> Ok...I just want to make sure I understand you guys. You're basically > saying that I can go buy a new mobo that has PCI-X for graphics that I can > drop my P4 3.0 GHz CPU into and then later upgrade that puppy to dual/quad > core? I'd have to upgrade both memory, graphics card, and PS right? Only > memory at first, though, right? > > I'm asking because i'm starting to get a little tired of sucking so much > hind tit, these days. However, I need my upgrades to be very, very > meaningful, or such I say impactful.
Not unless your current CPU is a S-478, in which you're kinda SOL since the Socket 478 PCI-E mobos aren't all that great. A nice "go between" mobo would be the Asrock 775 VSTA, which takes an LGA775 CPU (both P4s and Core 2s) and gives you the flexibility of AGP + PCI-E, DDR + DDR2. It won't overclock quite as well as say an eVGA 680i or a Gigabyte DS3, but people seem to like it. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092 So I guess you could say no the memory and graphics upgrades. What PSU do you have currently? If it's a 20-pin with a strong 12V rail, you should be alright since you can get MOLEX -> 6-pin PCI-E adapters to sate a more power hungry PCI- E card and most 24-pin mobos don't mind running with just 20-pins. You'll have to watch out for PCI-E graphics cards that don't have a separate power connector though, since they'll try to suck power from the unconnected 4 ATX pins. I guess one last thing would be that it might be beneficial to dump your older RAM now before RAM prices start to dip even further. I did exactly that in Dec and got top dollar for my Crucial DDR400 - switched to Kingston DDR2-667. Hope this helps :) -- Jin-Wei Tioh "Without C, there'd be BASI, PASAL, and OBOL"