AMD Build

[kmac]

Under the guise of upgrading my old Athlon 1400 based system, I built a whole new Core i5 based system which is sweet. Now my daughter is saying the old Athlon machine is too slow for her "Club Penguin" games.

So since it already has a nice case and PSU, and a couple of IDE/PATA drives, i thought I would just get a CPU, mobo, RAM and cooler. Want to keep it under £200. Issue is graphics. No gaming donein the traditional ( Crysis etc) sense only kids games. I have an old Asus v7100 twinview card (based on nVidia GeForece 2 MX 200 chip)

So, can I reuse this or will it be better to get a mobo with integrated graphics?
Also, whats the AMD sweet CPU spot in terms of price performance?

IDE drives would really only be used for OS as I have also recently built a nice NAS server based on FreeNAS

Any advice appreciated

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would say for your budget the triple core Athlon II X3 435 would be ideal!!

This is what I would get:

AMD Athlon II X3 435 ~ £58

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

ASRock ASR-A780GM-LE/128M ~ £43

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ASRoc...SATA-RAID-mATX

Has 128MB of dedicated RAM on the motherboard for the HD3200 IGP!

4GB 1066MHZ DDR2 ~ £69

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £36

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

[kmac]

Thanks CAT, ordering that lot later tonight

[scaryjim]

the HD3200 will be about 1000x better than a GeForce 2 based graphics card, frankly Quite apart from virtually no mobos have AGP slots any more... (or is it a PCI graphics card?)

[kmac]

Ah you're right it is an AGP one. Didn't even think of that.

[scaryjim]

mm, another thought - make sure the PSU will provide enough power on the correct rails for a modern system. Back in the Athlon days a lot of CPUs drew more power from the 5V rail, whereas they now tend to draw most of their power from the 12v rail. You *should* be OK (I've got an ASUS 785M EVO running off a 5 year old PSU) but you might want to check that (I think all AM2 / AM3 boards require at least a 4pin 12v connector, for instance...)

[kmac]

I've got a Corsair HX520 or 620 ( will need to open it and check as I can't remember). It s a new modular type so should be able to cope. I upgraded to it some time ago in anticipation of this day as well as to keep the noise down form the previous one I had in there (a Hiper)

[Pob255]

Well a HX520 or 620 is down right overkill, it'll not be an issue.

Only thing I would change, if you need to reduce the costs is

CPU Athlon II x2 245 £45.53 (on today only)
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Also a couple of cheap sticks of ddr2 pc2-8500 1gb for 2gb total £16.44 x2 = £32.88
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-E...n-CAS-5-5-5-15

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The X3 435 is an excellent CPU for the price.

Here is a comparison with a Core i5 750:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/defau...x?p=112&p2=109

OK,the Core i5 is better but not always twice as better!!

[kmac]

Set on the X3 435 - Think it has good price to performance ratio.

Going to hold off on order till tomorrow as I need to sortout OS as well. Have an XP license but considering Win 7

[Domestic_Ginger]

I'm with the Mooseman on the tri. As Pob mentioned consider cutting back on the ram to 2gb and upgrade later/second hand if anything.

[kmac]

I'm with the Mooseman on the tri. As Pob mentioned consider cutting back on the ram to 2gb and upgrade later/second hand if anything.

With only two RAM slots on the board, upgrading later is a bit tricky if I am buying matched pairs

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you can afford to get 4GB then I would go for it - at least you should not run out of RAM in the PC for sometime!!

[kmac]

Yeah I've gone for the 4GB CAT suggested earlier - all to be delivered Wed 03 Feb

Also chucked in a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 as I've no idea how quiet or not the stock AMD coolers are

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeah I've gone for the 4GB CAT suggested earlier - all to be delivered Wed 03 Feb

Also chucked in a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 as I've no idea how quiet or not the stock AMD coolers are

If you could give a quick user review of the whole setup it would be nice to gauge how good it is for general usage!!

Some benchmarks against a Core i5 would be nice!!

[kmac]

Will do CAT, but as you linked earlier AnandTech already have these on their site