Advise on upgrading? (Pretty much buying a new computer...)

Ok, i am a total noob at computer hardware, my current computer has a "GA-8I915P pro(Rev2.0)" motherboard, intel pentium 4.3ghz CPU, 1.5gbs of ram, 2x200gb hard drives and a Nvidia geforce 6600 grapics card.

As you can guess i am looking to get a motherboard that can support Dual core.

Looking for a dual core processor to go with the motherboard, a mid-top range (as in not THE very best but above the norm) CPU would be excellent (The cheaper the better of course =P)

and last but not least a mid-top range graphics card too would be awesome.

I am looking for intel based boards with at least 4 sata ports

just wondering if i would be better off buying a new computer or should i stick to upgrading...?

thx!

P.S wtf is corssfire support, firewire and SLI

EDIT*****

also, is dual graphics card support that important..?

In your case "upgrading" and "buying a new computer" are almost the same thing.
Only the case, the power supply (possibly) and the drives would carry over as you'll be needing new motherboard, RAM and processor.

Crossfire (ATI) and SLI(nVidia) are two methods of implementing dual video card support. If you are an avid gamer with a well heeled wallet you'll be interested in these.
If you're a normal person, a single card will do.

Firewire is just a connectivity standard- think USB here- I mostly see it used to hook cameras to the PC.
USB is far more popular and since you've never even heard of firewire, you probably needn't worry about it.

What's the budget?

my budget is about 700AUD (so like... 620USD?)

looking at a board today

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ASUS-P5N-E-SL...QQcmdZViewItem

is that any good? i want a board that can do pretty much everything (So i wont have to upgrade the mobo for ages)

whats a good board you can suggest that can do "everything"

i am thinking of upgrading just the mobo and CPU for now... and graphics card later

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rayn0r

whats a good board you can suggest that can do "everything"

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Depends what "everything" is... :blink: Asus is definately a good place to start as they have a lot of overclocking features, along with DFI boards.

By everything i mean like quad core support, SLI and a good chipset

stuff like that

also ive got my eye on a e6700 processor ship... you guys think its worth the money?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rayn0r

i am thinking of upgrading just the mobo and CPU for now... and graphics card later

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Don't forget the RAM...you have DDR and all that new stuff runs DDR2.

Think really hard about whether you are likely to upgrade the processor. You probably thought that about the last processor, and now you find that the mobo isn't compatible with the newer chips. I find that most people spend extra because they have an upgrade path, only to find out that they can only upgrade to an obsolete specification and at far higher cost than complete replacement.

If you aren't likely to upgrade it, then my advice is to go for a motherboard which does just what you want it for now. The expensive features that you currently have no way of using will become the low cost commonplace items of the future.

well if thats the case i guess ill go for a mobo without SLI compatibility but a mobo with quad core (Just incase..)

anyone have any good suggestions for a decent mobo that can support quad core?

so... if i get a new mobo then i MUST use DDR2? DDR wont work..?

DDR dimms have 184 pins.
DDR2 dimms have 240 pins.

If you can work out how to get a 184 pin dimm into a 240 pin socket, then you shouldn't have too much problem getting the Northside chip to drive it. :rolleyes:

Too bad they don't make adaptors.

well that sux... i only bought another 512 ram chip like a month ago >< ah wells....

but yeh any mobos you guys can suggest?