Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

Just for clarification: I know how the cable works. It's just that the way SJ wrote his answer, it sounded like he was saying the cable only had one plug-in.

It didn't help that I mistakenly put 'connector' when I meant 'cable', nor did it help that I'm unfamiliar with motherboard statistics terminology.

The other information, however, is new to me.

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

Thanks for all the great answers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I think I'm about ready to buy.

A few questions, though: I have a 6600GT AGP card, which means I'd have to replace it. The system guide recommends the 'Sapphire Radeon HD 3850' - Is this a good replacement?

Second, what's the difference between the various PCI slots?

Third, what's a good place to buy these from in Canada? Rough math says this'll cost $410+ (Motherboard, processor, graphics card, case), so I want to keep that down.

Fourth, how would I tell if my old power supply would be enough for the new stuff?

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

Hmm...May not need a new case. The 'form factor' looks to be the same.

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

I haven't bought much stuff from them, just some RAM (and that was ~2 years ago), but www.tigerdirect.ca was quite satisfactory when I dealt with them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm sure there are others out there, but TigerDirect is the only one I've personally bought stuff from.

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

Thanks. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If I can get the power supply question answered quickly, I may be able to order the stuff today.

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

Narf, the AGP and PCI use different slots (that may not be true in the older style computers) . Check to make sure which one you will need to use. I know the PCI and PCI-E are very different. I have a newer mobo that has an AGP slot on it and will not take PCI board.

Just a "Heads Up!" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

AGP and PCI are totally separate slots in any style of computer. Before AGP, video cards were made to go into PCI slots, though.

"A few questions, though: I have a 6600GT AGP card, which means I'd have to replace it. The system guide recommends the 'Sapphire Radeon HD 3850' - Is this a good replacement?"

Personally, I'd shy away from any ATI video card.

"Second, what's the difference between the various PCI slots?"

Night and day. PCI-E is the new standard slot type, with lots of scalability built into the spec. Its meant to completely replace both PCI and AGP. Cards that need a lot of bandwidth (video cards, physics co-processors) will use the full 16 lanes of a PCI-E x16 slot, and low bandwidth cards (pretty much everything you'd use PCI for in the past) can use the lower profile, more efficient PCI-E x1 slots. The best part is that you can stick a PCI-E x1 card into a PCI-E x16 slot, and it will work perfectly. They also designed the spec to allow for bus bandwidth increases, and still maintain full backwards and forwards compatibility between devices and motherboards. Hopefully the industry will never have to change slots again (at least, until real computers start taking up 1 inch cubes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif).

Most motherboards still sport a few PCI slots for backwards-compatibility purposes.

"Fourth, how would I tell if my old power supply would be enough for the new stuff?"

Plug it in, put the system under load, and see if its stable. If the components draw too much juice, the motherboard will shut off.

You could also try to figure out the power draw of all of the components and compare it to what the PSU is rated to put out. Just keep in mind that you should never run a PSU near or at max load, since the power output isn't very clean at that point (PSUs aren't really designed to deliver max load on a constant basis). How much power can your current PSU supply?

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Another thing to keep in mind is that you might not be able to use your current RAM, depending on how old your PC is. Unless you have DDR2 RAM already, you will probably need to pick some up. Luckily, it's dirt cheap right now, with rebates offered out the wazoo (at least in the US, not sure about Canadian market).

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

1) What would be a good card, then? (In the same price range)

2) Thanks - So I should get a video card that fits in a PCI-E x16 slot?

4) 500 wats.

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I think it is DDR2. How do I tell?

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

1) According to the Ars system guide, the 8800GT 256MB seems to be the closest Nvidia cost/performance competitor in that price range. The 8800GT 512MB would possibly be a better long-term investment, for about $80-100 more. The Geforce 9 series cards are coming out soon, so it might be best to hold off on a video card purchase until they are out. The 8 series cards should see price drops at that time. The integrated video on the motherboard you linked won't be ideal for playing newer games, but it will be fine for older games and SE.

2) Yes.

4) 500 watts is overkill for pretty much any PC that doesn't have a SLI video card config, so you will be fine.

As for RAM's type, one way to tell is to look up the spec sheet of your current motherboard (any given motherboard can generally only use one type of RAM, with occasional boards sporting some legacy slots of the previous generation). If you run the "msinfo32" application, you can see what your motherboard is under the first page (system summary). It will be called something like "System Model."

Re: OT: I need a new motherboard.
 

Fyrons right about the video card. I have a 8800 Nvidia with 768MB, it rocks! Go with the overkill on the power supply. A lot of the artiicles I've read while I was putting my system together was that with all the power usage of cooling fans and DVD-CD Burners plus any other toys you may want to put on. It was mentioned over and over about having a good power supply to handle it all. I have an 800w power supply on mine.