Expert advice please

Holdon Tight · 5 Mar 2011 at 10:21

I have a budget from the wife of around £200. I need a bundle (mb,CPU,ram,cooler) to go with some old hardware (2 x gtx 280) all to go in an antec 300 case.
Can anyone help? Cheers.

hybrid572 · 5 Mar 2011 at 11:12

This is the best I could do with your budget:

Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Asus P7H55-M Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £67.99
(£56.66) £67.99
(£56.66)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £20.99
(£17.49) £20.99
(£17.49)
Sub Total : £179.13
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £37.73
Total : £226.36

If you're a confident overclocker, you should be able to get some serious numbers out of the i3 540 on that board, easily enough to play games on, anyway.

I would've specced an AM3 build, but SLI is pretty much impossible with them.

Holdon Tight · 5 Mar 2011 at 13:21

Thanks hybrid, was thinking of this....http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-035-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat= what are your thoughts?

hybrid572 · 5 Mar 2011 at 13:36

It's basically the same as what I picked but with a slightly worse cooler/mobo and slightly higher price tag. If you're not a confident overclocker, get the pre OC'd bundle.

rjk · 5 Mar 2011 at 13:56

hang on

the op mentioned he had 2X GTX280

assuming then he will need an SLI compatible motherboard.

Holdon Tight · 5 Mar 2011 at 16:36

Doesn't have to be sli, I will buy a new gpu and sell the two 280s
Thanks tho'

Trusty · 5 Mar 2011 at 16:38

Why's the wife told you £200? You got a collar round your neck aswell?

Holdon Tight · 6 Mar 2011 at 07:52

Lol I wish, you know what it's like!

Destination · 6 Mar 2011 at 07:55

What is your current system, for comparison sake, and to see if anything is salvagable?

Trusty · 6 Mar 2011 at 08:52

simonholden said:
Lol I wish, you know what it's like!

Ha...yeah, all too well matey!

Holdon Tight · 6 Mar 2011 at 18:57

Well I have lots of stuff kicking around, 8gb ddr2 ram, q9550 CPU, 2 x gtx280. Would like to spend on a new board rather than use old stuff, what do you think?

Cookeh · 6 Mar 2011 at 19:13

Pffft, if you have all that left you might as well use it!

A Q9550 and SLI 280s is still a powerful and capable gaming system

shadow_boxer · 6 Mar 2011 at 19:13

To be honest, rather than "waste" that £200 I'd probably pick up a mobo & decent cooler and use your Q9550. Then get overclocking!!

You could still sell the GTX 280s and pick up a single card.

Trusty · 7 Mar 2011 at 00:19

shadow_boxer said:
To be honest, rather than "waste" that £200 I'd probably pick up a mobo & decent cooler and use your Q9550. Then get overclocking!!

You could still sell the GTX 280s and pick up a single card.

That's the way to do it for sure.

Holdon Tight · 7 Mar 2011 at 00:46

Ok thanks guys, one more thing, what motherboard? From ocuk please

hyperst · 7 Mar 2011 at 01:28

or sell everything you have which should fetch quite a fair amount back and then buy a new setup, with what you get and your £200 you should easy do it

TrojanWhore · 7 Mar 2011 at 03:24

simonholden said:
Ok thanks guys, one more thing, what motherboard? From ocuk please

it has to be from here? well there's only one choice then, as it is the only remotely high end 775 board they still sell (and stock)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-171-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1155

that would mean selling the 280s and buying a single card as it only has one slot, also selling the ram as the board supports DDR3, but you may even break even/profit here, as DDR2 prices are still quite high and DDR3 is dirtily cheap right now, 8GB can be had for £80 in 2 sticks

that board would be about the best chipset possible for getting the max OC from your quad.

If you'd prefer to keep your 280's and ram, look around for nVidia 780i boards, like the Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i, which supports DDR2, and full bandwidth SLI, but will most likely not clock anywhere near an intel chipset

EDIT: found this in clearance/B-grade section http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-383-AS&groupid=595&catid=689&subcat= a p45 board (no SLI), but this one is DDR2. it also has an excellent rep for clocking

Holdon Tight · 7 Mar 2011 at 23:59

Cheers all