Right, I am looking for a new motherboard. Needs to support a Q6600 processor, three 2GB DDR2 sticks of memory, an HD4850, a 520 watt PSU, three hard drives, a Xonar Essence STX sound card, at least four USB ports, built in LAN ethernet capability and hopefully room for a wireless card.

I'm aiming to hopefully get a motherboard that is the equivilent of what I have now (ASUS P5Q SE), but for around £30-£40 if possible. Are there any manufacturers other than ASUS that I should try looking in to as well?

I've been told to look for LGA775 motherboards, but to be honest I do not know much about motherboards and would greatly appreciate advice and recommendations.

Please note that this thread is not for discussion as to whether or not I need a new motherboard, only advice and recommendations for getting one. Thanks.

Really anything with LGA775 support that supports 8GB RAM will do. Everything you wish to support is standard for all motherboards, really just pick a motherboard, link us and well say yes. This is probabily the quickest method.

What he said ^^

When looking on sites it will probably have a section "motherboards - Intel - LGA775" or similar.

Gigabyte are good budget motherboards, typically.

Tbh I think what you're asking for doesn't exist, just too many features to be that price.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&sto ... rice=49.99
Take your pick.

Advice: don't go cheap (like PSUs), make sure it has DDR2 not DDR3, Gigabyte are usually good for eco-motherboards

Does your current mobo support yours needs ATM?
It's quite a lot to ask for.

Cheap mobos are alright these days, aslong as you go with a well branded one and a good chipset.

I think he wants to replace due to comp issues.

None of them in the budget range meet the requirements he stated.

Right, the specifications that he needs are:
-Socket 775
-2 PCI-E lanes (One 16x, other 1x)
-Atleast 4 sata inputs
-4 DDR 2 ram slots

From my knowledge it seems that's too much to ask for in a motherboard at £30-40
Op would be best just going with the motherboard he originally had.

What are you talking about? 3 SATA, 4 RAM slots, PCI-E 16x, PCI-E 1x, PCI, USB, LAN... pretty standard for a motherboard at any price.

Feel free to point out the one in that list that has 4 DDR2 ram slots, you missed that requirement out.

Nothing at that budget certainly will, so I merely linked him to his price range so he could see for himself and get the closest match. Besides, I really doubt Metritutus thinks he can get a motherboard for £30-40 at the same specifications as a £70-80 one...

Well those specs are fairly easy to find at £50 ish. Seems the change to i7 has reduced the availability of solid budget motherboards for 775. His current mobo is available for about £60 now, I believe.

Yeah, sadly the advance in technology has made a very reasonable spec motherboard unreasonably expensive.

After some looking and some good advice, I'm currently looking at this motherboard:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174244

Anyone got any thoughts on it/other motherboards they think would be better?

Right then, no one else seems to have any other thoughts on this so I'll probably be ordering this at some point today.

It's ordered. When it arrives I shall post how well the transfer of components goes.

I hate doing this... but... PICS?!!?!?!?!

I'll try, but I don't own a digital camera.

Just a thought... won't you have to buy some TIM or is everything ok in that front.

What is TIM?
I presume it's thermal paste or something like that?

Yeah, thermal paste.

It should be fine.

If you need some, I've got some spare ethanol and TIM. Better safe than sorry to be honest with cooling.

Thanks.

'Courier has arrived.'