New Motherboard

[Track]

For the last few weeks, ive thought of getting a Geforce 7800 GS for my 2 year old AGP-only motherboard, when i relaized that i may be restraining myself in the future, since that card will last for some time and if i dont get a new motherboard i will not be able to upgrade anything else on my PC.

My current motherboard has 2 slots for memory so i only have 1 gb and dosent support PCI-E, SATA or 64 bit dual-core CPUs, so im stuck with my 3.0 ghz CPU. My HD is IDE and memory runs at 400 mhz. My current card runs on AGP x8. I also have 1 mb of L2 cach.

My goal is to get a new one for cheap, wich lets me keep all my current supplies but also lets me have the ability in the future to upgrade to a dual-core or even 64 bit CPU, dual channel DDR2 memory (not a priority) or at least have more then 2 slots so that in a few months if i need it, ill get another 500 mb or something, and a PCI-E x16 card.

I spent so much time understanding all graphics cards and im just tired, plus its not so important to me as a graphics card. So if anyone here knows a deal abt motherboards and can help me find a new one for cheap but not too cheap ill be very greatfull.. and if anyone needs advice on graphics cards i know a lot!
Thnx for any help !!
Chris A.

[Damnation]

You have an IDE hard drive.
You have DDR1 400 memory.
You have an AGP slot.
You have an 3GHz CPU.

You wil very rarely if at all find a motherboard without at least one IDE channel. No problem there. I am guessing you have and INTEL processor. You need to find a motherboard with DDR1 slots or one with DDR1 & DDR2 slots, if you pick a board without DDR1, you'll have to buy new memory aswell. I'm also guessing you have and SOCKET 478 board atm. I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think there is SOCKET 478 boards with PC-x slots. The new boards are LGA-775. The CPU's are different, they don't have pins, etc. So, you will probably have to buy a new motherboard aswell. The only SOCKET 478 motherboard I could find: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=27&model=167&modelmenu=1

Another thing to take note of. If you buy a new board, check how many IDE channels it has. If it's got only one and you have an IDE hard drive and an optical drive, you'll have difficaulties connecting all of that, aspecially if you have more than two IDE drives. If you had an serial ATA drive, it wouldn't be a problem. There are other solutions for the IDE problem, like an IDE PCI card, or an IDE to serial converter.

My advice to you is to save up some money, sell your old stuff and buy a new motherboard, graphics card, cpu and memory.

Some sites to check out: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw
                                    http://www.intel.com
                                    http://www.asus.com.tw
                                    http://www.chaintech.com.tw
                                    http://www.dfi.com.tw

I would recommend Gigabyte.

I don't know where you are from, so I can't really recommend a shop.

[Track]

Thnx for the reply.
Im not sure what u meant by the 478 socket, but the whole point is to change my board, so i will have to.

Well, itll take me time to save up that much, and i dont really want to throw everything away just because its a little old.
What i want to do is to move my CPU, HD, memory etc. except my graphics card, to a new board that will give me the possibility to one day upgrade all this stuff, and will give me the ability right now to get a new graphics card. The card is one of the reasons for why i dont have enough money for a new PC.

Ok, so IDE is cool, DDR1 is cool, what abt the CPU? I want a board that can house my Intel 3.0ghz and have the ability to house a dual core Intel CPU one day.

[Damnation]

That is the problem. Like I said, I'm guessing you have an SOCKET 478 motherboard. That is the physical socket that your motherboard use to house the 3GHz CPU. The newer boards uses an SOCKET 775 (LGA). The CPU that needs to be fitted in there looks different than yours. In other words, your CPU won't fit in the newer boards. I think you will have an hard time finding a socket 478 board with PCI-express. Look at the first link I posted, the ASUS board. Then again, a socket 478 board will not house a duel core cpu.

What you can do is to check out Gigabyte's website. I know they have an LGA board with an AGP and an PCI-express slot, but either way you'll have to buy a new CPU.

Alternatively, you could buy an AMD motherboard & duel core processor. The good thing there is, you will be able to keep your memory. AMD is still stuck at DDR1. You only have to buy DDR2 if you buy AMD's latest high end very very expensive processors.

There's too many options. There's a lot of things to consider when upgrading, aspecially with Windows Vista coming soon.

Feel free to ask any further questions.

[Track]

So under almost no circumstances can a board that houses a non dual-core CPU house a dual-core one?

*censored*, there is no way ill have enough money for a dual-core and a new graphics card. Shouldnt i just try to find that one illusive board?

Oh, if only i could wait until september, then i could get everything for cheap from the U.S. but im not wasting the summer. Dont ever underestimate how lucky u are to live in a place where prices are so dirt cheap, i spent 500$ on my PSP.

Also, can u tell me if a switch from DDR1 to DDR2 is really significant or should i just not waste my money?

[Damnation]

The newer socket 775 (LGA) boards can house an single & duel core cpu. Although, I'm not sure if every chipset you'll find on an LGA board will support an duel core processor. I'll have to read up on that.

You can probably find that illusive board, but I don't think it's worth it. Save the money and do it right from the beginning and avoid other problems afterwords, believe me, I had almost the same situation and was too eager. In the end I had to spend more money than I really had to.

The RAM issue. If you go from DDR1 400 to DDR2 533, the speed increase is barely noticable. If you go from DDR1 400 to DDR2 667, the speed increase is satisfying. Google for some accurate measurements.