New Motherboard and CPU for friend?

[Mattyl110792]

Hey,

As i said in my previous post about my mates pc not turning on...well i think i came to the conclusion it was the Motherboard....so she is now going to upgrade her motherboard and CPU.....

I would like to know what would be the best products to get at a fair budget of $750 AUD (589USD), give or take a few...they all say the Core 2 Duo is the in think, so what CPU and motherboard could i get taht would give good performance for that price....and also, the Core 2 Duo's, do they use DDRII or DDR RAM? if DDRII, ill also need some RAM...

EDIT: I was thinking maybe the ASUS P5L-VM motherboard? any good?
http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=36_62&products_id=20382

THanks in advance,

Matt

 

[Kage]

Ah...I actually guessed it was the motherboard Check my post, hehe.

Yeah, Core 2 DUO offers the best in performance and price right now.
As for RAM, yep, DDR II i'm afraid. So yep, you need some RAM

Alot of motherboard only use 667MHZ RAM, so this is the value type, and is alot cheaper than aiming for 800mhz RAM and above, so, 667MHZ for the price, with a high end Core 2 DUO and a good motherboard for SLI/Crossfire will be a good investment.

EDIT:

Yep, with that motherboard:

"Dual-Channel DDR2 667
Dual-channel DDR2 technology doubles the bandwidth of your system memory and hence boost the system performance to out perform any memory existing solutions in the market."

667MHZ RAM, and that isn't that expensive compared to others. You could do with 1GB minimum, but 2GB would of course be a better investment for the future.

As for that motherboard though. If your friend is a gamer, an SLI motherboard might be more worthy for the future too, even if you can only buy one card.

 

[Taylor1]

this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009
this CPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115004
The type of ram you need is not decided on the cpu, but the mobo. That mobo has ddr2.
ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145566

 

[Mattyl110792]

Thanks for the reply, but i am pretty sure their hdd is an Ultra-ATA, and that motherboard only has 1XIDE, enough for only her 2 burners....it seems hard to find a motherboard with 2 IDE connectors now lol...my pc which i got in July seemed to have 2 without even searching for one lol

Matt

 

[Kage]

Nice listings

EDIT:

Yeah...I always find motherboards the hardest part to pick, because apart from the PSU, its actually the most vital part of the system which controls everything else.

Your best bet is to look around Newegg, looking for ones that support the Core 2 DUO, and the specific specifications you want.

Also take into account extra features you may want/vs price.

Then to be sure, run a search in Google for reviews on the board and how it performs with other equally featured boards on the market, which may give you a better board to search Newegg for, and so on!

 

[Mattyl110792]

Being in Australia, it limits the stock and availability....so really, we can only get a big enough range of Gigabyte and ASUS motherboards, and i just brought a Gigabyte and hate it lol, leaning toward an ASUS...she is NOT a gamer, so im looking at intergrated gfx for now, definately dont need SLI, and as i said, she has 2 ROM drives IDE, and a hdd that uses and IDE/UATA cable, so i think it means i need 2X IDE connectors, correct me if i'm wrong

Matt

 

[Kage]

I would have thought there would be IDE 1 and IDE 2 in a motherboard, but times may have moved on since I bought mine a couple of years back...

Ah, thats okay then

Like I said, just do a scan for features vs price that seem to offer the best performance for your money.

 

[Taylor1]

try this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131071

 

[Mattyl110792]

Thanks for all the suggestions, but i have been through every Gigabyte and ASUS motherboard on Newegg for Core 2 Duo and not one of them has more than 1 IDE connector....first Petium D or whatever one i clicked on had 2 IDE's lol

Whats this with no IDE's on Core 2 Duo?????

Matt

 

[Kage]

You could always use one IDE slot with a ribbon splitter, a Slave and a Master to have two optical drives.