Which hardware to buy? £200(ish) to spend, help!!

dazednconfuzed

dazednconfuzed

dazednconfuzed

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11 Jan 2010
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Hi folks,

Decided to upgrade my pc (mainly used for playing high def movies over a LAN and some low spec gaming) I'm getting a new motherboard, processor, graphics card and RAM and at the moment am I'm looking at:

- Intel Celeron (E3200) 2.4GHz Processor with 1024KB L2 Cache and 800MHz FSB
- Kingston KVR800D2N6/2G - Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 800MHz DDR2
- MSI S775 INTEL G31 2XDDRII-800 1333FSB X3100 GRAPHICS GBE LAN MICRO-ATX MOTHERBOARD
- MSI ATI R 4770-T2D512 PCI-E

Coming in at just over £200

Will then attach my old HDD, DVD writer, PSU and put it in my existing case.

Problem is, I have no idea if these are the right things to get, if I can get better, etc? Motherboard bundles seem to be a good option too?

Assistance please!
 
I would go for something more like this. I'm sure people can suggest further improvements..



The reason for these choices is that an AM3 system will not only come cheap, but will also have some longevity to it. The spec you've posted is on a dead socket with old tech almost all round. This means that when it comes time to upgrade this machine again, you'll have to junk everything.

With an AM3 box you wont have to worry about replacing every single component in, say, a year. You can just switch out for, say, a new processor or new RAM. I've had to swap the graphics card down to a 4670, but it's a good card. Should see you through for some low-res gaming :)

(oh and if you can stretch your budget a tad higher, I would get the Athlon 250 rather than the 245. Few extra MHz never hurt anyone ;))
 
the parts you listed are fine for the use, but with a an extra £50-£100 could get a AMD setup for upgradability for the long run
 
The one glaring standout thing is I would definitely not get a Celeron.

The standout issue on Alex74's list, is the memory. It is 1 stick of 2GB memory.

You should get a matched pair of memory to run in dual channel. It is inadvisable to buy one stick of memory now on the assumption that you will buy another stick later down the road to use in dual channel.

But other than this I would say for value for money, AMD is definitely the route to go down.
 
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