Looking Into Getting A New Motherboard - and graphics card... Opinions?

I'm looking into upgrading my motherboard and graphics card, but am not sure of the brands out there or what to look for. I'm a regular gamer, so I want something that will handle the upcoming games (Bioshock, Alan Wake, and the like).

I currently have a 2.4 ghz Pentium 4, with an ATI Radeon x800 pro (256 meg). It's playing Half-Life 2 well enough, but some of the newer games are lagging, and it annoys me

I was looking into getting AMD Athlon 64 X2, with a GeForce video card. I had a GeForce 4 Ti4200 and it aged very well (It could still play Doom III, despite its age). I was having problems with it overheating, though. The fan started making noise and eventually stopped one day. By the time I realized that my computer was 50% quieter, it had pretty much heated up over 200 degrees (F) and decided to go try the ATI Radeon card.

Also, when looking for a motherboard, what would you all recommend for brand. I have no idea which brands out there are any good.. The last mobo I bought (which I think might have been a ECS) sucked something terrible. I had to send it back because it kept blue-screening Windows ( I later found out it was partially the CPU's fault).

So here's basically my questions:
For gaming purposes.....

ATI or nVidia?

AMD or Intel?

Amount of ram? *(would 2 gigs be enough nowadays?)*


Opinions? I have about $800 to spend just for those two parts, so money's not really a problem. I'm trying not to spend a crazy amount of money, because I don't have as much time to play games as I used to, but I also want something that will be good for at least a couple more years... I'm thinking $300-350 for a graphics card, and $250 or so for a mobo and cpu.

Possibilities I've been looking at:
http://www.smksuperstore.com/763/Catalog/C...Socket_AM2).htm
^Motherboards ? I have no idea which brand to go with.

Graphics cards? I'm leaning towards the nVidias... anyone have experiences to share?
http://www.smksuperstore.com/665/Catalog/P...Video_Cards.htm


Current rig:
2.4 ghz P4
1 gig ddr ram
160 gig hd
Soundblaster 24bit internal soundcard
600 watt power supply

 

 

 

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I would get an AMD Athlon X2 4000+ and pack it with an ATI Radeon X2600 (w/ 256MB). This would be the true AMD machine ... lol.

xboxrulz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I would recommend a X2 5200+ and above, since it has a cache of 1MB x2, anything lower is 512K x2. ECS is mid tier manufacturer. If you want better one, you can try ASUS, Abit, MSI and Gigabyte

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Thanks for the tips so far guys.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I don't really recommend 5200+ since it's going to be expensive as they're not produced as much as the other boards and they have a higher electricity consumption. If money isn't a problem, go crazy with a Radeon X2900XT (w/ 512MB GDDR3).

xboxrulz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Far as I know, the corporate partnerships are AMD+ATI and INTEL+NVIDIA, so you buy ones that combine well, and you might get a bit better performance. For motherboards, I like MSI, ASUS, or GIGABYTE. Haven't much liked Intel ones, and never tried ECS. 2 GB is well enough for almost everything. But if you're buying for the future, why not get a motherboard that has 4 memory slots. So you put in 2x1GB chips now, and if you want to upgrade later, just pop in a couple more.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Well, here are the specs I decided on going with so far:


Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3 ghz)
$364.99

ECS e-GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
$299 - ($20 mail in rebate)

2x1 gig Kingston PC2-4200 533mhz ddr2
$88 for 2 sticks ($44 each at Circuit City)

CoolIT Eliminator Thermoelectric CPU Cooler
$164.99

Total (Not including shipping and tax):
~$917


I have a Soundblaster 24 bit Live card, hard drive, 550 watt power supply (not 600 like I thought), Logitech optical mouse, eMachines keyboard (that's been like new since 1998!), and dvd/cd-r/cd-rw burner, so I don't need to buy any of that stuff.

Hopefully now I won't have to upgrade ever again, hahaha, right

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

You'll eventually have to. Like my desktop lasted 5/6 years, and it's due for an upgrade, which I haven't yet. The reason I need the upgrade is that it still runs AGP 4X and doesn't even have AGP 8X capability.

xboxrulz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I think Asus and Asrock are also very good brands, though I have had some beef with MSI graphics cards and motherboards.

Never a complaint so far about Asus or Asrock though .

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Ya, usually ASUS has the best boards on the markets, so just use them instead of MSI or some other brands.

xboxrulz

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)