Mainboard, Graphics Card And Ram For New System

[weary]

My Nvidia 8600GT popped three capacitors last night and my system overall is getting too old to be reliable anymore, it's just a question of time before the mainboard caves in as well.

I am now looking to use the case (CoolerMaster midtower), power supply (Enermax Liberty 500W) and hard disks: 1.5 TB WD green, 1 TB WD green, 750 TB WD green, 400 GB WD...

...as well as an Intel E7500 CPU I have bought for the purpose, as the basis for a new system.

So I am shopping for a new mainboard, a new graphics card and some RAM for the setup.

My main use of the machine will be "NAS-like" - a 24/7 type setup with downloading from the Internet, and my media accessible from other LAN devices. I also want to do some x264 encoding on occasion, Photoshopping, and basic web surfing with 10-15 tabs at a time. The computer is not intended as a HTPC or as a gaming rig - neither of these two are important areas of usage.

Reliability, relatively low power consumption and not too noisy would be nice. Performance is not crucial, except that the networking part has to be sturdy and not crash during fairly heavy load.

My budget for the mainboard, RAM and graphics card is max 12,000 baht. Preferably less than 10,000.

What would you recommend for this type of use, and why, bearing in mind it has to be compatible with my existing E7500 CPU?

Thanks a lot in advance for any suggestions.

Edited October 6, 2009 by weary

[weary]

Looks like nobody has been shopping for such a system lately...?

I have put together two options myself, would appreciate any thoughts on these choices if somebody has the time.

1:

Mainboard: BioStar TP43D2-A7 Intel P43/ICH10 Chipset Mainboard for Intel Socket 775 Retail (2590 baht)

Graphics card: ASUS ENGTS250 DK/DI/512MD3 GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3 256-bit DVI HDCP PCIe2.0 Retail (4740 baht)

Memory: Geil Ultra Plus Series 240 Pin 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 1066 PC2-8500 CL5 RAM Retail (2180 baht)

Total: 9510 baht

2:

Mainboard: ASUS "P5QL-E" Intel P43/ICH10R Chipset Mainboard for Intel LGA 775 CPU Retail (3680 baht)

Graphics card: XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3 256-bit Dual DVI TV-Out PCI-Express Retail (5140 baht)

Memory: Geil Black Dragon Gaming Series 240 Pin 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 1066 PC2-8500 CL5 RAM Retail (2080 baht)

Total: 10900 baht

Edited October 7, 2009 by weary

[spacemunk]

Gigabyte "GA-EP45-UD3R Rev1.1" Intel P45/ICH10R Chipset Mainboard for Intel LGA 775 - 4,140.00 บาท

Kingston HyperX Series 240 Pin 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 1066 CL5 RAM Retail - 2,480.00 บาท

XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3 256-bit Dual DVI TV-Out PCI-Express Retail - 5,140.00 บาท

Total - 11,760 บาท

Gigabyte UD Series boards proved to be stable.

im using the MA790GP-UD4H good board but very expensive.

The 3 i selected is the best combo so far

Edited October 7, 2009 by spacemunk

[weary]

Thanks, that motherboard and graphics card do look good.

But 2 x 2GB RAM sticks would only make sense for a 64 bit system, right? At least I have read 32 bit systems will only detect 3GB of RAM, is this correct? I am not sure I want to go 64 bits yet, it seems that most software is still developed mainly for 32 bits.

[Crushdepth]

But 2 x 2GB RAM sticks would only make sense for a 64 bit system, right? At least I have read 32 bit systems will only detect 3GB of RAM, is this correct? I am not sure I want to go 64 bits yet, it seems that most software is still developed mainly for 32 bits.

Yes, but nearly all 32 bit software runs on 64 bit machine, and you gain the advantage of the extra RAM. I've been running 64 bit windows for 3 years and very rarely had a problem. Only the occasional piece of crapware written by hardware vendors, the kind of stuff you throw away anyway.

[spacemunk]

Thanks, that motherboard and graphics card do look good.

But 2 x 2GB RAM sticks would only make sense for a 64 bit system, right? At least I have read 32 bit systems will only detect 3GB of RAM, is this correct? I am not sure I want to go 64 bits yet, it seems that most software is still developed mainly for 32 bits.

even if all 32bit operating systems detect 3gb of ram , doesnt hurt to have a matched pair of rams

and that xtra 1gb of ram would be handy if you intend to upgrade to windows 7 64bit

Edited October 10, 2009 by spacemunk

[weary]

Thanks again spacemunk, and thanks to Crushdepth too for chipping in.

Looks like that is what I will be getting then. Will probably come back and pester you again if I run into any issues.

[weary]

Ok, sorted! Got all those parts now.

Now I am wondering what would a good OS drive be for this system.

I'd like something small and reasonably fast that isn't too loud. And the price should be right... any ideas?

[spacemunk]

INTEL SSD X25-M 80GB - USD$325

or

If you could find a 80GB 7200rpm IDE drive would do

Edited October 12, 2009 by spacemunk