M/Board CPU and Ram Spec please (~£150)

ssmacc

ssmacc

ssmacc

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Hello,

My dad is looking for a motherboard processor and ram, he uses his PC a lot but only browses the web/e-mails and does the odd CD to MP3 conversion, he’d like the PC to be quick and with this in mind I’ve included a SSD, any advice on the rest of the build? Is the CPU a good choice (I’ve gone for this mainly due to the 95w and low temp/noise), but is the Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition a better buy?

Advice appreciated (it’s been a while since I put together a spec)

Buying before 12:00…

Cheers

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £77.99
(£64.99) £77.99
(£64.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 840 "95W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £76.99
(£64.16) £76.99
(£64.16)
MSI 880GMS-E35 AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £51.98
(£43.32) £51.98
(£43.32)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Sub Total : £194.13
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 : £40.73
Total : £244.36
 
I was going to suggest a H61 motherboard and a Pentium G850 CPU, but you wont have SATA3.0 which will be useful for the SSD.

This is the cheapest socket1155 board to have this and USB3.0 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-172-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1907

The board has VGA/DVI+HDMI display connectors for the Pentiums built-in HD1000 GFX core.


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £77.99
(£64.99) £77.99
(£64.99)
Intel Pentium G850 2.90GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Sub Total : £197.46
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 : £41.39
Total : £248.35

The energy savings by going for a Sandybridge based CPU and board are very useful too.

The Phenom II X4 840 is just an Athlon with a higher clock speed, it lacks L3 cache like a real Phenom does.

Closest comparison - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/404?vs=188

Look at the power consumption at the bottom, nearly half and its faster in most of the tests except for the odd one that utilizes more than two cpu cores.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the really informative response, think I’ll have a re-think (might as well get USB 3 and SATA 3 as my dad won’t upgrade again for a long time), I assume the built in graphics are as good as the ATI equivalent?
 
ssmacc said:
I assume the built in graphics are as good as the ATI equivalent?
Click to expand...

Neither is earth shattering, they will do the job you outlined in the OP. Avoid 3D games and you will be OK.

One important question is his current drives, are they SATA or IDE?
 
Hard Drive is SATA and he's got a IDE DVD Burner and a SATA BluRay Player DVD Burner, I need to order in 20 mins...what to do!!!
 
Well the IDE burner will be binned, asl ong as hes got a way of re-installing the OS using the Blu-ray you will be ok.
 
Would a CPU with Hyperthreading be a better option in the long run, a i3540 or a i3-2100? or am i spending more money for the sake of it given it's use...
 
Point well made, I've gone for your original suggestions...should be a nice little upgrade and hopefully with the SSD very snappy browsing etc.

Cheers
 
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