super budget upgrade check

Pohly

Pohly

Pohly

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6 Apr 2011
Posts
830
hi all my mate asked if i could upgrade his tired old c2d pc so that it will run battlefeild 3 smoother on a 1366x768 (at the moment he is getting like 18fps) he currently has a 5850 which is being super bottlenecked by his cpu. he has given me £160 to upgrade and i came up with this

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £83.99
(£69.99) £83.99
(£69.99)
Asus M5A78L-M LX AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard Asus M5A78L-M LX AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sub Total : £124.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £26.89
Total : £161.36

what do you guys think?
 
2nd vote for q6600, might even be worth seeing if you can fit a 2nd 5850 into that budget(dependent on the current psu and mothrboard obviously).
 
95thrifles said:
If I were him I'd just drop in a c2q like the q6600, pick one up 2nd hand n pocket the ton difference, this will be just as good as the 955
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yeh was looking at that but his 6 year old mobo dosnt support c2q and only supports upto 2gb of ddr2 667 memory :P
 
you can pick up Q6600's and motherboards together fairly cheap. (under £70)

To reduce the price of above stick with 4GB of RAM, games still don't come close to using even that much
 
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had a quick look on the bay and q6600 are going for 60-70 with old mobo about 20-40 plus 4gb ddr2 ram about 40 thats around 120-150 ish ex postage which seems a bit steep for what it is plus a cpu fan about a tenner
 
get some posts under your belt and hit the members mart.

get a decent quad/mobo and ram for not a lot of cash


a decent secondhand overclocked 775 quad is going to muller any amd chip for the same monies
 
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another vote for the C2quad.

if he really wants something new though i'd recommend an i3 2100 + 4GB DDR3 RAM + cheapest H67 motherboard, and if he had any more to spend i'd replace the motherboard for a Z68 one
 
a 125W CPU on a motherboard that supports up to 90W is a bad idea, i'm sure you could find a similarly priced 140W AM3 motherboard though if you shopped around a bit

the i3-2100 plus a Z68 motherboard is probably slightly better and more futureproof if you can stretch your budget but i don't think you would be dissapointed with the 955
 
Reaper 392 said:
another vote for the C2quad.

if he really wants something new though i'd recommend an i3 2100 + 4GB DDR3 RAM + cheapest H67 motherboard, and if he had any more to spend i'd replace the motherboard for a Z68 one
Click to expand...

That was my first thought but prob just outside his budget, bt yeah agree if he can this would be best bet
 
tbh if i were looking to sell my c2q setup i'd be expecting 150 back on it. (no its not for sale before you ask as its going in my media server.

but budget as follows

c2q 9450 £70
good clocking mobo £50
4 gig ddr2 ram £30

under budget and it gives you a seriously potent 3.6-3.8ghz quad
 
Foxtrot26 said:
tbh if i were looking to sell my c2q setup i'd be expecting 150 back on it. (no its not for sale before you ask as its going in my media server.

but budget as follows

c2q 9450 £70
good clocking mobo £50
4 gig ddr2 ram £30

under budget and it gives you a seriously potent 3.6-3.8ghz quad
Click to expand...

whatever you do DON'T get the q9450 unless you only plan on going 3.2ghz, 3.4+ is like pulling teeth(I spent hours on end for days trying to get to 3.6ghz, eventually cracked it. didn't try higher due to the amount of time it took plus I only had the arctic freezer 7 pro).

q6600 or q9650(tho quite a bit more expensive I'd expect)

you'll also want a decent cooler, I'd suggest a gelid tranquilo which you'll be able to reuse when you upgrade(unless you go sb-e obviously as there is no mounting for it).
 
fowler002 said:
whatever you do DON'T get the q9450 unless you only plan on going 3.2ghz, 3.4+ is like pulling teeth(I spent hours on end for days trying to get to 3.6ghz, eventually cracked it. didn't try higher due to the amount of time it took plus I only had the arctic freezer 7 pro).

q6600 or q9650(tho quite a bit more expensive I'd expect)

you'll also want a decent cooler, I'd suggest a gelid tranquilo which you'll be able to reuse when you upgrade(unless you go sb-e obviously as there is no mounting for it).
Click to expand...

sorted just got a q6600 off the bay for £59 just brought and an asus p5q for £46 and a corsair a50 and i am giving him my olf 4gb ddr2.
 
as for the 9450 i dont understand why your having trouble?

mines clocks without any serious issue 3.6ghz stable or 3.55 if i run with 4 sticks of ram :)
 
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