Micro ATX Motherboards

[Deleted]

So I currently have this system, and after nearly four years it's showing its wear. I'm getting massive FPS crashes and freeze ups, so I'm thinking about upgrading. The system came from a site called Overclockers, which I've heard very good things about, so I've been looking at replacing the major components with hardware from there too.

The CPU, motherboard and RAM comes in this pre configured bundle, which features this motherboard. I'm fairly confident about replacing most of the parts, but the motherboard is my main concern. My current motherboard isn't a micro ATX board, and I'm concerned about how easily it will be to replace one with the other, in terms of actually fixing them in and whatnot.

I'm also looking at adding this graphics card, and this HDD and this SSD in a RAID0 configuration. Would the motherboard be able to accommodate them? I haven't found anything which would suggest otherwise, but I'd like to be certain before I start spending money. I have thought about simply replacing the graphics card, but throwing a 2GB card onto a system still running on DDR2 RAM seems a very ineffective solution, and I don't think it'd fix a lot of the problems I'm experiencing.

Cheers.

[prankstar]

whats your current case does it support micro atx boards.
also avoid overclockers they overcharge for delivery are considerably more expensive when buying from them for example take a look at http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...d1002faex.html all your other items are cheaper too they also do free delivery and brilliant customer service

[yurano]

My current motherboard isn't a micro ATX board

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=2755#sp

Micro ATX form factor; 24.4cm x 22.5cm

I don't see what the problem is.

Why would you RAID 0 a SSD and why would you get a Caviar Black for such an underpowered system?

[chazus]

My current motherboard isn't a micro ATX board

Er, yes it is.

I'm also looking at adding this graphics card, and this HDD and this SSD in a RAID0 configuration.

You can't put those in RAID0. Furthermore, skip the Black drive and get a Blue or Green, if you're going to get an SSD. Yes, the board will support it.

I have thought about simply replacing the graphics card, but throwing a 2GB card onto a system still running on DDR2 RAM seems a very ineffective solution, and I don't think it'd fix a lot of the problems I'm experiencing.

A 'system with ddr2 ram' is .. not related really to buying a card. You could certainly get that card now if you want, and when you upgrade the board, just put it in the new board. PCI-E is PCI-E for the most part.

[Deleted]

I feel slightly foolish now. Thanks for the clarification on the motherboards, I really wasn't aware. As for the RAID 0, part of the logic was that I could add in my current hard drive if I needed to do so. The reason for the Caviar Black is that I need a lot of storage space so the extra £30 for double the storage seemed worth it, is this wrong? And if I don't use RAID 0 what do I do? Is it as simple as just plugging them both in?

As for the DDR2 RAM, yes, I understand that I could just plug the card in, though I think the performance issues I'm currently experiencing mean that I wouldn't get too much benefit if I were to just stick in a new high powered card.

[Xs]

whats your current case does it support micro atx boards.
also avoid overclockers they overcharge for delivery are considerably more expensive when buying from them for example take a look at http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...d1002faex.html all your other items are cheaper too they also do free delivery and brilliant customer service

As much as I can attest to overclockers having issues, I wouldn't poo-poo them that badly, they have a much more gamer focused team (which is probably why they have some service issues lol)

In the UK it mostly comes down to your location, if you're in Leeds you can get things cheap from CCL by dropping in store, Novatech in Soton and a few other places, Overclockers you can get @ their HQ or if you go to LAN events they attend you can usually get a 10% discount, lower/zero delivery charge and you get to chat with people before hand etc.

Once you know what you want though, make sure you check out SCAN/Overclockers/Novatech/CCL Computers and any more places you can find, for instance I got my 660 Ti at the recent iSeries event at 10% below RRP, no delivery and included £100 F2P credit, AC3, Tomb Raider, Dirt: showdown, Bioshock:Inf and Shogun:2 which I'd say is well worth

TL:DR; £250 graphics card was £42 at Overclockers, don't buy before you've done your research