mother boards

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econerd

New Member
Ive decided the time has come for a new motherboard. Ive replaced pretty much everything else from my existing machine other than the mobo and dvd drive. the current chip is an amd phenom 2.3ghz quad core, which is coping pretty well, so to keep costs down, i intend to keep it, but the mobo is ddr2 making ram expensive and harder to get. im looking at getting an AMD ddr3 mobo to go with my AMD graphics card, and then upgrade the current 4gb ddr2 ram to ddr3 maybe 8gb depending on cost.

Whats the best mobo to get, the case is a full size case with plenty of space in, 2 ram slots would suffice. my graphics card does have the thing where you can link 2 cards together, cant remember what its called, so maybe 2 slots for possible addition of a second gfx in the future. ebuyer have a nice selection to choose from, but which one, i have no idea. does price indicate quality, as with the psu? im looking at beween £40 and £60 which most on ebuyer are anyway.

has anyone got any of the mobos offered by ebuyer or found something better elsewhere? are they good quality and worth the money and which one would be best for my needs?

thanks in advance

H
 
It would be pointless to upgrade your motherboard if you don't intend to get a new CPU, you aren't going to notice a difference with just a motherboard swap. Wait until you upgrade your CPU, then buy a new motherboard that works with that socket. Most likely your CPU wouldn't even work in a newer motherboard.

Don't look too much into dual graphics cards. If you are on a budget, chances are you keep your parts for quite a while. After some time, it's more expensive to buy a second outdated card than to buy a cheap newer one that costs less, and performs better.
 
the reason for the new mobo is for the ddr3 ram, being cheaper and more available, however if the chip wont work on a new board then im gonna just have to get a chip and board together. anyone have any recommendations? i do wanna stick with amd
 
The original Phenom doesn't contain a memory controller that can utilize DDR2 and DDR3 (whereas the Phenom II does). If you wanted to get a DDR3 board you'd also have to upgrade your CPU anyway.

Edit: DDR2 and DDR3 being supporting both platforms with the same CPU. The Phenom I is DDR2 only and the Phenom II is DDR2 & DDR3 capable.
 
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the chip came on the board its on now, in the original computer, so it must be able to do ddr2. how do i find out which chip i have?
 
Look in device manager under processors and it will tell you. You probably have the older phenom if you have ddr2 memory.
 
econerd said:
the reason for the new mobo is for the ddr3 ram, being cheaper and more available, however if the chip wont work on a new board then im gonna just have to get a chip and board together. anyone have any recommendations? i do wanna stick with amd
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So you want to upgrade the motherboard to get cheaper RAM? DDR3 + a new motherboard aren't exactly cheaper than DDR2. Just wait to upgrade the CPU, MB, and RAM at once.
 
it was only because the chip i have isnt bad, and seams a waste to replace one thats perfectly good. the reason for the new mobo is somewhat future proofing as i know ddr2 will eventually become unavailable or so expensive its just not worth it. i will look into getting a mobo with chip included now anyway.
 
for me its not a slight upgrade, its the ddr3 capabilities along with ram already in and ready to go, without faffing with bios etc. it has 2 ram slots so can just get a second stick to upgrade the ram.

ive never had to put a chip on a board before and dont really want to be messing around with thermal paste etc trying to put a chip on a board properly, dont want to take the risk of knackering a new chip from over heating,

the amazon one is the cheapest they have as far as bundled goes.

i dont need on board graphics as i have an amd card already.

i will look into it and work out whats best before getting anything, but i dont need top of the range expensive stuff, im not playing brand new high end games on it anyway.

thanks for everyones help
 
econerd said:
for me its not a slight upgrade, its the ddr3 capabilities along with ram already in and ready to go, without faffing with bios etc. it has 2 ram slots so can just get a second stick to upgrade the ram.

ive never had to put a chip on a board before and dont really want to be messing around with thermal paste etc trying to put a chip on a board properly, dont want to take the risk of knackering a new chip from over heating,

the amazon one is the cheapest they have as far as bundled goes.

i dont need on board graphics as i have an amd card already.

i will look into it and work out whats best before getting anything, but i dont need top of the range expensive stuff, im not playing brand new high end games on it anyway.

thanks for everyones help
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The heatsink isn't going to come on the motherboard, you'll have to attach it yourself. Most likely, you will have to install the CPU and RAM as well, it will just come with the 3 components in separate boxes.
 
the amazon write up does say

"Assembled and tested by our technical team, the CPU, cooler, motherboard and memory are assembled with BIOS settings configured ready to be installed in
into a case."

so as far as that one goes, it is ready to go out of the box, which is why i liked it. ram is easy to install, that was just a bonus, so no problems with that.

the better chip is tempting, so far as its faster etc, but i really dont want to mess it up by getting it wrong with the thermal paste. how easy is it to do, bearing im mind my hands dont function properly so i tend to fumble drop stuff a lot?
 
econerd said:
the amazon write up does say

"Assembled and tested by our technical team, the CPU, cooler, motherboard and memory are assembled with BIOS settings configured ready to be installed in
into a case."

so as far as that one goes, it is ready to go out of the box, which is why i liked it. ram is easy to install, that was just a bonus, so no problems with that.

the better chip is tempting, so far as its faster etc, but i really dont want to mess it up by getting it wrong with the thermal paste. how easy is it to do, bearing im mind my hands dont function properly so i tend to fumble drop stuff a lot?
Click to expand...
Maybe it does, but I'd be nervous about the heatsink breaking off during shipping.
 
I noticed in the questions section at the bottom of the suggested chip that it does come with the heatsink and fan.

I've decided to go for the suggested components, they will last longer and end up cheaper in the long run. Thanks for everyone's help.
 
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