Hi kiddies

I badly need to upgrade my pc.I just don't know what motherboard & cpu to go for.
I use my pc for gaming & browsing the web.I like to think that i'm a serious gamer but others would not agree....


All i do know is that i want to go down the Intel cpu route not the AMD route.

This is what i have been looking at so far in the way of mobo's :

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-P6X ... A-RAID-ATX


http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigabyte ... SATA-6Gb-s

If there are any other boards out there that'll do a good job for gaming let me know please

As for CPU's i just haven't a notion at the mo' so any ideas would be very helpful.I know some people may think it's a bad time for a upgrade/new build but I've put it off too long as it is.
There are new games coming that my pc just wont play & i have some on the shelf just waiting to loaded.......



yours wecrookie

With those motherboards, there is only one chip to choose really.

First of all though, what is your budget?

You don't need a 1366 based system for games unless you want to run a multiple GPU system. If you're insistent on 1366, I'd get the Gigabyte of those two.

Thx for the reply

Im not insisting on any thing at the moment other than it's gonna be Intel
As for budget, well whatever it takes......

Part of my problem is that i don't really know if i want to do a complete rebuild or just upgrade certain components
It's the lack of knowledge of decent gaming mobo's & CPU's that i need help with

Hope that makes it a bit easier for you all



yours wecrookie

ps never forget your dealing with a total n00b

Personally I'd go for the asus.

A 920 or 930 for the chip (both overclock to 4GHz if you want them to)
A Titan Fenrir for cooling or a corsair H70
6GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM (Corsair XMS3 is good for the money)

Then add a gpu of your choosing (The new nvidia 460 is a good choice), a decent PSU & storage. A ssd for the OS then a 1TB F3 for storage is a good combination.

Ok, but overkill for gaming no?

And why Asus Sas out of interest? My last two boards have been Asus and if I was spending more money I would, but at budget end I'd prefer the Gigabyte.

Oh and wecrookie, rest of your spec please.... and a budget

Thx again for the replies


@ okenobi the budget is what ever it takes. I don't mind spending the cash to get a good pc.

By spec do you mean what i have on my present pc?

If so here they are:

Mobo MSI 925XE Neo http://eu.msi.com/index.php?func=prodde ... rod_no=607

CPU Intel Pentium P4 3.20 GHz

Ram Crucial 2x DDR PC2 5200 (1024mb) + 2x DDR PC2 5200 (512mb)

GPU Nvidia Gforce 8800 GT 1Gig super

HDD 1x 120GB Seagate + 1x 250GB Western Digital

PSU Tagan TG800 BZ 800W http://www.tagan.com.tw/page/products/products-bz.htm

OS Windows XP Home Edition


I can't unfortunately upgrade the CPU on this mobo even though it's socket 775. The dual core just aren't supported .
The PSU isn't that old & may be used again.The HDD's i will probably put into caddies as i will get a couple of 1TB F3 as saspro suggested.


hope that's what you want....


yours wecrookie

Yes that's what I meant thanks.

Ok, the budget being irrelevant is great, but really?? What screen resolution are you running/do you want to run?

Decent gaming performance I would say could start at around £700, but could go up to £1000 and beyond depending upon a ton of variables. How does that sound?

Well at the moment i'm using a 19' widescreen @ 1152 x 864 @ 60 Hrtz . I don't tend to have the native resolution to high as i find it difficult to read the text even with my glasses on. A larger screen is on the wanted list but i will use this one for time being.



I happy enough with that, i spent around the same on this PC when i built it.


yours wecrookie

Right, that monitor sounds sketchy, but assuming you'll be getting a 22" at some point, we can aim for 1680x1050 playability.

I would personally therefore focus my cash on solid, good quality, long-lasting stuff without pushing for the absolutely latest tech.

So that's a bloody good PSU and chassis which are future-proof and capacious. Then probably an 1156 mobo and i5-750 with 4gig of RAM. A GeForce 460 1gig and the F3s Sas mentioned. Then you'll want Win 7 and you should enough budget left for a new monitor

Lemme have a think in specifics and I'll pop back later....

Ok, if you've got the room for it I'm thinking Cooler Master ATCS840
It's massive with tons of room for future upgrades. It has a superb motherboard tray which makes working inside your PC much easier and it's extremely well built and well cooled. But what do you want? Do you want something quiet? Small? large? Very cool? More HDD bays or not so many?

PSU: Seasonic X Series
Silent until 50% load. Super efficient and built like a tank. If noise isn't as much of a consideration, you could get a Corsair for a longer warranty.

These two should be the base of your PC for a long time to come.

Haven't splashed out on those, I would keep the rest of it where it actually NEEDS to be for gaming. So in fact, if you want i7 as Sas suggested, you could do this with a few changes:

Lose the SSD, controller card and sound card. Switch the GPU for a GTX460 1gig and the PSU for the one mentioned above and you'll hit about £1100.

If however, you want room for a new monitor and Win 7 (which I would totally be looking at in your position), you'll need to step it down a notch on the core components.
If you go for an i5-760 on a Gigabyte P55M-UD2 with 4gig of RAM, but keep the rest the same, you'll save about £160 but still have superb performance. If you get a smaller case as well you could save another £40. £200 towards a monitor and Win7 would be pretty cool....

If your on a budget then CPC reviewed a good CPU called the Intel Pentium G6950, very cheap and incredible overclockable -

Intel G6950 2.80GHz 3MB Socket 1156 Cache Retail Box Processor £74.95

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler £15.97

Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H H55 Socket 1156 VGA DVI HDMI Out 8 CHannel Audio ATX Motherboard £77.63

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered CL9 £79.01

Just an idea.....

Thx guys for the replies

Couldn't connect earlier as my isp is playing silly buggers at the mo'

@ okenobi was looking at the Cosmos http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coolerma ... ow-w-o-PSU .So size wasn't a problem There's not much difference between the two cases pricewise or in specs.

I will end up water cooling it as i just hate noisy fans and like messing around inside cases...

Have checked out the bit-tech article which is helpful thanks for the link


@ Geiseric thanks for those links as that could help out on one of the kids pc's if they want one or i could end up getting them a laptop.


Will get back when i make up my mind.
Once again thanks for your suggestions


yours wecrookie

Cosmos is nice, but the motherboard tray and extra space in the 840 would swing it for me if water cooling.

Either way, if you value silence, that PSU is THE ONLY choice.