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Athlon II x2 245

Just because others look better on charts doesn't mean it's bad, it's just slower than the rest but then what you'd like to expect from 45quid cpu? You get what you pay for.

It will still play all games up to date fine tho but I guess it's just for some light gaming.

It's ok but I'd pick up different parts if you could give a shot building it yourself you could get somethin better for about same price.

If not then I'd just swap the CPU for the x3 440, it's just 13quid extra and you'll get extra core : ).
 
Anyways, if you fancy building the PC yourself or have a friend that can do it for you this is what I came up with:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OCZ Reaper Low-Latency 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C6 (1600MHz) Dual-Channel (OCZ3RPR1600C6LV4GK) OCZ Reaper Low-Latency 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C6 (1600MHz) Dual-Channel (OCZ3RPR1600C6LV4GK) £86.94
(£73.99) £86.94
(£73.99)
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
(£63.82) £74.99
(£63.82)
Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (Grade A 3 Months Warranty) Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (Grade A 3 Months Warranty) £61.09
(£51.99) £61.09
(£51.99)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 440 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 440 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £60.00
(£51.06) £60.00
(£51.06)
Antec Basiq Plus 550W Modular Power Supply Antec Basiq Plus 550W Modular Power Supply £52.99
(£45.10) £52.99
(£45.10)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £29.99
(£25.52) £29.99
(£25.52)
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £29.99
(£25.52) £29.99
(£25.52)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £348.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £63.12
Total : £423.78


Just over 23quid more and you get the following:

Better tri-core CPU
Better motherboard with better CPU support and option to crossfire ( you can add 2nd GPU in later if you need more oomph, 4850 are already just around 40quid 2nd hand ).
Modular PSU
a lot better quality memory

There is nice step by step guide on here somewhere with pictures on how to build the PC by yourself and there is always someone around to help if you'll have any issues.
 
Paws x said:
Is it really that bad?
Click to expand...
Hey Paws x,

it's fine, rinse all that nonsense out your mind, get some usage under your belt and form your own opinion! :)

If you start comparing your e-slong with others you will end up with an Intel® Core™i7 . . if you instead get on with "using" your PC, bit of surfing bit of gaming etc I think you will be pleasantly suprised . . . The Regor has a nice IMC (integrated memory controller) which gives the "user" experience a nice "snappy" feel . . . and a dual-core @2.9GHz isn't gonna "Lag" you up none! :p

What computer did you use before? . . . what sort of tasks do you perform?

If you need any help getting the system tweaked or (gulp) overclocked then look me up in this thread! :D

AMD® Athlon™ II Overclocking Thread
 
For £400 you can do better than that spec though if you built it, as shown above.

They're good chips IMO, but not exactly exciting... Even the system in my sig struggles now and again.
 
Big.Wayne said:
How are you guys reading this?

  1. He has ordered his system and is waiting for it to be delivered tomorrow
  2. He is thinking of ordering a pre-built system tomorrow
Click to expand...

I don't think he'll be asking about the CPU if he ordered already ;-).
Either way he got his question answered I think.

We shall see soon.
 
surprisingly enough, before i was running an Athlon with a 4850 for a short period. It ran pretty good, even in Crysis i could put it on max settings and get avg fps. Mind you i was using a 19" monitor. But still for the price its pretty good, you can't really go wrong, and you can always upgrade later.
 
Thanks for the replys guys. I don't have nearly enough experience to build myself, unfortunately :( And i don't know anyone to help me.

Oh, and i haven't bought it yet, I'll probably buy it tomorrow :)

The PC i have now is a Advent Laptop, Specs that i know off:

CPU: Mobility Intel Core Duo(2) T5750 @ 2.0 GHz

RAM: 2 GB

GFX: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Familly

HDD: 180 GB

I've had this laptop for 2-3 years, and it stuggles on Free First Person Shooters like Combat Arms on the lowest Settings & Lowest Resolution. :(
 
Ive been very pleased with my X2 250 in my HTPC. Win7 x64 web browsing and HD video playback are well covered. I'll rate with my recent experience:

i5 750 at 3.8ghz = 10
q9400 at 3.6ghz = 9
e8500 at 3.8ghz = 8
Athlon II X2 250 at stock = 7
Athlon X2 4600+ at stock = 6
 
Paws x said:
I've had this laptop for 2-3 years, and it stuggles on Free First Person Shooters like Combat Arms on the lowest Settings & Lowest Resolution. :(
Click to expand...
That laptop is going to struggle because its running an onboard GFX that's not meant for gaming (ok maybe light non-intensive 3D). Now if it had a (decent) chip from either NVIDIA or ATI the situation would be different but bear in mind laptops with that significantly cost more.

