Mobo, CPU and RAM Upgrade Needed Please Help!

John24

John24

John24

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Joined
25 Oct 2007
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The time has come to retire my long serving Socket A rig, it just can't keep up with today's demands which, in my case are playing HD content, encoding in a reasonable amount of time and needing more than 2 SATA ports.

Here's a pic for those of you into antiques hehe.


So requirements:

A Mobo with onboard graphics/sound, HD is CPU heavy as I understand it so an onboard GC should be enough to playback HD?
A CPU, something that's capable of playing HD and can encode 30 mins of video in less than 75 mins.
A heat sink.
RAM, 2-3GB should be enough. (Got 2 atm and it's plenty)

I'll be getting a monitor and TV card, it'll all be going into a Cooler Master Praetorian (pictured) and I'm using XP 32-Bit atm but can upgrade to W7 if need be.

Not done a build since this socket a so not sure what I should be looking for, I want to keep the budget as low as possible but not compromise performance too much. Oh and I'd like to keep the noise down.

Willing to OC for the first time in my life as long as it's stable and doesn't add too much heat/noise.

Your help and comments very much needed and appreciated.

Thanks in advance
john
 
Budget is flexible depending on the options and I've no idea what I could get for x amount which is why I didn't give a fixed figure.

If I have to say a budget I'd guess £150 but, please keep in mind what I said in the OP "I want to keep the budget as low as possible but not compromise performance too much" so it could be raised.

95thrifles, skimming that thread there's some good info, will give it a good read in a minuite. One thing I noticed is you say the intel is good for encoding but you suggested amd here, why is that?

btw don't worry about stock levels, if something is better than something else but is out of stock I'd rather wait for it or go elsewhere. ;)

Many thanks.
 
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ok, so how capable is that system then compared to what i have and is there any good reason to spend a little bit more?

Also could I carry on using XP 32-Bit for now?

Another thing I forgot about is power consumption, what would that be with the above spec? Currently I'm using about 90W idle not including the monitor.

Lots of questions sorry.

EDIT
Oh and does that spec have OC potential? Thanks. :)
 
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oops sry, MSI KM4M-V, Athlon XP 3000+ (2.17GHz) and 2GB DDR PC2700.

Even with the extra performance I could be looking at a reduction in power consumption! that's a nice surprise.
 
How does that look then? I've added a few extras I need. Hopefully the stock fan isn't too loud.

2ia4qvt.jpg
 
Have you used it? The reviews on the product page are all good and I like the brush system.

Already got soem AS5 but it's years old so want some fresh and that brush system caught my eye.
 
hmm, think I'll give it a try, see what it's like. If I don't like it can always get some more AS5. The brush system is very attractive to me so I have to give it a go.

Thanks for all your help everyone. :)
 
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