Mobo - Need one - 775

[nerdkiller]

Hi, I'm a bit of a noob at building, but I've done it once before and am going in for seconds.

I'm using parts from my old system and new parts:

Old parts: 8800GT 512
Thermaltake 1200 watt power supply (don't ask ;p)
Elite Pro sound card
OCZ ram
cd roms and floppy drives
hard drives?

New parts: Intel Quad Core Q9650 4 x 3.00Ghz 12Mb Cache
Zalman CNPS9500-AT Aero Flower 775


So i need recommendations for a new mid range mobo. I know next to nothing about mobos other than getting the right socket, can anyone recommend me a good mid range one?

also if i've missed anything from my list then let me know what i need.


Thanks

[matty-hodgson]

will you do any overclocking?
are you planning on any upgrades in the future?
do you want RAID?

why the 1200W power supply?

[nerdkiller]

Hi Matt

No overclocking, no raid needed and about the power supply, I asked the IT guy from work and he kind of chose my parts. Unfortunately he was an amd fanboy and made some questionable decisions.

edit, upgrades for the future...

graphics

[matty-hodgson]

so basically you just want a board that can run the CPU you're going to buy?
with the graphics.. do you want SLI or Crossfire or anything like that?

perfect if you want crossfire and a very bloody good board

if you want SLi

i'd go for the first one if i was you.. that CPU is a bloody powerful processor, and it'd be a waste to not house it in something as powerful as itself..

[Webby]

Okay now if it was me (and obviously its not it is you ) I would save some money and get the Q9550 you are paying more than £1 a MHz for the upgrade to the Q9650 I realise you said no overclocking but to get that extra 166Mhz you would need to increase the FSB by 30, I will guarentee that this will work with no issues. That is a 6% overclock to compare that my duel core is running at a 50% overclock.

Right whatever you decide on the CPU front (Q9550, Q9550, Q9550, Q9550) you will also want a different CPU cooler the zalman is far from the best you can get for the money, I would be looking at the Scythe Ninja 2 (huge you have to be comfortable with the size) £30, Thermalright Ultima 90 (needs a fan to go with it, comes with a backplate and doesn't use push pins) £23.50, Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (exceptional performance for the money) £18.

Any of those 3 will keep your CPU much cooler, my personal preferance would be the Thermalright with a decent 120mm or 92mm fan (as you are not overclocking (much ) a 92mm will suffice) the Akasa Amber is very nice and quiet for this role.

Finally motherboard, what do you class as midrange? Anyway I would go with a P45 board prices start at ~£75 I would look at the Gigabyte and Asus boards, probably would suggest the Asus P5Q Pro (£92) or the Gigabyte EP45-DS3R (£83). If you were planning on overclocking more then I would probably point you towards the DFI DK P45-T2RS Plus (£109) but it is over kill for your needs.

So thats everything if you go with the Q9550 you save £170 put that towards a new graphics card, you could sell your 8800GT (probably get £40-50 for it) giving you a budget of £215 assuming gaming is something you do then a HD4870 1GB, a GTX260 or with a motherboard change to a DFI DK X38-T2R (£105) 2x HD4850's in Crossfire (while the P45 boards support crossfire it is only at 8x the X38 is better in this respect as it runs at duel 16x) and the best bit no waiting around to save up more money

[nerdkiller]

thanks a lot matt, will be buying that top mobo.

edit just seen post above *goes to read*

Webby, thanks for that big money saver and for the heatsink suggestions. I'll have a look at those mobos now too.

Also with the what do you class as mid range... well im not too sure either ;p as long as it doesn't cost the earth is all. the ones suggested are all nice prices.

[nerdkiller]

quick question, will the Thermalright Ultima 90 fit inside an antec900 case. It'd suck to buy a heatsink then have it not fit.

cheers

[Webby]

Yeah I'm 99.9% sure it will fit no problem at all, especially if you use a 92mm fan (the 120mm goes past the top of the cooler) It fitted in my Silverstone TJ08 (and TJ06) with a 120mm fan see picture below



The Antec 900 is wider than the TJ08 so I am happy to say it will fit

[nerdkiller]

Brilliant, your help has been invaluable.

If someone can tell me how to officially 'thank' on this forum then that'd be great.

Cheers

[matty-hodgson]

you need 15 or 25 posts to thank..

[nerdkiller]

Will I be able to boot from my old hard drive? obviosuly i'll have to system restore asap but will i be able to boot and then back up a few files first? just wonderring if i should buy a new hd.

edit:

last question ;p

i bought this mobo DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS PLUS iP45 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

the ram i currently have is http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...c_dual_channel

will that ram work with the mobo? (yes i am a noob lol)

[Webby]

Yep no reason the memory shouldn't work, it will be fine.

As to your HDD the drivers will all be wrong for the motherboard which will cause problems, your best bet is to backup before you change anything do you have a USB stick large enough? Or a stack of cd/DVDs? If not get another hard drive not exactly expensive 640GB Western Digital or Samsung F1 are very good and cost ~£45 then install to the new drive and copy everything off the old drive then format it and sort everything out how you want it to be

I guess if your current drive has enough free space and you think you're up to it then you could defrag the drive then partition of a section to copy what you want to save across, then you can format the OS partition and reinstall there.