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[Spinning Welshman]

Hey guys, this is my first post in the life advice forums (if this isn't the place to post this, then please tell me to take my nonsense elsewhere. 

Ok, so my computer is getting a little long in the tooth, and I want to start phasing in hardware upgrades, I wanted to install a two-chip 8GB RAM combo to boost it up from it's currently quite pathetic 2 GB, but I found out that my motherboard can't handle more than 4. So it looks like a new motherboard is in order.

I thought something like this would do the trick:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A78LMUSB3/

I can get that one fairly cheaply. However, I know next to nothing about motherboards, So I thought asking the advice of a forum somewhere that seems to contain relatively intelligent specimens of humanity would be a good idea. I want to upgrade for gaming purposes primarily, so my question is, what are the pros and cons of the motherboard I've listed, and do you guys have any useful info or alternative suggestions?

Thanks for your time. 

[ISP]

I have the m4.

Con is probably the intergrated graphics, its not going to hold up if your wanting to play some of the newer stuff thats graphics intensive, and if you get a graphics card its not going to function independantly (at least from what I know of the m4) (though I'm not even sure if thats even possible at all)

My nearly stock m4 (added an ati radeon hd-4350 graphics card and 2x 4gb ram chips) can run just about anything I throw at it well, m5 should treat you right if you treat it right.

Otherwise its a solid enough motherboard line for gaming.

[Spinning Welshman]

Ouch, they hid that integrated graphics very well in it's specs. I think not being able to add what videocards i choose makes this a no-go. Thanks. 

So the search for a motherboard continues. Any suggestions?

[Tellemurius]

what is your processor before i give you some tips?

[ISP]

You can add any graphics cards compatable for the expansion slots on the board.

I'm also very sure there are some good graphics cards compatale for those slots.

You have about as much choice if you pick other motherboards, not every graphics card is compatable with every motherboard, the integrated graphics isnt even that bad.

All that squabbles aside over picking Nvidia or ATI, your probably not going to visually tell the difference in similarly rated cards by how they look, just how they fuck up.

[foil]

If the motherboard only supports 4GB then its probably not worth upgrading past 4GB.

The cpu will be quite old being in a 4GB max motherboard, its probaby not worth even upgrading.  Once you upgrade the mobo for 8GB you will need to then reinstall windows to a 64 bit version to support more than 4GB anyways.  Not really worth hastle if cpu and gfx are old now.

Might be worth just saving a bit and buying a whole new pc, or even going to 4GB would give big difference vs expensive upgrade for a bit more ram but same performance in apps.

[gimlet]

If you live in a city with a Microcenter, they usually have some AWESOME deals.  I just got a AMD 965T Black + ASROCK 970DE3/U3S3 AM3+ mobo for $120 total, and there were even cheaper/better for gaming combos.  I had a choice of the 965/FX4100/or 1040T at that price.

Three other big questions:
What's your current CPU and what are you thinking of upgrading to.
What OS are you running - 32 bit versions are gonna be limited to 4G no matter how much you stuff in the mobo
What is your goal for the system - heavy graphical gaming(and which games), just office and websurf, video conversions,

And to confirm, I have a couple of the ASUS M4A78LT series too and they take an add-in graphics card just fine.

[Spinning Welshman]

Ok, so a few things:

I have an upgrade to 64bit planned anyway, that's no problem.

I already said that I want to upgrade everything, I just don't have the cash to do it all at once, so leaving certain parts of my computer without an upgrade temporarily is inevitable, and yes, it is far cheaper this way than just buying a whole new computer.

Ok, so you guys are saying that the integrated graphics won't have any effect on any graphics upgrades I choose to make? Will a motherboard with integrated graphics have the same video card port adaption as one without?

on the nvidia vs ati debate I've never used an ati, but i've had good experiences with nvidia, so i'd probably get a newer nvidia when time and cash come to upgrade my graphics.

My processor is a fairly mediocre pentium dual-core running at 2.7ghz. Again, I plan on upgrading that when I have the cash. I just decided that the motherboard should come first, and RAM is cheap, so I can do that soon too. The rest will have to wait for now.

My goal is definitely graphical gaming. It's the only thing I do on my comp that you can't do on a netbook.  Thanks for the tips, guys 

I hope the info I've put here is useful.

Edit: I live neither in a city or in the US, so decent shops aren't really available. Usually I can find better deals online than anything within a decent driving distance of me.

[Blargityblarg]

I'd recommend saving for the parts to build a whole computer and buying them all at once; you're less likely to have incompatibilities or for one part to have become outdated in the interim. Furthermore, better specs get cheaper as time goes on; buying an i5 or whatever today will likely run you more than buying an i5 at the point in the future when you can afford to buy the rest of your PC too.

