Project Reality Forums

Ok I'm not a harware genius so don't laugh at me

1. If I go out and buy a new motherboard will there be a processor installed on that or do I have to buy that on the side?

2. How can I tell if a motherboard fits in my cabinet?

Thanks

Edit: can someone explain a little about the different processors on the market. I.e. What is the technical differences between a multicore processor and the i-processors... Just a link to a good site would be great.

YOu will find your answers here
Seriously though unless specified otherwise the CPU is sold separately. Look what socket the motherboard has to pick the right CPU. Each socket supports a range of CPUs. You also need to buy ram. Again you need to look what RAM your motherboard supports.

This information is usually located on the packing of the motherboard itself.

Then get the CPU it should be sorted by sockets, the faster the cpu the better. Same for the ram, there are less restrictions with ram, although many motherboards will only support ram up to a certain speed.

Also many motherboards thesedays support Dual link ram, that means if you want 4 gigs of ram, buy 2 brackets of 2 gig of ram and install those. The system will access both brackets simultaneously.

What you also might want to consider is if the board has crossfire or SLI support. Crossfire support means you can link 2 ATI cards toegether, SLI support means you can link 2 Nvidia cards toegether. If your card becomes slow instead of selling your old card and buy a new faster card you can grab an old used card at a bargain and almost double your grafic output.

On the good side, many boards have onboard surround sound thesedays so you wont need an extra audiocard and some come even with onboard grafic cards, which are meh though.

Make sure you have enough juice, get a 500 watts Power supply to be on the safe side, 600 or more if you are going to get a demanding system and want to do the sli or crossfire thing at some point.

whoops....

Heh haven't seen that video in ages

Thanks for the answers... cleared some parts of it. Do you happen to know where I can find a good web page for a newbie like me to custom build a computer?

Cassius wrote: Also many motherboards thesedays support Dual link ram, that means if you want 4 gigs of ram, buy 2 brackets of 2 gig of ram and install those. The system will access both brackets simultaneously.

Cassius wrote: What you also might want to consider is if the board has crossfire or SLI support. Crossfire support means you can link 2 ATI cards toegether, SLI support means you can link 2 Nvidia cards toegether. If your card becomes slow instead of selling your old card and buy a new faster card you can grab an old used card at a bargain and almost double your grafic output.

Nice tips there

Thanks again

i strongly advise that you don't build a pc on your own. it's obviously the first time so it would be wise to get some help. can save you a lot of monies

General_J0k3r wrote:i strongly advise that you don't build a pc on your own. it's obviously the first time so it would be wise to get some help. can save you a lot of monies

Yeah I'm definitly not going to build one of my own but I would like some knowledge about it myself

NEWEGG.COM

good place to start.

I have never in my whole life purchased a preassembled computer. Even the first one I built. (worked great until the processor fried from OC, then later one, the mobo died, twice)

PuffNStuff wrote:NEWEGG.COM

good place to start.

I have never in my whole life purchased a preassembled computer. Even the first one I built. (worked great until the processor fried from OC, then later one, the mobo died, twice)

thx puff