Upgrading CPU and Motherboard ........

[gdextreme]

Recently the USB ports of my motherboard failed (discussed here at anadtech in an earlier thread) and so I am buying a new motherboard and also a CPU. I generally use my system for internet surfing, etc and I don't play many games. The requirements are :

1) It should be a microAtx board.

2) 1 PCIe slot for my graphics card.

3) 1 PCI slot for TV Tuner.

4) Should Support DDR2 667mhz RAM as I wiil be reusing the one I have now.

5) I also have a card reader but I don't know the name of port it fits into. I'll post a photograph of it soon.

6) I may overclock my CPU in the future.
7) I will be buying this from India where Gigabyte and Asus boards are only available.

Also the cost at newegg should be a maximum of $70 (so when I buy it here in India it should cost nearly double due to customs duty
I have been looking at some motherboards too and liked Gigabyte GA31M-S2L. What I want to know is this any good? Does this have issues? Are there any revisions, newer versions of this mobo?

 

[o1die]

The g31 may require a bios flash to work with the newer core2 duos. If in doubt, just check the board specs off gigabyte's website and look under "cpu support" for your processor. My card reader is installed on a usb 9 pin port on the 4 pin side, leaving the other 5 pins open.

 

[gdextreme]

Please can you elaborate : "My card reader is installed on a usb 9 pin port on the 4 pin side, leaving the other 5 pins open."

I have checked the Gigabyte website (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...l.aspx?ProductID=2693) and this motherboard supports almost all modern CPUs.

One thing I noticed was that there was a different BIOS version next to different CPUs. Does it mean if in the future I upgrade my CPU I will have to change the BIOS chip?
Also is the BIOS version written on the box?

Does anybody have any experience with overclocking with this motherboard (so I can discuss with him/her the settings, etc). This is the first time I will be overclocking from the BIOS. I have DDR2 667mhz RAM. Will this matter? I mean can I control the RAM overclocks independantly from the CPU overclocks with this motherboard?

 

[o1die]

What I meant was you can use any usb port on your board, if your card reader has a 4 pin connector like mine. You never need to change the bios chip unless it's disabled by a bad bios flash. And don't flash it unless absolutely necessary. I've had a few dead motherboards from bad flashes. Asus has a feature called "crashfree bios program" which can recover from bad flashes. You can copy it to a floppy or usb drive off the motherboard driver cd, along with the bios program you need, to recover from a bad flash. I recommend it if you decide on an asus board.

 

[gdextreme]

I just bought GA G31M-S2L with Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200.