Asus,EVGA,or Gigabyte Mobos?

[jeepster4me]

Hiya,

Asus,EVGA,or Gigabyte Mobos?A ll these questions below shoild deal with which Mobo best fits my needs.

Would the newer than my four year old ECS (350w) board require more Power to the newer Mobo's when I add a PCI-E, 4GB DDR2 memory, a few PCI slots along with a 550-600w PSU?

I am thinking about rebuilding my old computer. I bought it barebones online with a ATX case with 350 power supply. This was about five years ago.
Now, with new powerful software/hardware to deal with, I was wondering if I could use the same case and put 550w or 600w PSU in my olod case, I guess it depends if it would fit,unless there is another reason not to use the old case. fan issue,,there is one side case fan.
I use memory hungry photoshop and edit my Jpgs/PSD files as well as taking all my old CD's and converting them to MP3 for storage. For that, I was thinking of a 500 or 750 GB External hard drive,and a 200 or 320 GB HD for the Computer. Would I have to place all my applications
(photoshop, etc., also on my external HD or just the files I make to back them up?

I am not a gamer, I just listen to music, edit my digital pictures and want a decent, faster, more up to date system. I don't need SLi or dual PCi-e cards.

It gets confusing if I should even get a PCi-E graphics card or get a Mobo with onboard, same with audio,some come with or without.

If I'm also going to be editing Video, would the onboard card be fine? Or does that mean having to concentrate on a Video Capture card? :confused:
________________________________________
what I want....

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6600,

Asus P5N -E Mobo,
EVGA or
Gigabyte MoBo ( NEVER a ECS eliteboard again, crashed after 2 years!)

4 GB DDR2 Ram,
2 or 3 drives - 1 Combo CD-RW and 1 DVD-RW Burner

550 w ATX Antec

Mobo Hard drive - 200 or 320GB For O.S. applications, etc.

I'm getting an external HD to help with overheating. Maybe add more fans on the case, or just buy a new case with the PSU and the USB, audio jacks on the front of case. Thanks for any help!

[Train]

Capture card, normally used to transfer vcr tapes to the hdd.

I do a lot of video work and AGP/PCI-E cards work for me.
AGP is a old All in Wonder card. But will be first to admit, the newer rig with teh PCI-E video card will play the videos a lot better. Probably end up getting a new ATI 1950 PCI-E video card.

[Rocketmech]

Go with PCI-e , its the best bang for your buck . Onboard video is okay at best , but video/photo editing will be enhanced by a better gpu and monitor . Onboard audio is adequate for average usage . If you like to use your pc as an audio source for recording or listening to music, then there are better solutions available that will make a real difference . At minimum look at the Chaintech AV-710 (http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75454) . You may want to look at M-Audio , EMU , X-Fi or Auzentech for something higher end .
A 500-600w ATX psu will be fine and will fit in a ATX case same as the old psu . Just be sure to select a quality psu .

Plan on installing all your programs on the internal hard drive and using the external for data storage . ;)

[jeepster4me]

As far as the PSU, maybe an INTEL Core2 Duo like a E6600. I was going to go with AMD,but heard that Intel is good, more $$,but better graphics? Not sure.

So a good PCI-E like a Radeon,EVGA 8600GT would be able to "capture" the Camcorder C tapes. And I would have to get a Capture card like Pinnacle to edit VCR Tapes. OK.

Does it matter if I get the new DDR2 or DDR3 256MB or 512MB Graphic PCi-E cards? Much difference? I just want to be ahead of the game...I'm still using GeForce MX440,with 256 RAM,and a AMD 2.0 CPU!

On the case power supply, I also heard that some cases are wattage compliable with their onboard case PSU? is that ****? I'd hate to crash another Mobo.

THANK YOU FOR NOT SHAMING ME FOR INEXPERIENCE.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Most of the new PCIE cards use DDR3 memory. Thats a current standard now for rthese cards.. Only in the previous genration cards,more then llikely without PCIE and a higher end AGP card uses DDR2.

Yes, considering the price and prformance and all the latest cards, like the 8600GT you mentioned are great and will work fine for your needs. Best to get one of these rather then a previous card model i think. They have later shader modeling and are more recent DX9 and 10 capable... That way you will not run into any issues down the road.

The CPU choice is up to you. Either will work fine. I just ordered a higher end X2, even though most will swear by the C2Dual. Just a matter of each having different architecture. Both use the lastest DDR2 platform and PCIE cards.
I would look at the ATI cards, as they seem to have the lead still in capture, and video rendering outside the box.

Please..! upgrade your memory boy..LOL prices are just sick in a good way.. cheap cheap cheap... Nows not the time to make do with 256. "Geeze.. Louise" my first oldest computer had at least 512. Come to think about it, my first rig had the old RDram memory.. and it got some more at the time to make it like 690 or some such.

So much in thes forums about PSU's. read some her and there. Go to sites like 'Tom's Hardware' or even retailers and reqad reviews. You can learn alot that way. 500-600 will do fine. Some just have more hookups and are better brands. simple enough.
Cases with PSU included are often not the best Power supplies. Keep tht in mind. If ya bouhgt a Thermaltake,CoolerMaster, or well known and good case maker ,tehn included PSU's are probably OK, as they use thier own. ;)

Shame>>?? myself, i don't criticize anybody for questioning anything. So many expets here it seems.. always will be. Any question other then nonsense is a good question. everybody learns something Jeep.. even little ole me.. it will tkae me ten lifetimes to fully understand all there is in computer tech. Far too mcuh out there for feeble minds and even experts.. LOL