Motherboard Help (Buying)

[SailorAlea]

I'm looking for a motherboard that supports PCI-Express, and can handle either a Pentium 4 chip, or a Core 2 Duo chip. Do they exist?

I ask, because I want to upgrade my computer in small steps--and if I switch to a PCI-express mobo, I have to immediately upgrade my video card, too--and the processor I want is more expensive than I can currently afford.

 

[Tassadar]

I'm in sort of a similair situation. Core 2 Duo is looking more and more appealing by the day, so I've been looking up mobo's for it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010200280+1070622728&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=280
Those boards all support Core 2 Duo/Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron D. So as long as your current P4 is a LGA 775, it should work.

The only brands I have had experiance with of those are MSI, ASUS, and ABIT. I had a bad MSI experiance back with my Athlon XP 2400+, it was a long time ago. My friend has an ABIT board and it seems to work extremly well, BIOS are easy to use and it's overclock friendly if your into that. I had an ASUS for a little while, it was pretty good but I had some voltage problems. All of my problems can't really be pinned on the company though, you'd be better off waiting for Overlord, Smith or Cuc to suggest a brand ^_^

 

[|Overlord|]

What is your price range Alea?.

Board I would recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131045 - ASUS P5B Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $182.99

I myself am soon going to be making the move to either a conroe or Kentsfield setup soon enough. I would get a nforce 680i based mainboard but the 680i has way to many issues atm (usb dying, sata issues, boards dying just to name a few).

 

[Pemalite]

And whats your old set-up? I'm looking to upgrade the old Athlon XP 3000+
And need donations!
The early MSI/Athlon XP (Pre Nforce) were hell!
Unfortunately There is no PCI-Express Athlon XP motherboard.
And I am paying off the house and car, so extreme computer upgrades are out of the question.