Looking for best Motherboard / CPU combo for £200

[i4000]

Hi All,

It looks like I've managed to pop my PSU, motherboard, and potentially CPU due to a power spike. I replaced the PSU with a NorthQ 850W from Scan (on a nice today only deal on Wednesday), but the system still appears dead. I have approx £200 quid to spend and I'm torn between:

1. Buy a new motherboard, install existing CPU and hope all is well.
2. Buy a new motherboard / cpu combo and not have to cross fingers

Was running an AMD 6400+ CPU with an ASUS M2N-E, so obviously looking for better performance

For £200 I can buy a very nice Phenom X3 8750 for £100 leaving £100 for the motherboard (sticking with AMD). Or if I switch to Intel I can go for an E7300, again leaving £100 for the motherboard.

Graphics card is a 9600GT which I have confirmed is still working in a friends PC.

Does anyone have any suggestions / advice?

[staffsMike]

The phenom 9950 black edition and reasonable motherboard will be good too. Intel wise you can go for the E5200 which gives most of the performance without overclocking and is only £60. It overclocks to 3.0Ghz+ anyway.

The 9950 also overclocks to 3.0GHz with ease due to an unlocked multiplier. Therefore overclock boards are not a great requirement.

As for options, I would buy the board first, see if the CPU works and then if it doesn't get the Phenom.

[Webby]

I would probably not go for the X3, my advice is if you want to stick with AMD then get the X2 7750 Black Edition (£65, which is based on the Phenom processor rather than the old X2) and a nice 790GX or FX (newer model with the 750SB) for the motherboard. I would probably go for the DFI board so one of these DFI DK 790GX-M2RS or DFI DK 790FXB-M2RSH both are very similar in specification most of the high overclocking of Phenom CPUs has been done on the 790GX boards if that is important to you.

By getting a nice decent AM2+ motherboard you open up the option to upgrade to Phenom II AM3 CPUs later in the year when the full range is released

Edit: As Mike says worth getting the board first to test your old CPU, still recommend the boards above.

[i4000]

Cheers guys, I think you're right, I'll stick with AMD, go for a new motherboard first and try my existing CPU. I'm going to have a nose around for reviews on those two boards you mentioned Webby.

Cheers

[i4000]

I would probably go for the DFI board so one of these [DFI DK 790GX-M2RS or DFI DK 790FXB-M2RSH both are very similar in specification most of the high overclocking of Phenom CPUs has been done on the 790GX boards if that is important to you.

By getting a nice decent AM2+ motherboard you open up the option to upgrade to Phenom II AM3 CPUs later in the year when the full range is released

Edit: As Mike says worth getting the board first to test your old CPU, still recommend the boards above.

Cheers Webby, I followed your advice and got a DFI DK 790GX-M2RS (most I've ever spent on a motherboard) and everything works fine. The reason I was pondering buying a cpu at the same time was to avoid the shipping delay, luckily I found a place only 30 miles away that had the motherboard in stock

Also thanks to staffsMike

[Webby]

Cool glad to hear that its all up and running and working fine You can look forward to the Phenom II AM3 CPU's in the not to distant future and get one of those if the urge takes you Gotta love AMD for making everything backwards compatible