Motherboard upgrade

[spongernnc]

I have a gateway gt 5404 duel core pentium d 915 comp. 775 is the socket and the chipset is 945 with 800mhz fsb oh and the processor speed is 2.8ghz. Right now it only supports 2 gig of ram and I want to upgrade the motherboard to something that will support at least 4 gigs of ram. I would also like to have a motherboard that is ok for gaming. I have an nvidia 7300gt 256 mb card installed. So can anyone recommend a good motherboard that has a pci slot that supports nvidia and up to 4 gigs of ram. I hope what im talking about makes sense. Not sure if i have it right so please help.

 

[worshipme]

What is your budget exactly? And you say you want a new motherboard so you can play games? You would be better off upgrading your graphics card before your motherboard if that's the case. Does your motherboard have a PCI-E slot?

 

[spongernnc]

yes it has a pci slot. i have a 7300gt installed only 256 though. but i still would like more ram also. vist is such a ram hog. i plan on upgrading the video card also. as of budget..im hopeing for something good in the 80-250 dollar range if for a motherboard if something exists.

 

[canucks63]

I think 2GB is sufficient for the RAM. For gaming, you're better off with a new video card than a new motherboard. Unless you're motherboard is completely dated like mine.

yes it has a pci slot.

What speed is it running at?

 

[spongernnc]

its 800mhz fsb...if i just upgrade the video card..to say a 512 maybe nvd8600 or 8800...will my comp run say games like ghost recon 2 or crisis? i know b4 i tried ghost recon 2 and it was pretty damn laggy. I am not sure if the amount of ram has anything to do with gameplay. If some one could clear this up for me I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[worshipme]

its 800mhz fsb...if i just upgrade the video card..to say a 512 maybe nvd8600 or 8800...will my comp run say games like ghost recon 2 or crisis?

What resolution do you run? We need to determine whether your CPU will be a bottleneck.

 

[MooseMan1]

To utilize 4GB of ram, you will need to have a 64-bit OS (i.e. Vista Ultimate 64, Windows XP x64, etc.) For the windows platform, I would recommend you get Vista 64, because XP x64 did not get very much support in drivers.

 

[Drexler]

for Crysis, you can run it on high with a 8600 Gt 1GB, but crysis u want a good processor to. im running a AMD Athlon X 6000+ dual core. with a Asus 560I MOBO, look for good deals on boards online.

i.e. newegg, tigerdirect.

i know tiger does MOBO + processor combos at great prices, but do research before buying anything.

im regretting that right now.

 

[worshipme]

you can run it on high with a 8600 Gt 1GB

Maybe at 800x600...

 

[Drexler]

nah, im runnin at 1024 x 768, and im getting about 20 FPS on a 8600GT 1Gb, im happy

all of this is on High