hello,for the moment I am using an 'old' X38 motherboard with an intel E8500 cpu and 4 Gb RAM (1333Mhz)Until last night this combo worked perfectly when overclocked to 4,01 Ghz (stock speed is 3,16Ghz).And when I say until, you can guess that something has happened.No, I didn't fry my cpu or motherboard but I still think it's breaking down.Last night, when I booted, the pc rebooted and reset it's default values in the bios.Only after a hard 'reset' could again boot into windows. However, when I tried to reset my bios values to thesettings before the crash, the pc crashed again.After some trial and error the pc runs stable again at 3.60 Ghz. Going higher results in a crash.So to think ahead of a complete system failure, I am considering my possibilities.Logical way forward is buying a new motherboard and CPU.Funds are a bit of a problem at the moment (just booked a vacation to Greece only last week) so I don't have a lot of cash to spend.I was thinking of an intel core i5-860 (about 200 euro's) and a Gigabyte GA-P55-usb3 motherboard.The choice of motherboard was a bit of a problem.I wanted as much USB-ports as possible (the gigabyte gives me 10) and the usb3 is a bonus but not really needed.By sticking to a 1156 system, I could keep the memory I am using today. Can anybody comment on this upgrade?All alternatives are welcome.thanksLuc BrusselmansBelgium

hello,...Logical way forward is buying a new motherboard and CPU....By sticking to a 1156 system, I could keep the memory I am using today. Can anybody comment on this upgrade?All alternatives are welcome.thanksLuc BrusselmansBelgium

Hi Luc. Best logic would be to find out which of your components that are failing. Since it could be overheating, check the heatsink for dust thoroughly. Run OCCT and look for voltage insufficiency. Run memtest to see if your ram is faulty. If you must upgrade, and that would most probably give you better performance, I think Gigabyte is a wise choise, typically big bang for bucks. Just got one myself .

I concur with your replacements if needed, but hope that you can keep the other one going as there is nothing wrong with that config either.Keep in mind that the new motherboard will require a new copy of Windows if your current computer has an OEM copy.