Buget Gaming Mobo

[matted]

I want a faster processor of at least 2GHz. My current motherboard only supports Pentium III processors up to 1GHz, with me currently having 866MHz, so obviously I need a new motherboard, and RAM (I currently only have 256mb).

Being on a budget, I don't want to be purchasing anything else except a processor, motherboard, and RAM (at least 512).

So the new motherboard *must* work with my Leadtek GF4 ti4200 8x (currently sitting at 4x though) and my Seagate 200GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive (ST3200822A). My graphics card seems to work with most of the mobos I've looked at, but I get confused on whether the hard drive will work or not, SATA, I gather, is not backwards compatable, but what about the differences between ATA/100 and ATA/133.

At the moment I'm playing:
Halo
Rise of Nations
The Sims 2
Rome: Total War

Can somebody please advise me on a motherboard and processor that will fit the bill? The brand needs to be a good one, with good support. I am partial to Intel processors, but I keep hearing about Athlon 64 processors, as long as they're good, and cost effective. I'd go to a PC shop for advice, but I know I'll be conned and ripped off.

 

[Crashman]

Your current drive works with all current ATA100 and ATA133 controllers. Your current video card works with all AGP slots.

You could just upgrade your CPU with a Celeron 1200 and try overclocking it to 1.60GHz, whereby it will perform better than a P4 2.0GHz. All you need is an adapter for the CPU. Compgeeks sells the adapter for $8 for Socket 370 to Tualatin Celerons, and the Upgradeware Slot-T is available at various places (check their vender list) for $20 to use with Slot 1 boards. Both of these adapters make Coppermine boards support Tualatins, both have voltage detection and bus speed detection jumpers for overclocking, you could manually set a Tualatin Celeron at 1.65v and 133MHz bus with either.

Before you scoff, I was serious about a 1.60GHz Tualatin Celeron beating a P4 2.0GHz. The Tualatin version has 256k cache and is mostly handicapped by it's stock 100MHz bus. And that bus is perfect for overclocking since your board supports a 133MHz bus.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[TheRod]

OK, if you are partiel to Intel you might not listen to what I have to say...

First, gaming is the AMD strong point. If you want a very good gaming system for cheap, here is my recommendations... (Prices from NewEgg)

<b>SOLUTION 1 :</b>
CPU : Sempron 3100+ Retail @ 124$US
MB : Chaintech VNF3-250 @ 76$US
MEMORY : 1 x 512 Megs Kingston DDR400 @ 70$US
TOTAL COST: 270$US

<b>SOLUTION 2:</b>
CPU : Athlon 64 2800+ @ 131$US
MB : Chaintech VNF3-250 @ 76$US
MEMORY : 2 x 512 Megs Kingston DDR400 @ 140$US
TOTAL COST : 346$US

<b>COMMENTS</b>

I would definetly get the Athlon 64 over the Sempron, for 7$US you get 64bit support and 256K more cache. Don't forget that Sempron 3100+ is a bit slower in benchmarks compared to the Athlon 64 2800+.

The Chaintech VNF3-250 is a very good basic motherboard. It don't have all the bells and whistles of other boards, but it still has everything you need : audio, LAN, USB, FireWire, etc... If you really want to get the "creme de la creme" AMD64 Socket754 MB, you could get the MSI K8N Neo Platinum (not the Neo2) for 103$US. It is well equipped and very good for overclocking!

For the memory, most games will run very well with 512Megs, but having 1Gig of ram, is not worthless considering that the newest games will use it! But, even with 1Gig of RAM your TI4200 will still be your bottleneck in most today's games.

So, if I were you I would only get 512Megs of RAM and add more at the same time you will get a new GPU.

<font color=blue>Budget GAMING upgrade conclusion : Athlon 64 2800+, Chaintech VNF3-250 and 1x512Megs Kingston DDR400.</font color=blue>

I hope this will help you in your search for a better gaming experience!

-
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green> <- <i>Is this affecting my credibility?</i>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290 <- <i>It's enough for WoW!</i><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheRod on 12/16/04 03:11 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[endyen]

A 64 chips are good, and they will easily outgame a P4 at the same price.
The big advantage to the Amd systems is in power usage. The current batch of intel chips run very hot, and with very noisy fans. You would do well to get a s754 board, with the nforce3 250 chipset. My own choice would be <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-512&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-512&depa=0</A> or <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-190&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-190&depa=0</A>
These work fine with a single stick of ram, I have the deluxe version of the asus board, and am using 512 of samsung generic ram - 2.5, 3,3,7 timing @225 fsb.
Buy the fastest s754 chip you can, with what is left of your budget. I like the 3200+ because, at $189, it's about the sweet spot <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-487&depa=0" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-487&depa=0</A>