Quad core + mboard for £200?

andyh41

andyh41

andyh41

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Joined
22 Nov 2005
Posts
13
Hi,
My Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R (+core 2 E2160) has just failed following a power cut or psu failure. When I bought the Gigabyte I was pretty confident about my decision, but now i'm a bit clueless as to what to get. I think i'll replace it with a quad core cpu as I only really ever stress the pc with video editing/encoding. It looks like the q6700 is a decent bet (as opposed to the similarly priced q8200) but I want to keep the total price close to £200. Is it possible to get a reasonable mboard for approx £70 that will allow a modest (3.0gig) overclock? Needs to be DDR2 to reuse my 4Gb memory. Other features are not really important and short term upgrades are not gonna happen :). Alternatively, would an AMD x4 9950 give roughly similar performance, leaving more for the mboard?
Thanks,
Andy.
 
if you can go £30 over inc del
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £159.99
(£139.12) £159.99
(£139.12)
Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.49
(£49.99) £57.49
(£49.99)
Sub Total : £189.11
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 15% VAT : £29.79
Total : £228.40

also how have you tested that your CPU +MB is truely dead?
 
I tried it with a different psu, all disconnected bar the cpu and 1 stick of ram. As soon as the psu is switched on the pc starts (doesn't respond to the front panel buttons), then the cpu fan spins for 5 seconds before stopping, no post. Removed/replaced the battery. I can't think what else to try. The fact that it starts without pressing the power button is weird.......in fact it starts even when the power switch is disconnected!

Is there any particular advantage to either the AMD or Intel routes? I have no allegiance to either, just want the best vfm.
 
if you do need a MB and CPU replacement, AMD is the route i would go as it offers more room for upgrading in the future then LGA775, clock per clock the PhenomII should match the performance of the 45nm intel core2quads
 
Thanks for your help.
I'm not really sure if the cpu needs replacing as well but I want to take the opportunity to upgrade.
There don't seem to be many reviews for mobos at the cheaper end of the market - found one for the GA-M720-US3 but they didn't think much of it's overclocking abilities - maybe I won't need it too much with that cpu. There don't seem to be that many alternatives out there either. As soon as you hit the £60-70 mark the boards start to come with integrated gfx - this will be wasted on me, but would the different chipsets offer other advantages? Any opinion on the Asus M3N78 Pro: Geforce 8300?
 
For cheap mobo and CPU combo I would go with a Foxconn G31MX-K Motherboard and Q6600/Q6700. I have built 3 machines with this MB and CPU now, for mates and they overclock very easily. Never tried massive overclocks though. But they are incredibly cheap!
 
The GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 board is now at the same price as the GA-M720-US3. Looks to be just a difference in chipset between the two, but which do you think is better?
 
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