Budget £250 Upgrade.Advice needed Please, just CPU,RAM & Mobo :)

[nogard3k]

Sorry for yet another "spec me", I am too old and out of touch and still smart enough to know when to ask for help

I have spent over a week so far researching and now more confused than when I started.

I am trying to update a friends PC, the motherboard is dead. Ram is DDR2 and unsure of CPU status (Q6600). Best option seems to be a heart and lung transplant.

All I want to do is replace the Motherboard, Ram and CPU and I have a MAX budget of £250. I just want to make sure that I do the best I possibly can within that budget.

I am hoping that the performance of the new build will be noticably better than the previous Q6600 with 4gig of Ram.

My research seems to point toward Intel I5 as the best performance possible at that budget, but also that £250 is stretching it a bit.

Although I have worked with PCs for years, my knowledge of current products is virtually non-existent. I am hoping that someone here can point me in the right direction.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[nogard3k]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, PC is just used for general use and light gaming. No special video or rendering work and no recent games.

Other specs of original PC are:

Winfast PX8500 GT TDH (256 Mb)
PSU HEC 550
RAM 4x1 Gb Generic DDR2

The PC is actually a Mesh Elite Quad FX
its 4 years old

I've tested the Video card and the RAM all fine, PSU seems OK, tested with meter but not under load, if PSU needs replacing it will be outside of budget although I hope to keep it in use.

I don't know if the CPU is functional, the only board I have to test it on is my own and I've learned enough over the years not to do that anymore

I have thought about maybe just getting a new board but its hard to locate anything that supports DDR2, so a new board and RAM is the next choice, but that doesnt offer any performance boost for the outlay.

The guy likes the idea of improved performance if thats possible within this budget, he just wants it feel "snappy"

I agree with the comments on the Q6600, I run one myself and feel no need to upgrade atm, however I can't be sure that his is still functional, I am tested down to "its either the cpu or board" and although I realise it is most likely to be the board at fault I can't be 100% sure. I do know for certain that the fault doesnt lie in the GPU, Ram or PSU, all have been tested with replacements and then tested on another board.

Hope thats enough info.

Thanks.

 

[nogard3k]

Are you dead certain the mobo is dead?

I don't mean to insult your intelligence but it could be the PSU. If you have already troubleshooted the system I apologise.

*EDIT*

Once you reach 100 posts you are entitled to free delivery. So it's well worth discussing your options

Tested with 2 different known working PSUs, a 480 and a 580 (Hiper) one of which was brand new. Also tested his on another board.

Thanks for the tip re. the 100 posts, I don't usually ask questions here, just spend hours reading the "spec me's" You can see Ive been a member for more than 5 years and this is my first ever need to ask, always been able to find my answers from other posts before.

I owe the owner of this PC a few favours and just want to do the best I possibly can.

 

[nogard3k]

like jony said the Q6600 is a perfectly good cpu even now. it all depends on what your friend will be using their computer for.

was the q6600 overclocked? because you could get a nice mobo and a good aftermarket cooler, and overclock the hell out of the cpu. that'd give you a big performance boost for much less money than a full upgrade. if he needs more RAM then a 4GB set wouldn't set you back too much extra

Never been overclocked, I am beginning to wonder if the only responsible way to do this is to keep the Q6600, Everything else I look at seems to be a really small performance boost.

There is a bundle available here just inside budget that appears to be OK , with an I5 2300, but my guess is that there will be next to no performance increase.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-023-OP&groupid=43&catid=2047&subcat=

Does anyone have any thoughts on the AMD Llano setup. Is it worth a look down that route?

All advice greatly appreciated.

 

[nogard3k]

Can anyone comment on the following, I have gone £20 over my budget but maybe its worth it.

Gigabyte Z68A-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-Z68A-D3-B3]

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game [BX80623I52500K]