Shauk

so i've had a motherboard sitting in my closet for the 6 months

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813127232 that one actually, not in use, I sold off the ram, the video card, and the monitor to buy a cheap laptop before I moved.


now i'm here, I have a nicer laptop, but I want to game, I have NOTHING fun to do at home, I get like 5 fps on anything really cuz this laptop uses Shared Memory Archetecture and well, don't get me started.


So 1st thing I do I pick out a video card, I have settled on EVGA 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16

my dilemma: Do I buy ram for the motherboard (DDR 400) or do I get a new motherboard and sell this one?
I always a step behind the curve for price points so I'm thinking DDR2 800 would be what I would aim for in this scenario.

Sadly DDR 400 isn't any cheaper than DDR2 800, in fact, it's more expensive...

case in point
DDR 400
vs
DDR2 800

Edit: ok i tried looking, there is no such thing as a 939 board with DDR2 cuz the chipsets are different yadaydada whatever.

Ok so I'd have to buy a new processor too.

and basically this is is the top of my upgrade path, if i just buy the video card and some DDR 400, apparently even with aggressive timings on DDR2 800's people are only seeing about a 10-15% perfomance upgrade.

I think I'd notice more on the fact that my current mother board is using a single core processor, AMD 4000+ something or other.


*sigh*

I'm gonna have to get a new motherboard, I feel so inadequate with a singlecore.

Cynthetiq

you can buy a decent bargain gaming rig for $500, insert smoking video card for $200 and you're golden.

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Shauk

yeah thats the thing, I'm trying to avoid that since I still need to buy a monitor, I'm kind of insisting on picking up the same monitor I used to have (Samsung 906bw)


does anyone here have experience with SFF cases?

I'm not sure what to look for in the motherboards for those.

I'm kinda interested in this case

http://www.aerocool.com.tw/case/m40/m40.htm

I mean if I'm gonna buy stuff for a computer I may as well up my budget a bit since I have enough now and I have another check coming in a few days.

Cynthetiq

so your drives are SATA? getting a smoking board and then using IDE is a waste of the speed.

also the 775 dual proc boards use a different pin out for the PSU, you may be stuck.

save your cash and be patient. get the right things you need. the longer you take in making the purchase, the better equipment you get for the money.

never seen that case.. sweet looking case.

that case requires a micro ATX board, that will limit a number of things, first the kinds of boards you can use, then the height that your cards can be within there.



it's such a small board.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Lasereth

The motherboard is of no use to you. Sell it and upgrade to an AM2 socket. A single-core CPU would bottleneck any videocard you put in it to the point of comedy.

Shauk

I have so many hard drives laying around it's stupid, I have this problem with deleting things.

I'm assuming you're asking due to the fact that fitting IDE cables in a SFF case would be... so FUN

wait, stuck with what? I think you lost me here.

yeah, I agree with this to a point, but my old computer hardware is probably desirable to someone on ebay, if i wait too long, they pay less and I make less back.

unfortunately it weighs 15 lbs and costs a lot to ship apparently. :\


not a problem
http://www.pro-clockers.com/review.php?id=311

Cynthetiq

no i'm not talking about stuffing in an cables... my IDE drives are slow to access compared to my SATA. This includes my DVD+R...

I've just recently converted the last to SATA.

re: the pin outs... the older single proc boards has PSUs that don't have enough pins to support the dual proc boards. I think the old ones are 20 pin and the new ones are 24 pin. It sucked to have to go back out and pickup another powersupply after thinking I was just fine with the old one.

that video doesn't show a tall video card in it and the cover closing on it. the hinged top part has a flat bottom so things have to be shorter.

It doesn't show any extra card in their examples, so I assume it's using the onboard video. The review also suggests it being used for media, not gaming. Never minding those things, the most important thing is that the bottom half : 130mm, so it's got to fit in that space.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Shauk

so this is what i've got so far....

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...tle=in+process

look good?

looks like the video card sits flush with the "public" part of the card anyways (the part that's visible with the case closed) I dont think i'll have space issues


as far as the PSU

I have http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817154019 laying around, I may as well try it, if it doesn't deliver, I'll just pick another one up, this computer isn't my only computer so i'm not really in a hurry if something doesn't work out. I almost always run in to problems anyway