Hello everyone, hope all is well. It’s that time of year for another upgrade, and as usual I can't decide what’s best to go for lol. I’m definitely wanting to upgrade the motherboard on the current build, and although its ageing a fair bit now, for what I need it for I don't want to go down the rout of a completely new build. I was looking for a DDR3 compatible board, and with it being socket 775 they are a bit few and far between, although for the budget of £50, I’m quite surprised with what you can get. I’ve found this board for £35 - Asus P5G41T-M LX . Was wondering if anyone else had any comments about this board, possibly someone who has one, or had one. I’m open to advice on alternatives too, as long as its DDR3 ready, one PCI-e slot and under £50 that’s cool. Thanks for taking the time to read this Gaz
What do you use the PC for? If you could find another £40 from down the back of the sofa or something, you could get an 1155 board and a pentium G CPU, thus future proofing yourself, by buying more 'up to date' hardware. cheers
Thanks for the reply TP. In fairness its general internet browsing, few basic programs, word etc. A wee bit of media coverage with songs, the odd film now and again. A light bit of gaming now and again, although its not exactly anywhere near a gaming setup, and the 9600 is getting a bit tired now lol. I'd love to stick with the processor though, as in my opinion its still got great potential for what I need it for, I just feel as if the board is bottle necking it, and the board is only allowing the RAM to run at a maximum of 266 mhz, and with no OC options, im a bit limited. I was looking to get 4GB of DDR3 1066, and I'd hope that would make a difference, all be it, possibly a small one, im not sure lol.
I don't have masses of experience with experimenting with CPU's so i can't comment. A step up to 1066 would definitely be noticeable. but you might aswell go straight to 1,333, probably wouldn't cost you any extra, and will be usable if you upgrade again in the future. I'm guessing you're running XP? which only recognizes 3.2GB of RAM btw, no matter how much you install. Your 9600 should be plenty fast enough if you're only casually gaming. I would say that you'd benefit in many ways from buying a low end 1155 CPU and board combo, lower power consumption, probably a lot less heat, and you'd end up with a quicker CPU anyway. Ball's in your court however mate! Cheers
