Need Help replacing my motherboard

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Disciple
Hi
I have a system that I use for watching movies (HD some times) and gaming. It's been doing fine so far, but recently my motherboard has gotten damage. The system doesnt post and the cpu fan spins for a tenth of a second and stops. I checked the PSU and the cpu fan independently with a working system and they are ok.

My system used to be
a 700 W Corsair PSU
an ASUS p5be socket 775 mobo
2 1 gig sticks of 666 mhz ddr2 ram
an ATI 4890 video card
a core 2 duo, e6600

So far my rig worked as a downloading/watching/gaming rig, though Ive felt Im a little low on Ram, especially if I want to upgrade to Windows 7.

Now I have to replace my motherboard. Do people recommend just getting a new socket 775 motherboard and some ram? Should I replace my current ram sticks or use that alongside the new ram?

OR

that I get a new motherboard for the newer series of chips, an i3 or i5 and ram with that?

My budget works for either of those options, but I'd rather not upgrade unless I can expect a significant benefit for my current use case. Or if it becomes cheaper in the long run.

Additionally, I want to build a RAID5. I want this simply for the redundancy, not so much the speed. I'm just tired of storing movies on dvds, but I have lost hdds before. Should I get an onboard raid controller on a motherboard, or do you recommend an add on card?

thanks
 
I also want to say about the RAID. I dont want to RAID5 all my drives, just a selection. I dont intend to boot off these drives. Just incase that makes a difference.
 
I'd suggest getting a G-41 chipset based board - if you plan on getting ddr3 or a G-31 chipset based board if you plan on keeping your existing ddr2. the advantage with ddr3 is that in case you plan on upgrading later, which I am sure you will within a year, you can use ddr3 with the new platform/motherboard you will upgrade to. I'd suggest waiting for AMD and Intel's upcoming architectures/sockets.

G-31 boards cost Rs.2000-2200

G-41 boards cost Rs.2200-2500

I am sure the above mentioned motherboard chipsets offer onboard RAID support.
 
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