Gonna catch some flak for sure but need advice

[duff021]

i am on a serious budget and cannot afford to spend lots, my comp is on its death throes having pushed it as far as i can it is a first gen dual core, till last year i could play most games and even now it can play modern games on lowest settings but even SWTOR will crash on occasion, i can use my case, ram, hdd's, Video card, disc drive and i have a decent 750w psu. but i must have a new mobo and proc. i can afford to waste money on a triple core proc that i will toss when i can afford better but i want a mobo that will last me i want an am3+, i only have $200 to spend on the both of them i found an am3 proc for $70 an athlon II x4 640 95w 45nm, which leaves me $130 ish for the board. can anyone suggest a board i do want to try OCing and i want to be able to put in decent ram down the road and a sweet proc as well i may try the crossfire and/or SLI but know little about both i am a total noob but my comp is my total ent package i play games watch tv and movies, what are my options

[PoLoMoTo]

Pwease fill in your current specs

[duff021]

wow i am ashamed to tell you lol, to be honest i can't tell you much, most i bought while still learning i have no clue what my ram is just that i have 5gb it had 2gb, didn't know the diff between 32 and 64 bit os so only 4 register sometimes only 3 sometimes all 5, my vid is a msi gforce gts 250 i know it sucks but it lets me play around with oc and was a huge jump from what i had, power supply is an ultra LSP pro 750w hard drives are a hitachi hdt725025vla 250g, and an aftermarket samsung hd 1035j 1tb don't know what mobo but my proc is a athlon 64 x2 4200+.

[grumpydaddy]

I know jack about amd but I think your processor is am2 socket and therefore you have ddr2.

am3, that you propose for an upgrade, is ddr3 is it not?

I have a feeling that you may need to get ram too if you do this but others may know different.

The OS if it is not retail will need to be replaced too

$200 just about gets you a combo deal on an a10 5800K plus a MB but again you will need ram which will add $40-50 for 8G

[duff021]

i am hoping the spare parts i will rip from current computer will do for a few weeks i will need to buy parts each payday but need something that works now i literally can't wait till i have all the money i need at once my computer wont last that long it's about 8 years old now i think and howls i have so many programs going to suck ever bit of performance out of what i have just to keep it going such as g boost and wise memory optimizer just to run star wars the old republic and my other games if i had to i could get a stick of ram for now i am hoping to use my vista till i can get windows 7 or 8

[duff021]

I know jack about amd but I think your processor is am2 socket and therefore you have ddr2.

am3, that you propose for an upgrade, is ddr3 is it not?

I have a feeling that you may need to get ram too if you do this but others may know different.

The OS if it is not retail will need to be replaced too

$200 just about gets you a combo deal on an a10 5800K plus a MB but again you will need ram which will add $40-50 for 8G

mine is from 2004 and is a 939 i just remembered that because at the time triple cores were my option for upgrading and i had to look up my motherboard which was easier when my computer was new

[SamCR3]

The Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 is a decent, inexpensive am3+ board. I have one but to be honest I don't like it nearly as well as my crosshair v but that a lot more dough. Whatever you do get a 990FX board. And yes you will need to upgrade you memory and os too. Start buying parts for your new build and wait to tear down your old rig.

[Doctor_Death]

Sending you a PM

[TeeBlack]

if you live near a MicroCenter then you can get one of the Cpu/Motherboard combos at a good price.