Rig advice pls

rmuir

rmuir

rmuir

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Joined
18 Mar 2006
Posts
1,252
Bro goes to uni in September and needs a computer, his doing Mechanical Engineering and will be using it for course work and also games and media.

Ive got an idea of what he should have but advice/suggestions are welcome!

So far i reckon an am2 rig should do the trick, tho to reduce his spend, is there anything wrong with 939?

Or am i being daft and is conroe the way to go?

Anyway, budget is anything from 650 :cool: to 800 :)

cheers folks
 
Do you need keyboard, mouse, monitor or software? There is nothing wrong with socket 939 in that AM2 isn't really any faster currently but you are then committed to a platform that has already had its fastest chips released. Conroe is probably a better bet but it depends on what(if anything) else you need.
 
rmuir said:
Bro goes to uni in September and needs a computer, his doing Mechanical Engineering and will be using it for course work and also games and media.

Ive got an idea of what he should have but advice/suggestions are welcome!

So far i reckon an am2 rig should do the trick, tho to reduce his spend, is there anything wrong with 939?

Or am i being daft and is conroe the way to go?

Anyway, budget is anything from 650 :cool: to 800 :)

cheers folks
Click to expand...

if you go with 939 to keep the costs down (i.e. the dual core specials in the 939 range are stonkingly good value) and want an easy upgrade path to AM2 and DDR2, go for an Asrock Dual 939 SATA2 or Asrock 939-SLI32-eSATA2 (if you want sli)

both of these boards have an expansion socket on them, basically a few months down the line, you buy an expansion board for your mobo for about £18. on the board is an AM2 socket and DDR2 sockets :) hey presto, your on AM2. and as AM3 will be compatible with AM2 you potentially wouldnt need to change your board for about 2 years! :eek:
 
need everything bar the monitor. and to that end i had a stab at a spec, before vat is the price we are working too

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
MB-147-AS Asus M2N-E (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-147-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CP-172-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-172-AM)
£189.95 £189.95
MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)
£105.95 £105.95
GX-006-EA EVGA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-006-EA)
£169.95 £169.95
HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
£52.55 £52.55
CD-033-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£22.95 £22.95
CA-035-AN Antec Performance TX1088AMG Metallic Grey Tower Case - 480w Truepower PSU (CA-035-AN)
£80.75 £80.75
KB-066-LG Logitech Media Keyboard Elite - Retail (KB-066-LG)
£16.95 £16.95
KB-046-LG Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (KB-046-LG)
£5.50 £5.50
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£51.95 £51.95
Subtotal £756.45
 
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Chose to dismiss conroe because he won't be overclocking and it would seem that the value of those chips seems to only be fully realised after some tinkering.

Unless im missing something really obvious here it would appear that skt am2 boards will be am3 compatible ( if and when ) so as per an upgrade path/future proofing I think im gonna be safe with those choices. However, opinions are welcomed here folks, please!
 
fo not dismiss conroe the E6600 is still far more powerful than the 5000= but for not much more even the E6400 is better imo at stock than the 5000+ i would still go conroe
 
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