HKS Franky500

Welcome Brian. Sounds like you'll fit right in with this lot!. Except maybe Extreme and Daddyo... Foreigners you know...!

Speed isn't everything, do you have the exact 2 models you are torn between? And whats the intended usage? Pure gaming? mixed daily usage (check the web, emails, some gaming, Maybe some word documents), Video editing?

ahh the old take everything out and put it all back and find out the issue was the little things. how fun those days are!

Hey if we treated our stuff nicely no one would need to go to yours!

My nearest beach, slight contrast to yours... Also the tide seems to be out.

seen him before, pretty good stuff.

one of us was young back then 🙂

Sorry to hear about your Dad Matt. Best wishes, See you soon

hey i actually quite like my job at the moment, it wasn't me!

So one of the distribution warehouses of the company i work for is slightly up in flames... Fortunately for me it is around 100 miles from my depot and only affects 10% of the deliveries to the depot i work from, so i have a job! but its a massive fire affecting anyone that works people and houses nearby being evacuated for explosion risks. so far no injuries or missing people so its just property but damn! I may find myself being busier than normal and not on as much while our depot takes on some slack....

i see SgtYork was in his place on that day! 😄 Golf Ball!

i still think the kids need to be walking to school

that would work well, could probably find a cheaper option but that one would work, be aware though that although it says 2x PCIE it actually only has 1 full size PCIE slot on it. BUt has onboard graphics so there is that as a backup

careful of the micro ATX ones in those links, they will work it'll just be tight, also bear in mind the sound options as before.

well any AM3+ ATX Motherboard will take the rest of your components, so depends on if you use any of the asus specific special features (probably not) otherwise the features you have on that board are pretty standard so for your situation i would just pick any Asus, Gigabyte or MSI motherboard that was AM3+ and cheap! there is no point spending a fortune as when you are ready to upgrade from that system you will have to get a new motherboard again due to a very likely change in CPU socket (as well as the move to DDR4). The only thing to double check for standard use i would say is sound, if you use surround sound ensure that it has all 6 jack ports available on the new one, if you don't use surround and only plug in to 1 speaker 1 mic socket anyway (or use USB) then it won't matter to you. You may also want to get a board with on board graphics (sometimes these actually come cheaper) although be warned you may have to do some extra software configuration (not usually, and its normally just a simple bios or windows setting change if there is). Feel free to have a browse at your proffered store and link them here and i'll happily recommend one from a list. Be careful not to accidently get a Micro ATX or Ultra ATX board as they are smaller and although they will have most of the same features on board they can often come with less ram slots and are cramped together tightly so if you have overhanging parts (like the graphics card can) it can be a real pain to make things physically fit. Ideally if your case can fit it, go for an E-ATX which is about 25% larger than a normal ATX board and just gives more space between things and again sometimes Extra slots / ports for things and saves some messing with fiddly bits (again depending on how big your case is anyway...) if in doubt, stick with ATX. You will probably have options for a "970" chipset or a "990fx" chipset Generally the higher that number the more features it has, usually its high end specific features that get added, perhaps a better on board sound card or more SATA connections, Extra PCI-E slot(s) extra ram slots, things like that. Sometimes a custom bit of kit that does insignificant things for daily use added. so unless you intend to pimp your ride (which i don't think you do) the 970 versions will be just fine.