Looking for a bit of advice here folks my mates wanting to update his computer but he only has the budget to do it in stages so first off he wants to get a new mother board and processor, but still using the memory that he already has (ddr2 pc 2700 he has a 1gb and 512 mb crucial sticks) He has £150ish to spend on the motherboard and processor any ideas what he should be looking for?
need new motherboard and processor
- Thread starter ashbash
- Start date
What mobo does he have at the moment? And the standard question what is the intended use? 'Modern' games (crysis, grid etc)? video editing?
If hes got a 775 he could spend most of that £150 on a Q6*00. A BIOS update may even provide provide 45nm Penryn support meaning the E8*00s are an option. He can then go for a few extra GB RAM and a 1333/1600 FSB motherboard in a few months.
Whilst Intel still rule the roost, if he's got an AM2 board same goes for the BIOS update but AMDs Phenom will be what you are looking for.
If he wants Intel but currently has AMD, and hasn't got the extra £30 at the moment for a mid-range P35 board, then he can pick up a cheap P31 mobo or a factory P35 reburb (available from overclockers.co.uk) and an E8400/Q6600 for the £150 budget. That way he can get a higher spec mobo (£70+) when he buys the RAM at a later date.
Off to get some prices...
If hes got a 775 he could spend most of that £150 on a Q6*00. A BIOS update may even provide provide 45nm Penryn support meaning the E8*00s are an option. He can then go for a few extra GB RAM and a 1333/1600 FSB motherboard in a few months.
Whilst Intel still rule the roost, if he's got an AM2 board same goes for the BIOS update but AMDs Phenom will be what you are looking for.
If he wants Intel but currently has AMD, and hasn't got the extra £30 at the moment for a mid-range P35 board, then he can pick up a cheap P31 mobo or a factory P35 reburb (available from overclockers.co.uk) and an E8400/Q6600 for the £150 budget. That way he can get a higher spec mobo (£70+) when he buys the RAM at a later date.
Off to get some prices...
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Spec'ing up a new CPU and mobo:
CPU (only recommending Intels here):
E8400, £110.44: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-192-IN
E8500, £126.89: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-193-IN
Q6600, £115.31: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-161-IN
Motherboard (would recommend the mid-range P35):
Budget chipset P31, £44.64: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-095-MS
Refub P35, £35.24: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-313-AS (please note you won't get any 'extras' with this, i.e. no SATA leads or I/O plate)
Budget P35, £58.74: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-242-AS
Mid-range P35, £88.11: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-241-AS - There are cheaper mid-rage P35 boards, but with eSATA, built in wifi, 2xfirewire and gigabit LAN this is the most 'complete' IMO.
With the E8400 and Asus P5K-E WiFi your mate would be looking closer to £200 once you factor in postage.
[edit] ~£190 with 5 day postage from ebuyer:
mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129126
cpu: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971
CPU (only recommending Intels here):
E8400, £110.44: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-192-IN
E8500, £126.89: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-193-IN
Q6600, £115.31: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-161-IN
Motherboard (would recommend the mid-range P35):
Budget chipset P31, £44.64: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-095-MS
Refub P35, £35.24: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-313-AS (please note you won't get any 'extras' with this, i.e. no SATA leads or I/O plate)
Budget P35, £58.74: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-242-AS
Mid-range P35, £88.11: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-241-AS - There are cheaper mid-rage P35 boards, but with eSATA, built in wifi, 2xfirewire and gigabit LAN this is the most 'complete' IMO.
With the E8400 and Asus P5K-E WiFi your mate would be looking closer to £200 once you factor in postage.
[edit] ~£190 with 5 day postage from ebuyer:
mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129126
cpu: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971
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thanks mate much appreciated i will forward on the info to my mate should have said that he does not need a high spec pc of gaming the only games that he ever plays are miniclip lol the main things he uses his pc for is downloading film, games and his porn lol what he was hoping for was something that would speed up the processing of the rar files into the image it takes ages for his machine to do it just now other than download from newsgroups he only surfs the net goes on msn and pulls his email down.thanks again ash
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Before you go any further, PC2700 ram is NOT DDRII.
