I've finally convinced myself to spend money again on finally upgrading my old crappy cave man aged like E-machine computer. Basically.. I want to play Quake 4 and this is one of the many things I need to upgrade. Problem is.. I'm not that much of a computer guy and the world of MB's and Processors is new to me.

So maybe you can guys extend some suggestions to me? I don't need anything super fast and powerful, and I won't be overclocking it. I would like something that I won't have to replace for a while also, so any suggestions? I also favor AMD Compatible boards.. not much of a Intel fan.

Mint/Clef

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I play as Mint
And Clef

Well if you wanna keep up with the Jones's you could buy the latest and greatest and in a couple weeks it will be out dated.

Asus and gigabyte are both good boards. Do some research on what you mainly wanna do and which brand is best for you. Alos look around to see what is bare minimum for playing the games you want.

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The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars”

can't help you out with mobo cause there are many options.. but i suggest an AMD athlon 64 x2 5200+.. good processor for the money and it's dual core.. alot of options for mobo.. like size, sli, pci slots.. all that stupid **** so find out what you really need and reply back with some specs you would like...

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We stay fresh to death, We the best, Nothin less!!! .~' City Stars '~.

Here is a breakdown of what I recently bought to upgrade my computer - I basically started from scratch and the only things that I kept from the old computer were the floppy drive, two optical disc drives, and the hard drive with the operating system on it. And of course the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

1. Raidmax xB ATX528BP Mid Tower Case (Black) included 330 Watt power supply.

2. Asus M2N4-SLI nForce4 SLI Sempron/Athlon 64(FX)(X2) SktAM2 DDR2 ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA. - X2 is the socket type that the pins on the back of the CPU would fit in. Match these up.

3. Gigabyte GV-NX71G512P8-RH GeForce 7100GS TurboCache 128MB DDR2 PCI-Express Video Card w/ Dual DVI. - (Cheap but works OK).

4. Ultra ULT31876 80mm Sleeve Bearing Case Fan (5 Pack) - I ended up with four extra fans - case didn't have the open slots for fans that it advertised

5. AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 3800+ Socket AM2 (65W)

6. Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4 1GB Kit DDR2-675 XMS2-5400 Xtreme Performance Memory w/Black Heat Spreader.

I also added a 320 GB hard drive and installed Quake 4 on it - it is faster than my old hard drive but it didn't make Quake 4 run any faster. With this system Quake 4 runs fine on my computer but has to run in medium quality for video (600x800 or something like that) otherwise it bogs the system down. If you have a few extra bucks get a video card with more base memory than the 128mb card I bought. And make sure to get at least 1 gig of memory (see #6 above). I got to the bottom here and realized you only wanted CPU/Motherboard info. Sorry. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. I'm currently at work so I don't have much time to surf around or read up on specifics, but I'll give an update on what I think.

The current Video card I have is a BFG Tech BFGE86256GTSOCE GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 OC HDCP Video Card. Haven't installed it or anything since my current MB is ancient.. but I picked this one up a bit ago via a friends suggestion who is more into the computer building scene then I am. I've also read good reviews about it online, and heard good things about it from people I've talked to.

I'm mostly aiming for a good gaming system. Other then gaming I do a bit of photoshop work and stuff like that on my machine, or just plain listen to music.

I'll probably stick with the AMD athlon 64 x2 5200+ suggested above.

I'm keeping my current Soundcard ( its a bit old, but not ancient )

I think I'll go with a ASUS motherboard over the other brands, just haven't picked one out yet.

When I get home and wake up I'll do some more research, but thanks for the tips so far guys.

Clef/Mint

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I play as Mint
And Clef

That processor is a good choice, def keep the video card since it's new and HDCP compatible, i would suggest an Asus board for a new builder ( not my personal choice since i've had bad experiences), be sure to get a SATA II drive <--- Sooo fast.. took my Quake 4 from running smooth at 800x600 with all medium detail to 1280x1040 with all high detail.. couldn't believe that it was just my hard drive that made the difference.. but it's believable seeing i came from an ATA100 Ultra to a SATA 2 drive.. good **** so be sure to go with somethin like a Western Digital SATA II drive with 16mb buffer.. that should do the job.. if you're going socket AM2 you'll probably need 240pin ram.. I got a couple good gig sticks from G. Skill when I find a link I'll post it.. but they're pretty nice and fast.. Case is all your choice and I suggest buying a new PSU and not using a stock one from a case.. Be sure to get >600w and make sure it's SLI compatible in case you decide to upgrade to SLI later and try to get a modular one because they are awesome..




Processor..
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail

Ram...
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Hard Drive...
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

^My top suggestions if you're tight on money

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We stay fresh to death, We the best, Nothin less!!! .~' City Stars '~.