Cheap-as-chips upgrade

RevBillyG

RevBillyG

RevBillyG

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Hello folks. I could do with some opinions on a cheap-as-chips upgrade for the GF's daughter's birthday next month.
Current system is this venerable old machine. Only 8 years young and still plodding on but definitely showing its age. :)
Opteron 144 @ 2.7gig
DFI Lan Party
2 gb DDR2
HD4670
1x SATA 1tb HDD
1x IDE 320gb HDD
1x IDE DVD-RW
Antec 550watt PSU
Coolermaster Elite 335
Samsung TV/Monitor. Supports 1920x1080
Obviously, the IDE parts will need to go but that's not a problem at the moment. Need CPU, MB and Ram for max €200 (£170). The less, the better. Might have budget to get her another HDD then.
Usage is: League of Legends, Guild Wars 2, Windows Movie Maker, school work and other various 'girly' stuff.
I also have a spare HD5770 GFX card hanging around for use.

1st The AMD Trinity option looks good. Strong CPU performance (according to passmark website) and true quad-core but the most expensive.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £91.19
1 x ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £196.97 (includes shipping : £9.00).



2nd i3-2120. A bit cheaper than Trinity but only a dual core and a bit slower (again, this is based on passmark site)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £86.39
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £171.77 (includes shipping : £9.50).



3rd AMD Phenom II 965. Good CPU performance and cheap :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £83.99
1 x Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £161.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Now, I'm not so hot on mainboards these days so I just pretty much chose the cheapest. The system doesn't need to be overclocked so I'm not too worried about 3rd party cooling solutions (that can come later if needed).
I'm leaning towards the Phenom at the moment due to the good price/performance but the A10 does look tempting......

Any opinions/advice?
 
The trinity provides option for SATA III, the others do not. Only real difference is if you add a SATA III SSD at some stage otherwise no difference.

There is little difference in the 955 or 965 if you want to shave a bit more and go phenom II.

Possibly CPU price changes after 23rd when piledriver releases.
 
Hmm, well it seems that the Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 isn't compatible with the 125w Phenom 965 (according to Gigabyte's forum)

Anyone got a good suggestion for a MB? Maybe even an AM3 MB since it's more likely to have an IDE port?
 
Looks good. How does the i3 compare to a Phenom II for video conversion?
She has her own HD video cam so need to convert to youtube formats.
 
RevBillyG said:
Looks good. How does the i3 compare to a Phenom II for video conversion?
She has her own HD video cam so need to convert to youtube formats.
Click to expand...

You would be better off with the i3 to be fair. It supports quicksync, providing you have software that supports QS, it can make a big difference to encoding video. It might only be a dual core but it does have hyperthreading which helps and of course it consumes less power than the AMD CPU/APUs.

Another top tip, should you decide to go with the old Phenom CPUs for whatever reason, don't get the 965. The 955 is over £10 cheaper, up the multiplier by 1 in the BIOS and it magically becomes a 965 ;)

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £71.99
1 x Asus M5A78L LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £57.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £166.76 (includes shipping : £9.00).



That mobo also has an IDE connector so you could reuse the old HDD you have. Personally I would go Intel but I'll let you make up your own mind.
 
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