AMD Athlon 64 3800+ or AMD Opteron 275 Dual-Core?

Can I buy a barebone motherboard and put the graphics adapter, ethernet controller, sound card, RAM (DDR2), everything except for the processor and buy the processor you suggested and install it on there?

If so, please suggest a barebone motherboard.

 

The board I just listed includes all of that except the CPU and the RAM. To my knowledge you already have some DDR2 RAM, so all you need to get is the board and the processor.

 

That's great.

But I don't want a weaker graphics adapter so can I buy that motherboard and put in my existing graphics adapter instead of the other one? And if the one you suggested has a terrible sound card or ethernet controller can I change that too?

What about the the Gigabyte GA-EG31M-S2 board, are thegraphics weaker than mine? Can I change the graphics, sound adapter and ethernet controller if I need/want to? Does it have DDR2 slots?

Sorry for too many questions.

Yes I have 2GB of DDR2 RAM.

 

Your existing graphics adapter is integrated, so you won't be able to transfer it to a new motherboard. Your best option is to buy a separate graphics card and use that instead, it will be far more powerful than the integrated graphics on any motherboard. Here's an example of something cheap that will get the job done:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127368
The sound and ethernet controllers on that board are fine so you don't need to change those.

The board has DDR2 slots which you can use with your existing memory, however, it only has two slots, so for you to use 2GB, you will need to have 2 1GB sticks rather than 4 512MB sticks. Given that you already own a microATX board though, that's what you're more likely to have anyway.

 

Actually my motherboard has four slots and I use 2x 512MB and 1 1GB. I use 3 slots. Does that mean my motherboard is still a microATX?
I have a "HT 2000 MCP61PM-AM" please tell me if this is a microATX.

If it is then I need a motherboard with at least 3 DDR2 slots.
If it isn't please give me a good suggestion which will not be too expensive.

 

No, some microATX boards do have four slots, unfortunately these are typically the more expensive ones, or at least ones that cost more than 50 dollars.
If you're after a decent four slot microATX board then I refer you back to my original suggestion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128085
Be advised though, that using three slots is far less efficient than using four or two. You would be wise to change to either 4x512MB or more practically 2x1GB.

 

What graphics card does that board have? Is it better than mine?

Also is there a cheaper board with four slots,better or equal graphics that will support the intel processor u suggested?

 

a) Intel X3100, it's marginally better.
b) Not that I would recommend. You want a board that won't break, right?

 

Wait, so this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128085
And this processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052
can go together and will fit in my PC?
Oh and do I already have a CPU cooler? Can I use my existing one with the processor above?
Do I need to buy thermal grease?

 

Yes.