Re: super cheap build £200
You'd probably be best trying to pick up a full second-hand system then, if needed, use any remaining budget for a graphics card.
Re: super cheap build £200
4830 or 4770's will serve you very well at that resolution :)
If you get certain AMD boards you would be able to crossfire with the IGP but they are probably too expensive and pointless to consider here.
The asus 760G board is £45 making it great value, stick a nice dual core £50
BOARD http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=998660
CPU http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1040351
Re: super cheap build £200
I'd be tempted to throw in a new HD. The 80g drive may be cheep but would be very annoying when it fails after you've just set your new machine up. You can get new disks which should be more reliable than your old 80G.
Just my 2c
Re: super cheap build £200
But then if it is just for gaming who cares if it fails, could be up and running again in a day..
Re: super cheap build £200
Quote:
Originally Posted by
staffsMike
But then if it is just for gaming who cares if it fails, could be up and running again in a day..
Ah fair point, I just hate rebuilding failed drives.. must be as a result of having two HD problems inside two weeks :(
Re: super cheap build £200
Well I agree it's always nice to be running what you hope is a reliable drive (and have a back up ideally) but doing the odd reinstall never hurts and these days doesn't even take very long :)
Re: super cheap build £200
that mikestaff, I'll admit I'm a bit unsure about which of the amd chip sets are good, and what to look for.
I do like the look/sound of the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/GIGAB...770T-UD3P-MOBO
and I remember that the J&W 780G was good
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/JandW...RAID-uATX-HDCP
However nether are in stock :(
what should I be looking at in the way of north&south bridge?
and is it worth it to get something decent, and a low end cpu so later upgrade if needed?
What chip sets should I be looking at for which processors?
oh yes, the 80gb sata is near enough unused, I had it running for about 3 weeks before replacing it, I tend to find that bearing excessive heat hard drives die within a year or just keep going.
The 80gb seagate in my pc is at least 6 years old and still going strong.
heck I've got an old scsi in a draw that's over 10 years old and still working well last time I used it.
how about this 3850?
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139617
Re: super cheap build £200
This is what I would be looking at:
Athlon II X2 245 ~ £50
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1040351
Asus 760G motherboard ~ £45
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...Board-VGA-HDCP
Has the SB710 southbridge which is an improvement over the SB700 found in many 780G based motherboards. Also DDR3 does not show much improvement with the Athlon II AFAIK unlike the Phenom II X2.
4gb PC2-8500 DDR2 ~ £37
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-%...S-5-6-6-18-EPP
Sapphire HD4830 512MB ~ £67
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=HD4830&x=0&y=0
Has the lowest idle power consumption of any HD4830 I have read about.
OCZ 400W StealthXStream PSU ~ £35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505
It is a bit over budget but should be able to play most of today's games at reasonable settings and resolutions!
Re: super cheap build £200
that was the next question as I just spotted this
MSI 770-C45 £63 but ddr3 :(
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?MSI-770C45
http://www.siliconmadness.com/2009/0...impresses.html
apparently athlonII 250 + liquid nitrogen = 200% overclock :D
ok wouldn't go near that, but the board does look damb nice.
Re: super cheap build £200
Ok I have to admit to being a little confused over AM2, AM2+ and AM3
namely which cpu's can go in which sockets?
Re: super cheap build £200
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pob255
Ok I have to admit to being a little confused over AM2, AM2+ and AM3
namely which cpu's can go in which sockets?
Err here goes:
AM2, AM2+ are completely interchangeable - you can use either CPU with either motherboard.
Some AM2+ motherboards support AM3 CPUs with a BIOS update but you can't use an AM2/AM2+ CPU in an AM3 motherboard.
Where different socket parts are used together, both parts will run at the lower spec.
Hope this helps :)
Re: super cheap build £200
Basically AMD processors have the memory controller in the CPU. AM2 CPUs only have a DDR2 memory controller whereas AM3 CPUs have both a DDR2 and DDR3 memory controller meaning the latter can be used in both DDR2 and DDR3 motherbaords.AM2 and AM2+ motherboards use DDR2 RAM.AM2 motherboards can only take AM2 processors whereas AM2+ motherboards can take both AM2 and AM3 CPUs.AM3 motherboards can take only AM3 CPUs and use DDR3 RAM.
Re: super cheap build £200
Looking around on fleabay now
Forget current generation, etailers sell them cheaper but drop down a generation or two and you're good
8800gt and 8800gts 512mb for around 50-70
very few c2d cpu's :( a couple of old e4x00 and the old pentium dual core e2xx0 chips for about £40-50
Although I'm tempted by an old pentium D 3ghz for £10
Excuse my noobness, I lost track of the AMDs execpt they where not up to the c2d and there great oc'ing
How good where the AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2.0 GHz 3800+ ? they can be got for around £30
Looking through the motherboard section is a nightmare, no one seems to have even bothered to read there cut and paste specs and connection them with the sub catagories :rolleyes:
Hopefully I'll be able to find something intresting which would otherwise be over looked and so get it cheap.
But it's going to take me a few hours.
EDIT: ok that's a bit clearer, you both get thanks even though I'll have to admit CAT made it more clear.
If I'm reading you right if I have an AMD2+ motherboard with correct bios updates, I should be able to use any AM2 or AM3 cpu (as long as that model (eg phenonII) is supported) So a later AM2+ motherboard would give the greatest range of supported CPU
EDIT2: here's a great example of fleabay listing, under socket 775, MSI DKA790GX Platinum AM2,VGA,SATA2,GBLan,ATX :rolleyes:
but more commonly trying to narrow down the search
Quote:
Form factor
ATX (106)
BTX (2)
Full AT (4)
Micro AT (1)
Micro ATX (9)
Mini ATX (1)
Mini ITX (2)
uATX (3)
Not Specified (1,301)
Re: super cheap build £200
OK I've had an insane idea
Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI
+e5200
OK not much future upgrade potential but should OC nicely due to the low FSB of the e5200 (I know it needs BIOS update to use it but I can always ether buy a really cheap 775 cpu or drop my e6600 in there just for that)
however I've seen something else that I'm going to keep quiet about and hope no one notices it . . .
Re: super cheap build £200
Ebuyer were having an HD4850 for around £72 delivered recently and Novatech have one for around £74 delivered with a copy of the game GRID:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?NOV-4850
OcUK have the same HD4850 Ebuyer had for around £72 for the same price excluding delivery:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-095-PC
TBH, second hand prices of the E5200 on Ebay are quite high and the 2.9ghz X2 245 is only a tad slower than the 3.0ghz X2 250 which at stock speeds destroys an E5200 for gaming:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...0-cpu-review/5
The X2 250 is faster than even an E5400 in most games:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...2_9.html#sect0
http://www.techspot.com/review/171-a...x2/page10.html
Edit!
It seems the X2 245 is faster than the E5300 for gaming:
http://en.hardspell.com/doc/enshowco...38&pageid=4863