Instead of spending on a new mobo, why not get a PCI LAN card and a PI usb card?
Its will be the most eonomical one, and the proccy is LGA775 one, so your another choice will be to get a new g41 mobo from asus, gigabyte suporting ddr3.
About the existing mobo, isn't it under warranty? Intel usually provided 3 years warranty.
go with a Gigabyte G41Mt-S2P for 2.5k its a decent motherboard but the overclock is limited to the FSB i.e. 1333mhz u cant increase the northbridge voltage to go feather
@gurujee, first check your warranty, since g41 is a new chipsets, your mob should be in warranty, so it will be better to RMA the board
ENTER PCI USB 2.0 / 1.1 4+1 5 Port Card BOXPACK CD
go with a Gigabyte G41Mt-S2P for 2.5k its a decent motherboard but the overclock is limited to the FSB i.e. 1333mhz u cant increase the northbridge voltage to go feather
...wow...thanks...i also found it...but was confused....then will have to go with G41M Combo one..THe mobo OP mentioned ie intel dg41rq supports DDR2 mem only and G41Mt-S2P supports DDR3 - so if he goes with G41Mt-S2P his friend have to buy DDR3 mem as well
@ OP - go with CA50 suggestion but also note that if your friend have a gfx card the pci slot next to the pci-e x16 slot may be blocked by the gfx card - so you can only use one pci card on that mobo and if you need to get a new mobo look for Gigabyte G41M Combo - supports both DDR2 and DDR3 mem
IF you get the Gigabyte G41M Combo then you will be able to OC the cpu - even with a cheap cpu cooler like Cm Hyper TX3 which is around ~1.2k