[gimlet]

The add-on graphics card you buy will come with its own set of ports - you'll be plugging into those after you get it set up.

What I usually have to do - plug the monitor into the on-board graphics port, then on ASUS you hit the DEL key to get you into the BIOS when it's booting.  On the M4A78 you can pick internal primary, add-on card primary, pci bus card primary and if you pick any non-internal graphics you have the option to turn the internal graphics compeltely off or keep it on to use with a 2nd/3rd monitor.  On the M4A78 they used some crazy code like PGG-IGX0-PCIX or something indecipherable, but it's in the manual (and you can download the manual from their site in case you misplace it).   Anyway assuming you pick "add-on primary" you move the monitor cable to the port on the add-on card and reboot.  And then you're set and don't have to mess with that any more.

And yea, there's a lot to be said for "save up and do it all in a big bang".  For one thing a motherboard change is almost always a reinstall of Windows and each and every application, I really resist doing that until absolutely necessary (although maybe never again if my Virtual Machine scheme works out).  OTOH if you're gonna do this mainly within a few months, that's not so crazy either, you can wait for an awesome sale price on the stuff you're holding off on. 

Also Intel really completely dominates the top end.  As long as you're planning to stay in the midrange you can find some pretty decent deals on AMD stuff, but the last few generations they've been really disappointing with anything above that especially for gaming

[ISP]

I'm gonna go shoot myself in the foot, got caught in a search for information cycle about Nvidia ATI compatability and got lost in youtube watching very quiet tutorials.

You buy a whole new computer your still gonna end up rooting around in the thing to pull out useless manufactuer(holy hell I cant spell) programs.

[Tellemurius]

I'm gonna go shoot myself in the foot, got caught in a search for information cycle about Nvidia ATI compatability and got lost in youtube watching very quiet tutorials.

You buy a whole new computer your still gonna end up rooting around in the thing to pull out useless manufactuer(holy hell I cant spell) programs.

which is why theres a program called Decrapifier to delete that nonsense

[foil]

That motherboard wont work with a Pentium as its designed for AMD cpu.

Also if you want to keep using the current Pentium for a while then you will need to get an outdated motherboard that supports it, which will then mean you cant really upgrade to a decent modern fast cpu later..

You will end up spending 3/4 of a full upgrade money only to get a tiny performance increase vs getting whole new system that will have 6-10x the performance of the current system for little more cash.

Its just not worth upgrading some older computers when the cost of a new build will work out almost the same.

[Spinning Welshman]

Thanks guys, you've given me alot of helpful info here. 

I'm aware of the fact that it would be ideal to get all the upgrades in one go, my problem with that is the likelihood of being able to save up that much money without it vanishing into other expenses. Which is purely a matter of money management, but it's still a bit of a stumbling block. 

At least a few of the concerns over motherboards are resolved if boards with internal graphics can still support the same kind of cards other boards can, barring individual compatibility issues, of course.

Ok, so that makes choosing motherboards a bit easier. (and thanks foil for that last bit of information, very useful!  ) Now, say I wanted to go for a processor and videocard (ideally with the potential to add a second to run in SLI/Crossfire, whatever that particular brand of card calls twin videocard operation) And say I was aiming for stuff that would hopefully have a reasonable lifespan before becoming redundant. Any tips? I'm a little bit out of touch with the cutting edge.

Edit: I am, given the quality of my current set-up, pretty much looking at a whole new build, eventually, It's just how to go about that with limited finances, really.

[foil]

Tho you could get a decent motherboard/cpu/ram bundle for under £170 on ebay and is a cheap way to get to a decent 4-6 core cpu and 8GB ram if the rest of the pc works with it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-FX-4100-QUAD-CORE-X4-CPU-MOTHERBOARD-8GB-DDR3-MEMORY-RAM-BUNDLE-COMBO-KIT-/350601970834

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-i3-2100-3-1GHz-Dual-Core-CPU-8GB-DDR3-Motherboard-Bundle-/360439641884

SLI is overhyped imo since any decent single gfx card should easily play all games on max settings, Even my 2 year old HD 5850 plays 95% of my mountain of games max settings @ 1080p.  I doubt i will need to upgrade my pc for gaming again until maybe 1/2 way through the next generation of consoles.

Any modern cpu and mid range gfx card will easily play current and future games at decent or max gfx settings, my computer was only £450 a year ago and except for 3 games, plays the other 60 odd flat out with max settings.  You dont need to spend piles of cash to get a powerful gaming machine if you shop about.

Best to buy a bundle for £150 now to get to a new platform, then buy a decent gfx card and psu for £150 in a while and end up with modern top end gaming pc for £300.