Home Office PC upgrade

DaveUK666

DaveUK666

DaveUK666

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3 Aug 2011
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85
My girlfriend has got two pretty old PCs and wanted me to make one good PC out of them, however all I can scavenge is a 300W PSU, DVD drive, the case, and the HDDs. I also have a AMD Dual Core Althlon II X2 250 3.0GHz from an old build which I plan on using.

I want something quick (so she doesn't get impatient with it) and stable (so I'm not having to fix it all the time). Mainly for word processing, but some simple photo editing, watching DVDs etc as well, plus can support the two monitors.

Current plan is:
Asus M5A88-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard
MicroATX, DDR3 and SATAIII so plenty of scope for upgrade
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G)
Max can use with 32bit Windows, but is it better as 2x2G or 1x4G?
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G)
Plenty of space for a boot drive

Thought/suggestions? Will the integrated graphics be enough? Will the PSU be enough?

Thanks in advance,
 
Last edited:
nelviss said:
i would get,

SSD
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-000-SD

and

memory
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-SA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
Click to expand...

I wouldn't

The SSD specced is cheaper, the sandisk isn't even more reliable. go for the agility or an M4 if you can afford too.

That Memory isn't worth it for that build. The advantage of getting that memory is it's highly overclockable when paired with ivybridge. I'd just stcik with the ones you specced.

Get 2 X 2GB :)
 
stulid said:
I wouldn't touch a an OCZ Agility3 with a bargepole.

Theres also this SSD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-146-SA&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2103 - a bit more £ but decent.
Click to expand...

Samsungs are a lot better yes. I know people with an agility which RAVE about them. Though i have heard horror stories.

Personally id go with this sort of build:


YOUR BASKET
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £47.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £23.99
Total : £209.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).




And sell the athlon. :)

EDIT: though the motherboard is cheaper it has USB3 and SATAIII. And it gets you onto sandybridge (great upgrade path)
 
Your list looks well thought out.

I suggest a new PSU unless the one you have is good quality one.

Faster CPU would decrease booting, loading programs and photo processing as much as SSD.. depending on what HDDs you have, but could be change later I guess... Think Window$ will allow CPU change without new install.
 
Last edited:
doyll said:
Vista?:eek:
Click to expand...

haha yes Vista, trying to keep cost down and she already has it. Although as someone said, it might not be happy if I change the CPU.

I was attempting to spend less than £150, but that does look like a good build Doomedspeed, although would be my first time building an intel :p.

I'll keep playing with ideas and see if we get any more suggestions.

Thanks to everyone so far,
 
DaveUK666 said:
Tempted by the intel path but to go down the second hand route...
Click to expand...

doyll said:
I would. About half of my system was sourced used.
Click to expand...

Same. I would highly recommend it. The only part i bought new was my case. :) (and RAM) (And DVD RW) :)

I know its spending more money but a motherboard (as below) allows overclocking and i think (with a BIOS update) will support Ivybridge.


YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 (MB-360-GI) £64.99
Total : £74.89 (includes shipping : £8.25).

 
TheVoice said:
Is Vista going to be okay with an SSD? It won't have the optimisations Win7 has, surely?
Click to expand...

It's another expense, and as far as I know it should work, just more to do manually rather than things being set automatically as with win7.

Current plan:
1 x **B Grade** Asus P8Z68-M PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 (MB-481-AS) ( http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-602-AS&groupid=595&catid=689&subcat= ) £65.00 inc VAT
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £77.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £47.99

Total: 214.97

Looking to try and find a second hand i3 cheaply before I buy anything though.
 
Personally would reccomend a z77 board but only if you ever plan to upgrade to ivy down the line. I've heard people have problems with ivybridges on z68.

Also the B-grade mobo might not come with instructions, cables etc. So check up on that with overclockers themselves before purchase.
 
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