Mobo + Memory + CPU Sub $500

[Dennyferra]

I'm looking to upgrade my machine and would like to find a good combo deal for mobo, cpu and memory.

Looking for something that is SLI-compatible, multi-core, at least 1 IDE, at least 4 SATA. I use the machine for gaming, video encoding, and development.

Mostly looking for any deals in the $300-$500 range, any recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[blazorthon]

IDE (aka PATA) is getting phased out of usage. Many motherboards don't have it and fewer are being made with it. You would be better off buying a $5 PCI or PCIe adapter with one or two IDE ports.

Do you have any brand preferences?

Most motherboards form Intel and most of the newest motherboards for AMD support SLI and have 4-8 SATA ports. Most new motherboards do not have IDE or floppy drive connectors anymore and all new motherboards support multi-core CPUs.

Video encoding usually uses as many threads as you can throw at it but gaming does not make the best usage of many threads.

In your given budget range I would say go with an Intel i5 or i7 quad core for your CPU and either a P67 or a Z68 chipset motherboard. If you don't want to overclock than you don't need as high quality a motherboard.

Memory is much easier to look for without much information because it is dirt cheap and there isn't so much variation in features. pretty much any brand-name kit will work.

How much memory capacity do you want? for gaming I would recommend 8GB for almost any gaming system. Since you also do the encoding and development you might want to upgrade to 16GB but I don't know exactly what you want there. Increasing your memory capacity from 8GB to 16GB will not improve gaming performance unless you are somehow running out of memory with 8GB.