Buy a new motherboard, or buy a barebones computer?

Question

I've been researching the best way to fix up my computer for quite awhile, and due to various reasons, I'm against buying a new computer entirely. I've come to the conclusion that I'll need a new motherboard. I plan to replace pretty much everything on the computer (save for perhaps the video card, if I can) so obviously a new motherboard would be a good answer.

However I was told that perhaps buying a new barebones computer would be better. Is there really any incentive to buying a barebones computer over just purchasing a new motherboard, and replacing it with the one in my current PC?

And finally, should I choose to just buy the motherboard, are there any resources I can look through to help me purchase the right motherboard for my needs? I plan to do some home-based audio recording, nothing too demanding. I already have an idea of what I'll need in terms or memory, CPU, etc.

Answer 1

Buy a full featured motherboard with all the tweaking options if you want to get the best performance from your set up. Check out ASUS or Gigabyte:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_List.aspx?VenderType=Intel&CPUType=socket+775

Answer 2

If you're just going to do homebased audio recording, and surf the net, plus maybe some Microsoft office stuff, you don't need a X38 chipset based mobo, or an Intel Core2 Duo. Still it would be nice! How about a Biostar mobo, that uses DDR2 ram, 4GB ram support, has one PCI-Express x16 slot, one PCI-Express x1 slot, and two PCI slots, support for up to a Core2 Duo at 1066FSB, and comes with an Intel Pentium D dual core, 3.0GHz for $104.99? Ram from GSkill, 2x 1GB sticks of DDR2 533MHz with heat spreaders-$47.00

1.Mobo/cpu combo: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3311757&CatId=1599
2.Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231018

Answer 3

I wouldn't buy a barebones bacause i like to pick my own casing/power supply unit but if they offer ones u like then go for it ^^ Based on your needs i will say spending less than $400 and most importantly a 'spend and forget' solution for the next years in terms of upgrade options would be the most cost effective and efficient solution :P So assuming that you are doing surfing, word processing/spreadsheet and audio/media stuff this is a combo that i feel would be a best fit solution and offer outstanding upgrade options in the future:

Mobo:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-M3A-AMD-770-CHIPSET-ATX-Socket-AM2-Phenom-QC-New_W0QQitemZ330200097802QQihZ014QQcategoryZ149173QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103774&CMP=OTC-d3alcatch3r

Graphics Card
http://cgi.ebay.com/Radeon-HD-2600-XT-512-MB-GDDR3-PCI-Express-1-Day-Sale_W0QQitemZ150200635278QQihZ005QQcategoryZ40158QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Power Supply:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cooler-Master-Real-Power-450W-Computer-Power-Supply_W0QQitemZ280187266388QQihZ018QQcategoryZ3666QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

RAM:
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-x-1GB-PC6400-DDR2-800MHz-PC2-6400-LOW-DENSITY-MEMORY_W0QQitemZ150199104021QQihZ005QQcategoryZ74942QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hard Disk, DVD drives, LCD, kb+mouse reused from old system and total cost should be about $USD300 all in with a healthy upgrade path? Maybe you could even reuse old power supply/RAM but they are so darned cheap these days hehe. Cheers

Answer 4

Gofor Motherboard instead of Barbones P.c.....

But u hav 2 gofor things like this....

Intex X35 Chipset Gigabyte DQ6 Mother board...
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 or 2.66Ghz Processor...
DDRII 800Mhz 1 or 2 GB of Ram...

Answer 5

just get a bare bones from tigerdirect.com. that way you won't have to fuss with the surgery and you'll get a shiney new case, all for about the same price.