Replacing my Motherboard;What would be a good Upgrade?

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Dom87SS

New Member
ok i built my first computer just over a year ago without a whole lot of knowledge of what i was doing. I just knew I wanted a new PC but something better than a store bought one that wouldnt perform. So i, along with a friend, headed out to the local computer parts store (FRYs and tiger direct for me) and picked out piece by piece. Has been good for some time, but got loaded up with junk and a few viruses. So i decided to reformat it last week. Ran into a issue when i loaded the drivers for the video card and it ended up burnin up my power supply some how. Or at least it didnt smell very good while tryin to find out why it wouldnt boot.

Anyway here is what i have for a motherboard, and looking for a compatible replacement.

Board - ECS NFORCE6M-A

Specs:

* Mfg: ECS
* Mfg part number: NFORCE6M-A (V2.0)
* CPU: Socket AM2 with AMD Athlon 64 FX/ Athlon 64/ Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core/ Sempron processor
* High-performance Hyper Transport CPU interface.
* Support transfer rate of 2000/1600/1200/800/400 mega-transfers per second.
* CHIPSET: NVIDIA NFORCE520LE single chip
* MEMORY: Dual-channel DDR2 memory architecture. 4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 32GB. Support DDR2 800/667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM.
* EXPANSION SLOT: 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, 1 x PCI Express x1 slot, and 3 x PCI slots
* STORAGE: Support by NFORCE520LE. 2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices. 2 x Serial ATA devices. RAID0 & RAID1 configuration
* AUDIO: IDT HD 6-channel HD audio CODEC.
* LAN: Realtek 8111B Giga LAN * REAR PANEL I/O: 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors. 4 x USB ports. 1 x RJ45 LAN connector. 1 x Serial port (COM1). 1 x Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, Mic_in).
* INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS: 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector. 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector. 1 x FDD connector. 1 x IDE connector. 2 x Serial ATA connectors. 2 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 4 USB Ports. 1 x LPT1 header. 1 x COM port header (COM2). 1 x Front panel switch/LED header. 1 x Front panel audio header. CD in header. CPUFAN/NBFAN/SYSFAN connectors. * SYSTEM BIOS: Award BIOS with 4Mb Flash ROM Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, APM 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI Supports ACPI revision 1.0B specification * FORM FACTOR: ATX Size, 305mm*210mm



Here is the rest of the stuff i have id like to reuse on this build.

AMD Athlon 64x2
(2) AData memory expert 2gb ram
thermal take mini typhoon
ATI Radeon HD3870
Seagate 500gb HD, sata
Samsung cd/dvd drive, sata
2 case fans


so i need at least 2 sata ports, would prefer more if i can get them for future possible expansion. I had a 850w thermaltake power supply that needs to be replaced as well. What should i be looking for in a board, and what should i be shying away from? If possible id also like to get a board i can put more ram in to help when im heavily loading the machine with programs.

I have no problem admitting im no computer wiz, and im not gonna act liek i am. That s why im asking what i know about and lookin for answersto other questions i might not even know i have yet. Again im still pretty new to even touchin computers so i dont know probably everything i should. but im willing to learn what i need to get it up and going and have done good with it so far.

i use the computer mainly for doing photo, video, and music editing. i dont do any gaming or anything like that. But i run a lot of different things off it at the same time (the USB ports the better for me). being several cameras, external drives, a 19" flat LCD monitor, and a 42" LCD tv, and all teh stuff i have listed above. So i just want it all to be running as smooth as i can get it. and have tossed around the idea of overclocking the cpu to help with this as much as possible.


So with that, what should i be leaning toward for a new mother board, and power supply? If there is any other info you need please ask, and ill try to answer it.
 
i was reformating my computer about a week ago to clean it up. everything was good as expected till i installed a video card driver. after it installed and rebooted it wouldnt get far past the bios screen before just turning off and going straight to stand by mode. i got it into safe mode and was going to remove the drivers. but it was pretty late so i shut it down and was going to do it at work the next day. so i take it in and it wouldnt even get to the bios screen. telling me i had either a power issue or wasnt reading the memory cards (or at least thats what i thought). tested the switches with a multimeter and all had power when the button was hit then drained right out. well after a couple ties to turn it on a slight burning smell was coming from the PSU so i figured it was toast.

back story on the 850w. i had a 420w and around december/jan it just blew something out of no where and started smokin and took out the first 2 memory slots. which is why i just wanna get rid of the board now. i think its because i had it and a couple other things plugged in a power strip and recently hadsome power outages. so im gettin a UPS to hopefully help this and keep the power consistent.
 
that board looks to be exactly what im lookin for, thanks. ill see hat else compares to it, bu that looks to be a decent price as well.
 
there was another board i was lookin at that came in a package deal. and as of 10pm last night they were out of stock on the boards and CPUs for any given time. i will most likely end up with that board mentioned above. reading up on it seems a lot of people like it. and i can get it from tiger direct (store is 15mi from my work) for only a few bucks more.

now i need to decide on a power supply, and im gonna get a UPS as well. and maybe RAM to fill up the other 2 slots.
 
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