£300: GFX, CPU, MOBO, RAM, PSU

eyemessiah · 31 Jul 2008 at 18:34

My friend wants to replace his CPU, RAM, Mobo, GFX & PSU for £300. The system he has now is quite old (WinXP, Athlon XP & Geforce 4 MX!) so he will see a big difference with even a modest upgrade. Part of the reason for upgrading is so he can play more modern games (but not at the top end, he isn't looking for 60fps in crysis!) and also some multimedia work.

I know AMD arent doing so well bang-for-buck wise at the moment, but would this cpu keep up with the 4850? Would he be better with a cheaper GFX & an intel CPU?

I know a lot of you will be itching to suggest "spend more and get the Q6600 or the E8400". *I* would, but in this case it isn't an option I'm afraid

Any suggestions?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.80GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £56.99 (£66.96)

Asus M3A AMD 770 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £43.99 (£51.69)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) (£24.66) £20.99

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99 (£111.61)

Antec Basic 500W PSU £36.99 (£43.46)

Sub Total : £253.95
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £46.01
Total : £308.91

Ben M · 31 Jul 2008 at 18:45

i'd change the mobo for this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

and the cpu for an E7200, if it were me.

Slashiem · 31 Jul 2008 at 18:47

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)

Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99) Sub Total : £255.95 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95 VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £46.36 Total : £311.26
Hmm 3 quid over but it is considered to include a half decent cooler like the arctic freezer 7 and overclock to a decent 3.2+.

~Slash

Leezy · 1 Aug 2008 at 02:40

first thing everyone does...suggests intel :/

shaffaaf27 · 1 Aug 2008 at 04:20

i know

IMO the athalon X2s are very good for the prices, and if your not interested in getting monster clocks, then id go for one fo them (6000+) with a 780G mobo.

i dont think anyone can really tell the realworld difference between a 6000+ x2 and an E8400 even when gaming. most games are GPU not CPU limited.

TheMorningStar · 1 Aug 2008 at 13:23

The AMD X2 CPUs still have the fastest RAM access of any CPU currently available. the 6400+ being the fastest ofcourse. so they do have their good points.. If you like benchmarking anyway

if you select the correct mobo aswell you will have an upgrade path for quite a few years also as most will support am2/am2+/am3 which should work out ok if AMD get around to sorting their **** out.

I think id still go with a C2D though

Leezy · 1 Aug 2008 at 19:21

To the OP, I would try and squeeze abit more money in and raise the budget..

20 quid more and you could get the 6000+ and maybe swap the PSU for the Corsair VX 450...If you can afford it, it will make a difference.

Quixote · 1 Aug 2008 at 22:40

The critical thing to decide is if you're going to be overclocking or not. Feature for feature, AMD based motherboards of equal quality are cheaper.
The spec Slasheim posted is good but has an inferior motherboard & at stock speed will be outpaced by eyemessiah's original spec (ignoring the GPU the Intel Spec Lacks.)
The PSU is great & I would consider it no matter what else you go for.
For gaming, it would certainly be better to have have a slower AMD CPU with a quicker graphcs card.
If you're going for a significant overclock that changes & the cheapest (e2180) intel makes sense, though the limitations of the P31 board still apply.

Saying you can't tell the difference between an X2 6000+ & an E8400 is not a good reason to choose the former. The E8400 is noticeably faster in any application that requires it. That the overall platform is better value for money (if it is) or that the cash saved can be invested for better performance elsewhere (ie graphics card or hard drives) are better reasons to choose the AMD. If you can't tell the differnece in games (or other applications) that just means you didn't need to upgrade or you should have upgraded the graphics card.

Superjeep4x4 · 2 Aug 2008 at 11:53

I wouldn't call the GA-P31-DS3L inferior by any means. It is not as feature rich as other boards are but frankly it is a sweet and very well performing board for the money. It also over clocks very well. I'm not exactly sure what limitations your referring to unless you mean raid and a second gfx slot.

I own one and actually got one on the recommendation of the fine folks here and it has been one of the best performing and cheapest board's I have ever owned. This board will also take every intel cpu besides the 9770 and that might just be from lack of a bios update.

Ch3m1c4L · 2 Aug 2008 at 13:48

Superjeep4x4 said:
I wouldn't call the GA-P31-DS3L inferior by any means. It is not as feature rich as other boards are but frankly it is a sweet and very well performing board for the money. It also over clocks very well. I'm not exactly sure what limitations your referring to unless you mean raid and a second gfx slot.

I own one and actually got one on the recommendation of the fine folks here and it has been one of the best performing and cheapest board's I have ever owned. This board will also take every intel cpu besides the 9770 and that might just be from lack of a bios update.

it is a good board, but it is also inferior now, it lacks features and it is old tech.