I'm running an Athlon II 250 & for my usage (i.e. surfing/downloading, very light gaming - ATI 4850, encoding the odd 1 or 2 movie, etc) it fits me fine. The new generation Athlon's are pretty decent not to mention hardly consume much power therefore run cooler. Coupled with a reasonable GFX you can build a good gaming machine around the Athlon II
 
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Paws x said:
Thanks for the replys guys. I don't have nearly enough experience to build myself, unfortunately :( And i don't know anyone to help me.
Click to expand...

You don't need experience.
Check this thread here, it's not a rocket science as long as you know how to use screwdriver and can understnd the difference between 4pin and 20pin : ).

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18046396


If you still want to get prebuilt, I'll just ask ocUK to swap the CPU for the x3 440. It's just 13quid extra and you get 1 extra core which will give you a huge boost in multi-threaded apps and help overall : ).
 
You could definitely build/have built a better system for that price. If you don't feel confident attempting a build yourself (which is perfectly understandable when you're spending hard-earned money and have no experience with components) look up a few local computer shops and find out what price they would charge to build a machine if you supply the components. Most will charge about £40-£50.
 
PhoenixUK said:
You don't need experience.
Check this thread here, it's not a rocket science as long as you know how to use screwdriver and can understnd the difference between 4pin and 20pin
Click to expand...

This is true, even experienced system builders had to do their 1st build at some point!
 
I can't even remember my first build. :S

I got given 5 broken socket 478 builds by my Dad's work, and with the one I already had at home had 6, and built 4 working ones out of them.

My first build totally from scratch was probably the one in my sig. Certainly the first made from all new parts.
 
I was 13 when i built my first rig, i can almost remember that first time i unboxed it all, was the greatest moment of my life.
 
Redmint said:
even experienced system builders had to do their 1st build at some point!
Click to expand...
I think the middle ground between buying a prebuilt system and taking that huge leap to building a "first" system by yourself is to have a nice system-building friend that will do the build with you! :)

I've done that for one or two people that lacked know-how/experience and it's gone well . . ."and this is the CPU and it fits here . . like so, and this is the memory which slots into place here [click, click] etc . . . and now this is the TIM which spreads on the CPU etc etc" :D

Once people see someone else do it the great mysterious "fog" gets swept away and they see it's as easy as making a chip-butty! :o . . . of course the problems comes when you switch on the PC and it won't boot due to a bad-fitting or faulty component! ;)

Back in 1995 I made tea and coffee for my two friends while they built my first PC for me . . . I wouldn't blame Paws x for being hesitant to go it alone but these days the internet is pretty stuffed full of multimedia guides (pictures/videos) that certainly go along way to helping a novice get a feel for things . . .

PhoenixUK said:
If you still want to get prebuilt, I'll just ask ocUK to swap the CPU for the x3 440. It's just 13quid extra and you get 1 extra core which will give you a huge boost in multi-threaded apps and help overall : ).
Click to expand...
I agree, for the slight extra budget having a TripleCore provides a nice boost in performance for the latest MultiCore games! . . . Dragon Age Origins gives 50% faster framerate from having the extra third core! :eek:

AMD® Athlon™ II X3 440 (3.0GHz)

£60.00 inc
 
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If you can stretch to it, for just £94 more you get a hell of a beefier system! This could last you 5 years depending on what you use it for (judging by the fact that you were looking at the pre-built athlon x2 in the first place then this may well be the case).

Lightning fast, powerful quad core with sizeable 8mb cache capable of running all current games [and those of the foreseeable future] with ease;
more powerful graphics with twice the memory;twice the size hd with twice the cache; Better mobo.

With another fan on top for £5 or so, call it a square +£100. Obviously that's still £100 more than you were originally looking at spending, but if you feel like spending that then this would surely last you a lot longer than the pre-built system.

Just to give you some idea of an alternative mate ;)
 
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