What Motherboard!?

hey, i wana know what kinda motherboard to get, this stuff bout compatibility just confuses me....! lol.....i dont know much about the motherbard itself either since ive never opened up the case....but i do know my system aint enuf for wot i need ...i want PCI slots, no more agp :mad: and i want one taht supports SLi since im planning on buying a card

lol.........actually i dont know crap all about motherboards...could someone plz recommend me a few

AND OH YEH BY THE WAY ....im gona sound really dumb but i aint neva upgraded this PC ....i got it from dell a cople of yers bak....dimension 8300....and could someone plz tell me how to :swear: find out what motherbord im currently using ........would appreciate gr8li.....

P.S ..sorry if half the stuff i just said sounds like complete bullshit....but u know......thats a 15 yer old for u ;)

Well if you are going to up grade first you can search google under your model computer and eventually find your model motherboard and company, but since you want a new mothreboard and processor its best to get a new Power supply unit too. So that it will be able to handle SLI cards and that new motherboard and PROCESSOR. If you are going to upgrade the motherboard please note that the processor would also need to be upgraded seeing that most likely you will be moving to a new socket.

Also, find out how much and what type of memory you have now so we will know what you will need and what you dont.

and see im 15 and if i get this stuff you can too.

ok Ive looked at the 8300 specs if thats the model you have

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,113937,00.asp

tell me if that looks familiar and if thats it you probably wont need a new processor unless you really want one

go into control panel then to performance and mantanence -> then to system which should be towards the bottom the double click on that then tell me the specs it gives you about your computer amount of ram and processor speed

lol......hey kenshin now im really confused.......the specs theyve said on pcworld......dont match my pc./ive got 256mb DDR400, intel p4 2.6 ghz , 64 nvidia geforce 4 mx 420......(i know its a peice of shit) ive got a 60 gb IDE....(more shit) brought it bout 3 yers ago (2003) lol well around 3 then....

it says....3 yr next business day on site..wot the **** dos taht mean .....

y is this so hard...........

P.S .....was it you hu rit that thing bout girls in high school......coz i forgot hu rit it ......and if yes....COOL story man!

..oh yeh....and btw......i c ur into anime :)...
.ah! yes ! rurouni kenshin....what a classic...! u shuld watch bleach ....:)

stay on topic please...now back to the computer you may want to upgrade your processor if you want the best performance how much are you willing to spend on this upgrade?

well........its not really bout money...(yes i know wot ure thinking....rich *******) ...i wana get this new motherboard.....1 GB of RAM, and another 150 SATA in addition to my 60 GB...jus tell me....what is the best motherboard i can get.to allow me to well.......actually.......just tell me some good motherbords lol

ah yes.....and ure probably thinking ..y cant i just upgrade eithout replacing motherbord.....but i need a new SLi graphics card too and i jus generally..wana beta PC :)

yes but with that 2.6 p4 not upgrading the cpu will cause bottle necking and you would also need a new psu especially if your planning on getting a 7800gt/x

To upgrade to an SLI motherboard from what you have you will need:

-An SLI motherboard, of course.
-A new case. To my knowledge no commercially available SLI motherboards exist in a micro ATX formfactor. Now, I don't know if pre-builts from companies like Dell and Gateway have custom mATX motherboards with SLI, but as far as what you can buy from stores, you're limited to ATX boards, and that case your 8300 uses only supports mATX motherboards.
-New power supply. While I've heard some information that Dell may have changed this, they have been practicing changing some of the wiring of their power supplies which make them incompatible with non-Dell motherboards. Even if that's false, I don't think that your power supply is sufficient if you're looking to run SLI.
-New CPU. Your computer is old enough that I'm quite positive that your CPU's interface is not available on any SLI motherboard. Right now the CPU interface Intel is using is LGA775, and that computer is old enough where I believe it to be the retired mPGA socket 478.
-New RAM. If you want to stick with Intel, you'll have to purchase DDR2 RAM as that's what Intel-based motherboards now use exclusively. DDR2 has a different number of pins (240 vs. 184 of DDR), and is phsyically incompatible with DDR. Now, you can go with an AMD Athlon and reuse the RAM.
-Video cards. I'm sure you expected this one. Anyway, no SLI motherboard can use your video card, as none exist with an AGP interface. You will have to purchase at least 1 PCIe (PCI Express) video card to replace what you currently have.

Basically, you're looking at having to buy more than just a motherboard for this upgrade. You'll be able to reuse your drives, but that's pretty much it I'm afraid.

there are no motherboards in the socket 478 category with SLi so basically you need to upgrade your whole system

thanks for the help.......DAM! never knew i needed this much lol......well anyway....ill look into it...guess thats it for this thred :)

rehan786 said:

thanks for the help.......DAM! never knew i needed this much lol......well anyway....ill look into it...guess thats it for this thred :)

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Yup. I mean, yeah, you could upgrade your motherboard, but, there's not much of a point to doing so.

As far as costs, you're probably looking at around $1,000 for a starter SLI rig with a low-end Athlon 64 chip. The Pentium-based SLI boards are all targeted at high-performance enthusiast rigs and run around $200 to start with. That, and Intel's performance is bested by AMD, especially in gaming.