What motherboard and processor and video card?

new2012

My computer is over 5 years old and the only original parts are the motherboard and processor.

Everything else has been replaced or upgraded over the years.

Latest thing to fail intermitantly is the video card. I think it is an overheating problem and the fan seems OK so I will just replace it.

Rather than buy a new computer I thought I would just replace the motherboard/processor and video card.

I do a lot of video editing from my Sony camcorder which requires a firewire port, USB is not supported and my grandson plays a lot of video games and keeps moaning my computer is not fast enough.

Present set up is

Motherboard Asus P5N-E SLI
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz 5.3
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 5.3 and a Nvidia 9800GT video card.
and Windows 7.

I can stretch to about £300 so what would be a good motherboard/processor video card setup with a firewire port?

m5rcc

You're limited to a LGA 775 mobo, so probably a Asus P5G41T-M LX G41 mobo and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 gfx card?

new2012

You're limited to a LGA 775 mobo,

Why?
I can get a new processor.

m5rcc

new2012 wrote: »

Why?
I can get a new processor.

Sorry misunderstood you wanted to change just mobo and gfx.

But if you upgrade mobo, then you may find your memory is not good enough. Is your memory either DDR3 1066/1333/1600/2133?

However, I think you can get a MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) P67 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard with an Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz Processor and a HD 6850 XXX Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card for £300

robmar0se

m5rcc wrote: »

But if you upgrade mobo, then you may find your memory is not good enough. Is your memory either DDR3 1066/1333/1600/2133?

However, I think you can get a MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) P67 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard with an Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz Processor and a HD 6850 XXX Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card for £300

That’s a good reasonable spec within the budget. I also agree that OP will need to change the RAM to DDR3. I would also recommend changing the PSU if the existing is over 2 years old and is an inexpensive generic.

The Graphics card would also be first on my list, and perhaps the ATI Radeon HD 5570 as a less expensive option. I personally also like the Intel i5 2500k as the best price vs performance cpu deal out there now, but probably over the top for this budget. I would also choose out of choice Gigabyte boards (maybe the GA-H55M-UD2H which is good value@ £70 - no USB3 but a pci card is an inexpensive addition). The MSI board mentioned does well in tests though.

Intel processors are better than AMD at present, but the latter represent a more economic alternative, especially the llano, the integrated graphics is better (than the Intel equivalent integrated graphics), however you may well want a discrete graphics card for the gaming aspects. We use Intel now for bespoke PCs, and only use AMD for the bog standard "budget" computers where there is only email/internet traffic etc.

thelawnet

m5rcc wrote: »

Sorry misunderstood you wanted to change just mobo and gfx.

But if you upgrade mobo, then you may find your memory is not good enough. Is your memory either DDR3 1066/1333/1600/2133?

However, I think you can get a MSI P67A-GD53 (B3) P67 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard with an Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz Processor and a HD 6850 XXX Edition 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card for £300

The RAM will be DDR2 on a P5N-E SL.

So if he buys the P67A-GD53, his RAM will be useless.

That's no bad thing as it happens, as 4GB doesn't really cut it these days.

£35 will see him nicely with a pair of 4GB = 8GB DDR3 RAM.

However there's another problem with that motherboard - no firewire.

You can get a branded S1155 mboard for about £60. Firewire will add £30 or more on that cost.

The thing is the E6400 is not great but still quite serviceable, but the real problem is the graphics card. An E6400 is perhaps half as fast as a top-of-the-range modern chip, but the 9800GT only 10% of the performance of a top graphics card.

Graphics-wise the Radeon 6850 is a good choice for £100, so buy that, a £5 firewire card and then see how it goes.

If you're then in a mood to spend more money, then rather than the dual-core suggested above, it makes more sense to do a core i5 - the extra two cores will make a big difference for video editing and for some games. A Core i5 2380/2400 is about £50 more than the Core i3 2100 but quite a big improvement.

So, 8GB of RAM £35, Core i5 £140, GPU £100, motherbaord £90, total about £365

Or just do GPU and firewire and leave the new CPU, motherboard and RAM.

new2012

Another option.

Are there any motherboards which have a built in graphics card that is superior to a Nvidia 9800GT graphics card?

I could up what I am prepared to pay.

what is this like

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=990992&UTM_SOURCE=homepage&UTM_MEDIUM=online&UTM_CONTENT=MB_BUNDLES&UTM_CAMPAIGN=homepage_mbbox1

My present computer was originally a Mesh, all that is left is the MB and case, everything else has been replaced.

thelawnet

new2012 wrote: »

Another option.

Are there any motherboards which have a built in graphics card that is superior to a Nvidia 9800GT graphics card?

The 9800GT is faster than either the Intel best option (Extreme 3000) or AMD (A8 APUs).

what is this like

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=990992&UTM_SOURCE=homepage&UTM_MEDIUM=online&UTM_CONTENT=MB_BUNDLES&UTM_CAMPAIGN=homepage_mbbox1

Horrendously expensive:
http://www.ebuyer.com/281367-asus-p8z68-v-lx-socket-1155-onboard-graphics-output-8-channel-audio-atx-p8z68-v-lx mboard £80 (this is the same motherboard as you link to, but without pci-e 3 support. PCi-e3 support is currently completely useless, but might be useful in a few years with a new graphics card)
http://www.ebuyer.com/251596-intel-core-i5-2500k-3-3ghz-socket-1155-6mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52500k
cpu £173
http://www.ebuyer.com/272176-kingston-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-hyperx-blu-memory-kit-cl9-1-65v-khx1600c9d3b1k2-8gx RAM £35

Total = £288

You can save £30 more by getting the 2380P instead

http://www.ebuyer.com/342616-core-i5-2380p-64bit-mpu-3-1g-6mb-box-bx80623i52380p

Note btw, that your chosen motherboard lacks firewire.....

new2012

Horrendously expensive:

That was just for an example, so I will be better with a separate graphics card.

Note btw, that your chosen motherboard lacks firewire

I can always get a separate firewire card.

I am just looking for ideas at the moment in case my graphics card finally gives up the ghost.

It seems to be behaving itself since I moved a PCI card further down and left off the blanking plate to give the graphics card more ventilation and room.