Check for sure what ram he is using first, in fact I would just buy some ram with the new board and processor as it is pointless uprgrading with DDr ram.
1 gig of DDRII ram is cheap as chips anyway, even cheaper second hand.
Check for sure what ram he is using first, in fact I would just buy some ram with the new board and processor as it is pointless uprgrading with DDr ram.
1 gig of DDRII ram is cheap as chips anyway, even cheaper second hand.
thanks for the heads up on that one mate, i will let him know. he told me that his memory was pc2700 and i assumed that it was ddr2 oops. i have to admit that I'm keeping a close eye on what he gets, as I'm thinking of changing my own pc, but i would be looking at a complete base unit rather than just updating bits and bobs as i go along.
OK just off the phone to my mate and he is now going to blow his budget and go for the mobo and cpu recommended by little pob mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129126
cpu: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971
which is £15 cheaper than overclockers plus free delivery. he did find this memory on offer at overclockers : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-114-OC
which is only £61 plus whatever delivery is from overclockers. ebuyer is £111 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148036
is this a good choice of memory to complement the mobo and cpu combo? or is he spending to much on the memory? keeping in mind that he was only going to spend £150 and is now looking at upping that by £100 adding the memory into it.
cpu: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971
which is £15 cheaper than overclockers plus free delivery. he did find this memory on offer at overclockers : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-114-OC
which is only £61 plus whatever delivery is from overclockers. ebuyer is £111 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148036
is this a good choice of memory to complement the mobo and cpu combo? or is he spending to much on the memory? keeping in mind that he was only going to spend £150 and is now looking at upping that by £100 adding the memory into it.
If he was gaming or converting video then the PC2-8500 should give him ~5% on PC2-6400. From personal experience this equates to approx 2 sec quicker map load time on a COD4 LAN game to someone running otherwise identical hardware.
Whilst he'll only save about £10 on a PC2-6400 4GB kit there are more DDR2 800 modules on the QVL list than there are DDR2 1066, therefore more compatibility: http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1655&modelmenu=1
Also if going for more than 3Gb RAM, he should be looking at a 64bit OS...
Whilst he'll only save about £10 on a PC2-6400 4GB kit there are more DDR2 800 modules on the QVL list than there are DDR2 1066, therefore more compatibility: http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1655&modelmenu=1
Also if going for more than 3Gb RAM, he should be looking at a 64bit OS...
he is only running a 32 bit xp os mate, he only jumped on that memory as he thought it was a really good deal and also that it was compatible with your recommendation of mobo and cpu combo ? i have tried to see what the site says about compatibility but I'm lost sorry but i just cant see it for the life of me
It is a good deal (I paid about £100 for 4x1Gb Corsair PC2-8500C5), and it should work. The QVL (qualified vendors list) merely states memory that has been tested by Asus in the motherboard. OCZ may list the board as tested as working on their site.
Might be worthwhile searching google for Asus P5K-E OCZ PC2-8500C5 to see if anyone has the same set up/come across problems.
Worth noting that 4Gb probably won't show as 4Gb under a 32bit OS, and may even show lower than 3Gb (depending on graphics card and other expansion cards). I've found 32bit XP really doesn't need more than 2Gb anyway, unless re-encoding for several hours a day.
Might be worthwhile searching google for Asus P5K-E OCZ PC2-8500C5 to see if anyone has the same set up/come across problems.
Worth noting that 4Gb probably won't show as 4Gb under a 32bit OS, and may even show lower than 3Gb (depending on graphics card and other expansion cards). I've found 32bit XP really doesn't need more than 2Gb anyway, unless re-encoding for several hours a day.
mate thanks for the spoon feeding lol. hope to hell this ends the constant phoning and asking "what do i go for" and he goes ahead and orders everything he needs and all being well i might go down the same road as him shortly
