Need cpu/mobo advice

Snaggle · 21 Oct 2008 at 23:24

I am building my son a new pc for his 21st and i normally use only AMD cpus.

I have a limited budget which i have to include a decent size monitor / keyboard / mouse etc (£700 max really)

Now i specced a decent Amd quad core 4gig ram ..decent case and 22" monitor for just over £700 .

But i keep hearing wonderfull things about Intel cpus but have no idea about what mobos to use and what chip fits what . but can i afford to spec a decent intel setup for my 700? Given the cpu and mobo i have for Amd seems cheaper than the lowest spec cpu only for intel .

It mostly for gaming ... cs2/cod4/wow and the usual internet/email etc .. so ocuk spec me or tell me what to do .

Persil

fobose · 22 Oct 2008 at 06:55

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

If you can fit those two in to your budget that would be great. The Intel P45 chipset is highly recommended at the moment. You could always drop to the P43 chipset to save about £30 if needed. (I think the P43 doesn't have onboard RAID).

Oh and if your dead set on a quad core, the Q6600 is a pretty good bang for buck chip. However for gaming and general internet/email I think a faster dual core would be better.

ro55o · 22 Oct 2008 at 12:14

Do you have everything else, ram, OS? or do you need a full spec.

If you tell us everything you need in your budget, then we can provide our spec.

Snaggle · 22 Oct 2008 at 16:38

I specced the Amd setup with hdd/dvdrw/4gig decent mouse/keyboard etc i dont have the spec on my laptop .

Im happy to spec the rest of the items as im pretty confident what to buy ...the main question is can i improve the spec/performance by having an intel cpu/mobo .

From my breif look i would say not but im not an intel user so hence asking those who have more experience of Intel stuff it will compare with the new Amd quad core in my budget .

Persil