Which should I choose?

[Greyblades]

Hi Im new to this forum so please bear with me if i make some mistakes. Ok I am thinking of buying a new processor for my computor but I am not sure which one to choose. I have http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=939NF6G-VSTA this mother board and my budget is anything below £150 so can anyone give me an idea which cpu would be good for a gamer like me that is compatable with my motherboard.

[jonwoad]

TBH you're better off saving your money for a bit then going for a board, cpu, ram, and graphics. The board you have is a bit old now and is old tech tbh.

[Greyblades]

Is there anything else i can do or is that all there is?

[jonwoad]

What processor do you have at the moment?

[wonderlust]

how about

MSI P35 NEO2-FR Socket 775 Motherboard Quickcode: #28015 £68.88
Patriot 2GB PC2-6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2x1GB) Quickcode: #26802 £24.98
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 2.2GHz (Retail 775) Quickcode: #31076 £49.88

all prices inc vat excluding delivery

[mac124]

you will have trouble finding a new cpu for a socket 939 motherboard tbh.

For £150 you could get something togther on Intels 775 platform (as above) and upgrade the cpu at a later date but tbh i would stick with what you have till you can afford a bit more tbh and do it in one go.

[jonwoad]

Should have known a MSI P35 Neo2-FR would pop into the equation somewhere :P

[wonderlust]

if you need on board graphics to tide you over :-

Asus P5K-VM Intel G33 LGA775 Core2 Quad / Core2 Extreme / Core2 Duo Quickcode: #28609 £56.69

or you could waste your money on

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.20GHz (939) OEM Quickcode: #27240 £111.63

[wonderlust]

Should have known a MSI P35 Neo2-FR would pop into the equation somewhere :P

it is still one of the best featured boards in the low mid range, yes the chipset is getting a little old, yes it "only" supports ddr2 but I can't see DDR3 getting to a position where price/performance equals DDR2 for another 6 months or so or the release of Nehaleem,

[Greyblades]

I have a Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz or so it says on DxDiag.

[wonderlust]

grap a copy of CPU-Z it will tell you both the CPu and the Motherboard (in most cases)

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

[Greyblades]

Thanks it says i have an intel pentium 4 630 and a 775Twins-HDTV.

[wonderlust]

ok, unfortunatly your board will NOT take any core2 processors :(

http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=775Twins-HDTV&s=775

I would still look at replacing it with a newer board, are you running DDR2 or DDR1 (cpu-z will tell you)?

[Greyblades]

It just says DDR.

[wonderlust]

running at 400 or under?

[Greyblades]

Mbytes (512) or MHz (200)?

[wonderlust]

yeah it's the 200 I was after,

Do you have a pci-e graphics card? or are you looking for a board with onboard graphics?

[Greyblades]

My Graphics card is a Nvidia 8800GT. Gotta love Christmas presents huh?

[wonderlust]

ah ok, well in that case you could go with my first suggestion and either go for the chip (it's a dual core and core2duo although it is named Pentium Dual core.)

It will be faster than your P4, or if you wished to you could keep your current chip and upgrade later say to a Q9450 or a Q6600 (which are a bargain @ aria's super special price)

[Greyblades]

would this one do? http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Core+Q9300+2.5GHz+Socket+LGA775+-+OEM+?productId=3089 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Core+Q9300+2.5GHz+Socket+LGA775+-+OEM+?productId=30899)

[wonderlust]

yes, but the Q6600 is quicker, has more cache and will overclock better.

Better still it's cheaper too :D