3 components. £300

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 21:48

hi folks,

shopping for a new mobo, cpu and ram. have 300 notes to spend, just wondering what direction i should go.

I guess it's between i5 and p2 but I'm not really clued up on either.

suggestions please as I'll be placing my order first thing tomorrow morning

siumatfung · 3 Jan 2010 at 21:56

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 21:56

well that helps

any suggestions as to which components?

BIGBC · 3 Jan 2010 at 21:57

Id be going i5 too.

bigjimmyauk · 3 Jan 2010 at 21:59

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £158.99
(£135.31) £158.99
(£135.31)
Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
(£68.93) £80.99
(£68.93)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) £72.99
(£62.12) £72.99
(£62.12)
Sub Total : £266.36
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £48.19
Total : £323.55

w1llyg · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:05

What you going to use it for? gaming?? video encoding?

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:09

purely gaming.

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:17

just recalculated my funds, i have exactly £335 so spend, excluding delivery cost if bought from ocuk as its free.

w1llyg · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:18

Asus M4A79XTD Evo = £86
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz = £129
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz =£73
Shipping = £9
=£299
and £1 to spare

Your not going to get a i5 for £300

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:23

what about this?

never been with amd, are they really that far behind intel?

PhoenixUK · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:27

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £128.99
(£109.78) £128.99
(£109.78)
Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
(£91.91) £107.99
(£91.91)
OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel (OCZ3OB1600LV4GK) OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel (OCZ3OB1600LV4GK) £85.99
(£73.18) £85.99
(£73.18)
Sub Total : £274.87
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £49.68
Total : £333.55

And enough cash left for a bottle of good beer after you set it up : ).
I'd stretch extra few quid for tube of MX-3 on the way if you havn't got one yet.

-----------
Better mobo allows you for future upgrades, better OC and CF.

will0812 · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:30

You can get i5,

- Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail - £158.99
- OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) - £72.99
- Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard - £104.99

Total £336.97

£2 over, but very much worth it and also if you have a cooler already you could go oem to save money / get slightly better mb

PhoenixUK · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:32

will0812 said:
You can get i5,

- Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail - £158.99
- OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) - £72.99
- Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard - £104.99

Total £336.97

£2 over, but very much worth it and also if you have a cooler already you could go oem to save money / get slightly better mb

better mobo, better memory, AND better cooling since having i5 at anything below 3.6 is waste of cash ;-)

. Could just as well stretch to 500 if he wants proper i5 system.

----------------------

On the main topic tho, what's your current system ? Maybe there are other options to consider, would be nice to know your full current spec first.

bigjimmyauk · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:33

w1llyg said:
Asus M4A79XTD Evo = £86
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz = £129
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz =£73
Shipping = £9
=£299
and £1 to spare

Your not going to get a i5 for £300

i just specced him i5 for £300 didn't i

PhoenixUK · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:38

bigjimmyauk said:
i just specced him i5 for £300 didn't i

So?

As long as it has crappy memory and fail motherboard and stock cooling it's not any better than stock phenom ...

You need to balance systems out, not just go for 1 strong component and all rest cheap crap, if it worked like that we'll all be running i7 950s with 70quid mobos, 50quid rams and onboard gpus.

And we still don't know the rest of the system...

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:40

the current system is going to a relative, e6750(stock cooler) + p5n-e, 4gb ballistix. keeping my 5770 and dropping in a 8800gts.

also keeping my ifx-14, im sure i can find a bracket that will fit 1156 motherboards, already got the bracket for am3.

PhoenixUK · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:47

ck88 said:
the current system is going to a relative, e6750(stock cooler) + p5n-e, 4gb ballistix. keeping my 5770 and dropping in a 8800gts.

also keeping my ifx-14, im sure i can find a bracket that will fit 1156 motherboards, already got the bracket for am3.

I'm more than sure that your current system with CPU @ 3.2GHZ Or more is more than cappable of running all the newest games just fine.

It still has plenty of juice.

--------------------

On the other hand I'd go with AM3 if you really want to upgrade as it's better for CF and you have 5770 already which is known to be one of the most scalable CF GPUs (if not the best one) ever.

And there are no 1156 brackets for IFX14 unfortunately, unless they make a new version of cooler.

w1llyg · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:54

bigjimmyauk said:
i just specced him i5 for £300 didn't i

I wouldn't call £324 in a £300 budget.

Every1 knows how hard it is to get tht extra £10 in a budget build let alone extra £20

But now he does hav the money to go up to £335 the motherboard is rubbish, not future proof and doesnt support xfire as well as the phenom.

ck88 · 3 Jan 2010 at 23:00

PhoenixUK said:
I'm more than sure that your current system with CPU @ 3.2GHZ Or more is more than cappable of running all the newest games just fine.

It still has plenty of juice.

--------------------

On the other hand I'd go with AM3 if you really want to upgrade as it's better for CF and you have 5770 already which is known to be one of the most scalable CF GPUs (if not the best one) ever.

And there are no 1156 brackets for IFX14 unfortunately, unless they make a new version of cooler.

my thinking is that im deffinatley going to be xfiring the 5770 shortly and the fact that my board is an nvidia chipset puts a stop to that.

I know that my current system plays almost everything perfectly but obviously I would have to buy a new motherboard to enable the use of the second 5770.

I dont really fancy buying a p45/x48 as its 'old tech' so i might aswell do a complete upgrade and shift out the old as its partly funding the new build.

By the looks of the i5 it's just out of my budget but I dont mind, I quite like the idea of going p2 as it's something new I haven't experienced before being an intel guy from my very first hand-me-down

surely the p2's can't be that far behind intels offerings, as i suspect it will be minimal difference from a gaming perspective (~2 - 3 fps?)

I will be clocking it as much as possible make no mistake

, any idea where to pick up the am3 bracket as I seem to have misplaced mine.

Is the spec I first posted any good? Any things you would change?

PhoenixUK · 3 Jan 2010 at 23:17

ck88 said:
my thinking is that im deffinatley going to be xfiring the 5770 shortly and the fact that my board is an nvidia chipset puts a stop to that.

I know that my current system plays almost everything perfectly but obviously I would have to buy a new motherboard to enable the use of the second 5770.

I dont really fancy buying a p45/x48 as its 'old tech' so i might aswell do a complete upgrade and shift out the old as its partly funding the new build.

By the looks of the i5 it's just out of my budget but I dont mind, I quite like the idea of going p2 as it's something new I haven't experienced before being an intel guy from my very first hand-me-down

surely the p2's can't be that far behind intels offerings, as i suspect it will be minimal difference from a gaming perspective (~2 - 3 fps?)

I will be clocking it as much as possible make no mistake , any idea where to pick up the am3 bracket as I seem to have misplaced mine.

Is the spec I first posted any good? Any things you would change?

If you had your bracket and lost it you might trying contacting the manufacturer and they might get you a new one for free or a small fee if lucky.

You can always ask on MM forums if someone has one lying around.
I'd go with the board I posted over the asus as there is no diff in performance and I find the GA BIOS somehow better than asus, but it's just a personal preference.

And get the ram I've chosen, it's worth the few quid premium or try to get a hold of g.skill ripjaws if possible, it's out of stock on ocuk atm unfortunately.

Either way, you'll be more than happy with the upgrade that I'm sure of : ).