need some expert advice on how to spend my money

Micro is just as "powerful". All you give up is a bunch of slots that you may never use.

But, using just ATX motherboards; any of these are OK and under 150:



Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z68-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

You may as well flip a coin as to which one.

I don't which is coolest.

ok then how about a micro that can do 4 ram cards, and video card?

Paronomasia said:

-.- youre purposley doing this.
i liked james's help better.
i have no idea what i want, i just want my computer to be better. i dont know anyhting about computers but ive been learning a lot. forget about my friend, about the led's about everything and just help me with this:
i have around $500 so spend on a computer upgrade, you know my specs, i want a graphics card, a motherboard, ram, psu, and if i happen to get an extra $10 il buy some Christmas lights and stick them inside my computer!

I'm loving this thread

Paronomasia said:

ok then how about a micro that can do 4 ram cards, and video card?

Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - ASUS P8P67-M PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard



Above are all micro ATX and would save you a few bucks.

All have 4 RAM slots.

Some have the new "EFI" bios, which your friend may not have and which may add to the coolness factor.

Golden said:

Wow! Monster thread....has anyone mentioned a SSD yet?

Regards,
Golden

Yeah, I did.

But I guess the OP decided it didn't add enough coolness.

ok this looks good, but looking at this, it looks exactly like the one i have except this is blue. whats the difference?
Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

ig, i did notice the ssd but $100 just for a faster boot time? i dont think so

Paronomasia said:

ok this looks good, but looking at this, it looks exactly like the one i have except this is blue. whats the difference?
Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

We can't tell because we can't see your motherboard.

I don't know who makes HP motherboards. Could be Asus, but I doubt it.

Colors don't mean much.

Which reminds me: why do you think you need a new motherboard if you are keeping the same CPU?

The SSD does more than faster boot time.

Overall system responsiveness is seriously improved.

But it helps little if at all in gaming. Games will load faster if installed on the SSD.