Motherboard selection help

[bigmouk]

Just after a cheapish upgrade to a PC at home. Not used for gaming, mainly programming, converting dv camera footage, streaming music to 360.

Found the following and just need some advice on a motherboard to tie it up ..

Intel Pentium 4 541 Socket 775 3.0GHz 1MB EM64T Box - approx £52 OR ..
Intel Pentium 4 541 Socket 775 3.2GHz 1MB EM64T Box - approx £62

Corsair 512MB 240pin DIMM non-ECC unbuffered CL5 667MHz (PC2-5300) - approx £32

Any advice would be great!

 

[Darren S]

Had you any kind of budget in mind for the mobo, m8?

D.

 

[bigmouk]

Not really Darren, would like to keep the lot under 200 notes ideally. So either mobo for £100 or mobo for £70 with £30 left over for another 512mb. No point going massively over the top because i dont use it for gaming.

There are that many of the bleedin things out there i dont know what is good and what is sh*te !

 

[sneeks]

I'll be interested to read any advice offered because I've been contemplating doing the same.

 

[Griff]

AGP or PCI-E?

 

[bigmouk]

might aswell go for pci-e. may chuck 50 notes at a new graphics card aswell in case that makes a difference ?

 

[Griff]

Not much point tbh mate if you only use it for 2d apps.

 

[bigmouk]

So is it worth just stickin with onboard vga ?, I do have a 128mb Geforce4 cheap card in my old machine that could be used i guess if there is no benefit from a new one.

Im open to any advice on any of it really, cpu, ram, mobo. Just want to keep it under 200 notes for the upgrade.

 

[Darren S]

Personally, the mobo is the single piece of equipment that I try not to cut corners on. The marked improvements in functionality for sometimes as little as £15-£20 more, is really worth it.

I'm a fan of Asus mobos, though I do like MSI as well.

These would be near to the limit of your budget...

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=14561&GroupID=1093

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=11420&GroupID=1093

Though the cheaper ABit one seems fine for your needs, too...

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=13966&GroupID=1093

D.

 

[bigmouk]

I know this is 12 month old and made with gamers in mind but it seems a good buy ? ...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=163197