Hey Folks,

I currently run the following system:

ASUS P5NSLI
Dual core E6400
4 GIG G.Skill PC6400 (800mhz)
BFG 320mb 8800 GTS OC
500GB Maxtor HD (failing-buying new one)

I would like to upgrade my motherboard. I curently use a dual core, but would like to upgrade in the future to a quad core. The reason i am upgrading as i am using XP right now, but would like to switch to Vista - but currently think some of my hardware is causing issues with it. I know this might not be nescessarily true, but i still like to use that as an excuse to get a new toy!!!

Sooo, my new board would ideally be someting that can handle all my current parts...but also be able to be upgraded in the future...ie would like to get a quad core, another vid card, better sound card etc...

So is there a motherboard you guys can suggest...but my main problem is that, as a college student, im on a rather short budget... i would like to find something under 150 or so. If its under 120-130 that would be great - obviously im not looking for the best quality board, but something standard that will do well for the future too. (meanign next 2-3 years ie one more ram/cpu upgrade).

I am currently looking at the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130159R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130175R

What do you guys think of these? Any good - are there any others you guys could suggest?

Also, i have a old maxtor hd that is currently failing ... i have run a test and it failed, so im pretty sure its going to die on me in the coming weeks. I have backups made every couple of days with norton ghost, so im not concerned about when it does die, i just need a replacement to restore my ghost images to.

So, im looking at inexpensive drives, abotu 200-400gb as much more is silly, but as i have 500gb now, its nice to have, and if the price is right ill pay more for a few more GB's.

I looked at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148309

What should i look for in a fairly decent drive? buffer? rpm obviously, altho in my price range that is out of the question for anything higher than 7200...

Any help with the above, that would be great.

Thank you!

I don't see anything wrong with the current motherboard that you have except that it doesn't support quad core. Depending on what you do with your computer, a dual core should handle a lot of things.

Also, since you are on a budget, you should probably wait. You might see some nice price drops in processors and motherboards with the release of Nehalem.

By the way, the link to the 2nd motherboard says the product is deactivated.

Not sure why you picked that hard drive. This one is $20 cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262