Which MOBO to buy?

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luxe

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Hi,

Did a little upgrading, and obviously need a new mobo, please point me in the right direction?

What i have:

Q8200 quad 2.3ghz
ddr3 ram x 4g
Radeon 4850 ( I want to buy another one, so need crossfire)
600w power supply.
32bit win 7.

So i need a motherboard that can run crossfire and use my intel chip with the option to upgrade in a few months to a better cpu.

Recommend?

Thanks for you help.
 
Not going to happen. The quad core you have is based on old tech thats on the way out (socket 775). All the new CPUs are on socket 1156 or 1366 (for intel chips).
 
Erm, you have a problem. The Q8200 is a LGA775 socket so you have to buy a MB to take that which means you cannot upgrade to i3, i5 or i7.

You are somewhere between a rock and a hard place right now.

Best bet is to buy a el cheapo gigabyte or foxconn G31 MB for now and when you upgrade change both your MB & CPU. I really see no other option.

EDIT: Scrap that idea, you have DDR3 ram which wont work, consider yourself fooked! Some boards can do both but they are usually the pricier higher end boards, do you have one of these already?
 
Last edited:
So what motherboard can i purchase, that will have crossfire, and then what chip should i pop onto it, since the q8200 is a pos.
 
ok - that makes sense...

stay like i am, then upgrade both chip + MB, and ensure that mb has crossfire, then buy another 4850.

Roger...thanks!
 
luxe said:
Hi,

Did a little upgrading, and obviously need a new mobo, please point me in the right direction?

What i have:

Q8200 quad 2.3ghz
ddr3 ram x 4g
Radeon 4850 ( I want to buy another one, so need crossfire)
600w power supply.
32bit win 7.

So i need a motherboard that can run crossfire and use my intel chip with the option to upgrade in a few months to a better cpu.

Recommend?

Thanks for you help.
Click to expand...

ponder said:
Erm, you have a problem. The Q8200 is a LGA775 socket so you have to buy a MB to take that which means you cannot upgrade to i3, i5 or i7.

You are somewhere between a rock and a hard place right now.

Best bet is to buy a el cheapo gigabyte or foxconn G31 MB for now and when you upgrade change both your MB & CPU. I really see no other option.
Click to expand...


He won't be able to use his ddr3 RAM on G31 MOBO.Otherwise he must buy ddr2 RAM....
 
thats not a problem, i have 4gb of ddr2 as well

alternatively i can buy the MSI X58M and a 3,2ghx black edition amd chip and pop my 4850's on there?
 
Last edited:
luxe said:
thats not a problem, i have 4gb of ddr2 as well

alternatively i can buy the MSI X58M and a 3,2ghx black edition amd chip and pop my 4850's on there?
Click to expand...

I think that motherboard is for an Intel CPU.
 
luxe said:
thats not a problem, i have 4gb of ddr2 as well

alternatively i can buy the MSI X58M and a 3,2ghx black edition amd chip and pop my 4850's on there?
Click to expand...

Yip, that mobo is for intel, not AMD. You can get a decent AMD board for about R1200, asus M4A78TD (something like that, cant remember the exact code). You'll need a 790FX or 890FX chipset though if you want 2 full x16 PCIe slots though. Those boards start at about R1800
 
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thanks archer...yeah i pasted the wrong one in the post.

looked at the 78TD, that should be fine, and the ( AMD socket AM3 Phenom2 x4, Quad-core 945 (3.0Ghz) [OPEN BOX] ) will work fine on there? Cos then i am only in for R2700.00
 
luxe said:
http://www.prophecy.co.za/socket-phenom2-quadcore-32ghz-black-edition-open-p-69656.html <-- chip.

http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-m4a785tm-amd785g-dualchannel-ddr3-crossfirex-p-57223.html <--- motherboard.

This way i can use my dual 4850's, and its R2900 to upgrade....is this a good deal or am i missing some tech somewhere :)
Click to expand...

Cant use that mobo, it only has one x16 PCIe slot. The other slot is only a x1 PCIe slot. You need two x16 PCIe slots that run at x8,x8, or at x16x16
 
Archer said:
Cant use that mobo, it only has one x16 PCIe slot. The other slot is only a x1 PCIe slot. You need two x16 PCIe slots that run at x8,x8, or at x16x16
Click to expand...

HEre's the expansion slots on the Asus M4A87TD, same as well, only 1 x PCI 16x

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16
1 x PCIe 2.0 x4
1 x PCIe 2.0 x1
3 x PCI

Is Crossfire and CrossfireX the same thing?
http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-m4a78te-dualchannel-ddr3-hybrid-crossfirex-p-34347.html <-- 2 x PCI 16x, this will work with 2 x 4850's wont it ?
 
Last edited:
Pretty much. Although that mobo runs at x8,x8 when both slots are populated, for two 4850s it will be fine. Its only when you get to x4 that you might lose some performance
 
kelevra said:
He won't be able to use his ddr3 RAM on G31 MOBO.Otherwise he must buy ddr2 RAM....
Click to expand...

I spotted that just after I posted. See my edit which came through before you posted your reply ;)


EDIT: Scrap that idea, you have DDR3 ram which wont work, consider yourself fooked! Some boards can do both but they are usually the pricier higher end boards, do you have one of these already?

Last edited by ponder; 09-06-2010 at 10:59 AM.
Click to expand...
 
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