Need help for parts for half a new computer

[IAM27]

Well heres the story, my girlfriend wants to upgrade her computer. Unfortunately she doesn't want to do it all at one time, giving me a giant headache. So I was wondering if anyone had any advice for this.

What I already know:

Using an E6600 conroe.
Using an x800 ati I have lying around.

What she wants to keep:
Her SATA harddrive.
Her USB harddrive.
Her optical drives.
Her mouse/keyboard/etc.
Her RAM (240 Pin)

What I need:

A motherboard compatible with Conroe and PCI-E, and everything else above.
A powersupply.


Now, this is a pain in the butt so I'm wondering if someone knows of a good motherboard and powersupply that can fit these parts and the conroe. She plans to upgrade everything in a few months, but she just wants to upgrade these right now so she can run games. Right now she can't run much since she has no graphics card, and her cheap motherboard doesn't even have a PCI-E slot. I know that her other components are going to slow down the Conroe and everything for now, but she really doesn't want to spend more than $500 right now. I just see no other way to get her running even decent games. Any advice would be great.

 

[T_Bone]

I would get an Antec Truepower II 550W psu and an intel mobo.

 

[dougie_boy]

the asus p5b delux is a very god board. and get urself a antec case. with PSU.


tada.

 

[Mondoman]

What brand/model/size/speed RAM does she have? Number of sticks?

 

[Vile]

The X800 is a PCIe card correct ?

Please especify how many optical drives she has and what RAM she uses, in order to recommend a motherboard. Will she ever make use of SLI / Crossfire?

As for the PSU... I don't know much about those but I'm guessing that Antec TP 550 should be more than enough.

About Conroe.... when I think of a girl with a E6600 one thing comes to mind : 'Overkill'. Does she *really* need *that* much processing power ? If she's just going to do normal stuff and run games once in a while, somehow a E6300 or E6400 would become my best bets. You should save some $ on the CPU and maybe update her RAM already ? How much does she have, btw ?

 

[IAM27]

Her ram is 2 sticks of 256, so 512 RAM. Its some crappy brand, I can't remember what at the moment. Its from her old Dell. If anyone knows a good program I can easily download that will tell me RAM brands/speeds etc... that will help. I have Sisoft but don't feel like going through the trouble of installing it just to find out what RAM she has.

She probably doesn't need an E6600, but she wants to get everything I have because she's crazy like that. She would probably even be fine with a cheaper AMD chip, but she won't listen. Thats just how some women are. She's set on getting the E6600. Besides she's going to finish the upgrades in the next month or so and will be able to spend more on Ram then than she would save from the processor difference.

She has a DVD drive(burnable) and a CD drive(burnable).

And yes the graphics card is PCI-E, its crappy but I told her to wait for direct-x 10 to come out before spending money on a card since the 800 will run anything she wants to run.

I don't see her ever needing SLI or crossfire as long as she gets a good graphics card when they come out, so SLI/Crossfire boards aren't needed.

 

[Vile]

Alright ! Let's get to work.

So $500 is the budget right ?

$500 - $360 (E6600) - $80 (PSU) = $60

Good luck finding a motherboard for $60 !! 😀

Well I don't know how you plan to solve the budget issue, but here is what I recommend for the requirements she has:

I'd normally recommend the Asus P5B Deluxe (I'm in love with that board) but since you *are* on a budget after all, consider the following :

Asus P5B ---> $160 at ZipZoomFly

MSI NeoF ---> $110 at Newegg

Other than those... you're only left with the P945s, which I wouldn't really recommend for Conroe anyways and they aren't that much cheaper than the P965s.

Gigabyte GA 945P S3 ---> $ 93

There are probably other motherboards from brands like ECS and such... but hey, that's probably what she has right now, a ECS board lol.

 

[turkishdrummer]

im with vile there no way youll have enough for a motherboard so dont get the e6600. go down a level or two.

 

[IAM27]

Eh, if its not a huge difference in price it really doesn't matter. I just don't want to spend more than $150 or so for the mobo. And around 80-100 for PSU. $500 isn't a strict thing, if it goes over I can always make up the difference for her, just don't want to end up spending like $200+ for a mobo. $100-150 would be the best for that.

 

[Vile]

Well then I'm guessed we're lookin at the Asus P5B, Gigabyte DS3 and the Intel P965

I'd recommend the Asus over both... you can probably find a better price on other sites tho.