Friend blew up his motherboard (lol), spec replacement for £300

[Dreaming]

Hey guys.

My friend was using one of those generic 400w PSUs that come with cases and its apparently fried his motherboard. So he needs a new motherboard, and since his last one was a socket A, he'll need a new CPU, new memory, and a new graphics card. And I think a new PSU would be sensible, too

I was speccing up but it seems quite hard to come in under £300 for something that's decent for gaming...


PSU - Corsair VX450 - £44.05

http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=644038



Motherboard - Abit IP35 - £66.49

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=605524



CPU - Intel E7200 - £84.09

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=778510



Memory - 2GB Corsair TwinX XMS2 PC6400 - £31.30

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=255300



GPU - 512MB PowerColor (sic) HD3850

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=722240



Total - £315.52

Budget - £300

Overspend - £15.52


I think with my mate, £300 really is his ceiling price so needs to come in under that, but I can't see where to make cuts without losing out more significantly in value.

[kalniel]

You have a poor value for money GPU in there - I would consider going second hand or waiting for the price drops as that card is only worth ~£65 now IMHO, bringing you back on budget.

You could save a tenner going for a E4600 processor.

[SiM]

Keep that CPU, its nice... I have one

I suggest you look for everything second hand... should be able to easily get a nice 8800gt/3850 system for under £300

[Dreaming]

You have a poor value for money GPU in there - I would consider going second hand or waiting for the price drops as that card is only worth ~£65 now IMHO, bringing you back on budget.

You could save a tenner going for a E4600 processor.

Yea I would have liked something better but was running out of budget. The 'PC experts' who said his motherboard failed haven't recommended him getting a new PSU. Silly really.

Then again, coming from socket A with a fx5700 anything is going to be an improvement.

[DavidM]

Also submitting an offer request or two may be a good idea...

[!TIMMY!]

OCZ Stealth Xtream 500W PSU - £34.77

Then that free's up a little £ for:

Zotac 8800GT AMP Edition 512mb - £97.94

Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 (4-4-4-12) - £35.33

Free super saver delivery.

The rest looks fine to me, and it will be well worth the extra £20!