Upgrade compatibility help.

[Manulin]

Hello there, i'm new here and my name is Manu. First of all the main issue is about my PC upgrade. So basically i want to improve my actual motherboard (Gigabyte G31M-S2C) and my processor (Intel Core 2 duo E7200, 2.53ghz) for some new parts. I've been checking a page that sells pretty cheap, quality stuff so i don't have too many options but here's what i chose: "Mother Asus M5A87 Socket AM3+" and "Microprocessor AMD FX-4100 3.6GHz 12MB 95W AM3+" which are way better than the ones i currently have. I'd like to know if there are better options for that kind of price, mostly for gaming and a little multi-tasking, but that's not the main issue cause i don't have the possibility to choose from a lot of products. The main issue is that i'm not completely sure if the mother fits in my current cabinet (Vitsuba 8040) AND i'm not sure either if my current memory sticks (2 NovaTech DDR2-SDRAM PC2-5300 333mhz) are compatible either. I suppose my next upgrade will be the memory sticks, but i don't have the money to buy it all at a time.

Thanks a lot for at least reading this post, and i look further for answers!

Thanks again

 

[OhSnapWord]

The RAM will not work with the new motherboard. You would need DDR3-1866.

 

[Hameister]

The RAM will not work with the new motherboard. You would need DDR3-1866.

Yup, +1 ^^^ This is right.

 

[Der-PC-Mann]

I third what Snap said. You'll need DDR3 RAM, by the way, and it doesn't need to be a specific speed (I don't understand why Snap said it, but ho hum) but it's good to keep the speeds the same across all chips, so absolutely try to do that, to make the most out of all modules. You also won't need any more than 8GB for gaming, so don't get OTT, unless you're REALLY into it and fancy blowing some cash. You'll find all mainstream motherboard nowadays are DDR3, so if those DDR2 modules you have are spares, then you may wanna sell them on Gumtree, eBay, Amazon, or some other site... or locally.

Very, very good processor, BTW - don't be fooled by the anti-Bulldozers and people obsessed by billion-core processors, or Intel fan-boys, because that processor is decent, and I can happily say that from experience; I have mine running at 4.2GHz with all four cores, and the temps are always low, never going over... something like 55.

Not sure if I read your post correctly (very tired) but I believe you indicated you weren't sure about your case size.. well.. best to stick to the usual ATX (normal big-ish kind) type of case, since if you're a gamer, you'll want plenty of room for future upgrades, or your current gear, since decent graphics cards can be kinda big. Stay away from Micro-ATX cases or other such small cases, as they will severely hinder the future of your rig, in terms of upgrades, they also hold airflow/temperature issues, and other such things.

Hope that was of some use.

Good luck.

PS
Sorry if I missed something, as I said, I'm very tired, having been up all night.

 

[OhSnapWord]

The reason I suggested DDR3-1866 is because the integrated memory controller in the FX-4100 natively supports DDR3-1866.

 

[Manulin]

Hey, thanks for all the answers. Would 2 Kingston DDR3 1333mhz make it and last for a couple of years? I'm keeping the current cabinet. Btw i have a Radeon HD 4670.

 

[OhSnapWord]

I like Corsair Vengeance series or G.Skill Ripjaws. Go with DDR3-1866 as that is the native speed of the memory controller. Anything slower could present a bottleneck.