guess i look into the i3 is the phenom x4 3.4ghz am3 ok?
 
I would go with the fx 6100 over the i3 3225. Granted that the i3 3225 is faster core vs core,(i3 being faster when using 2 or less cores) but the fx 6100 will be more future proof with most games using more cores. Also, you'll have better multitasking abilities with the fx. The icing on the cake is you can clock the hell out of it with a decent HSF (the fx 6100 that is). At newegg the fx 6100 is $25 cheaper then the i3. You said you lived near a micro center, no clue what they charge for the i3, but I imagine it's a lot cheaper there then at newegg.
 
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good quality case- antec 300-two lot's of room and i picked one up on sale
for 39.00-it has 2 usb 3 front ports too, make sure you get the special connection usb 3 to usb 2 converter
gigabyte ga970 am3+sata 3 is about 90.00 and fx 4170 is about 120.00 runs at 4.2 out of the box- also make sure your 1066 ram is ddr3
 
gigabiteme said:
good quality case- antec 300-two lot's of room and i picked one up on sale
for 39.00-it has 2 usb 3 front ports too, make sure you get the special connection usb 3 to usb 2 converter
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I wouldn't recommend the Antec 300 unless you get the updated 302. The 300 is an old case and has no cable management features. Something like a Zalman Z11 Plus would be better, or a Carbide 300R which is a great case. The 302 ain't a bad case, it's basically the 300 with cable management features IIRC.
 
read as 300-two i think that's the one i mentioned, as listed in catalogue- 300-2 which is i guess a 302, and it's not bad
 
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302 is a complete redesign, its pretty much a scaled down 1100, tool less drive bays, room behind the motherboard tray for cable management. its a excellent case for what their asking.
 
mattn- it's a good idea to go into the store sometimes they have unadvertised specials, my local comp. store(ncix) is 15mins away from me
and when i go there instead of their web site,
they have awesome deals, eg-antec 1200w /gamer special truepower quatro
for 129.00 cad$- it lists on internet for min 299.00 at most sites,if u shop
around u will find a good case for way under 50.00
 
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