Sparked by Laurie's thread, but different so I don't want to hijack it.
My desktop PC (Intel G630 w/ 8GB RAM) is a bit slow these days. It is used for those wonderfully high memory applications we call web browsers, and for running VMs, and runs 24/7. Ubuntu 14.04 as the O/S.
I'd like to upgrade the motherboard and processor (and the RAM if necessary) whilst retaining the rest of the box. What would be a good motherboard and CPU combo for the above on a budget of say £150-£200? (I'd want the motherboard to support at least 16GB RAM, 4x SATA and have USB3 but other than that I'm not too fussy. I currently have onboard graphics and continuing that way makes sense for my usage, but happy to look at alternatives.)
Energy usage is something I would like to keep an eye on when the system is idle, but I don't want it to be held back when I actually want it to do something.