Advice for a friend's new (part) build

[MSIC]

My friend, who moved to the US some years ago, informed me that his main rig recently broke (motherboard-related).
He is very strapped for cash, and cant afford to buy anything for quite a few months, so me and another friend are hoping to step up for Christmas and buy enough to get him going again.

What i'm thinking is:
Budget - cheap, i'm afraid. We (us in the UK) want to be generous, but not crazy. probably $150 max.
Components - needs a new Mobo, CPU and quite probably RAM (need to confirm the RAM issue).
He'll then be able to use his Radeon 3870 again.
Payment - it'll go on my credit or debit card, but needs to be bought and posted within the US. Actually, it doesnt need to be bought in the US, but it'll be silly to buy in UK then ship across.

What i'm thinking so far is (from NewEgg website):

ASROCK mobo, N68-S (AM3) microATX $42
ADATA 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 RAM $33
Athlon II X3 445 3.1Ghz $74

Shipping is $4, total is $152.

Does this look like what i should be doing? Any obvious mistakes, or alternatives welcome

PS his wife will blow her top if he spends any himself, so I wanted it to be a nice surprise from his UK pals

[garin94]

Just a suggestion:

2GB (1x2GB) Crucial Ram : http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...=ct12864ba1339

Gigabyte MoBo: http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...=ga-ma74gmt-s2

AMD Athlon II X2 - http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...=adx250ocgqbox

Free delivery
Total £97

[MSIC]

Free delivery

Really? Are you SURE?

Also, the similar components that I posted first of all can be bought from the Amazon.com website, with my UK login (and can pay in GBP), so that sorts that out. Current total is $167, which is £111.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get the following parts:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.566265

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-788-_-Product

I assume the PSU is a decent one??

[MSIC]

Great advice , thanks, i had previously assumed I was looking for DDR2 only.
As for the PSU... dont know. I know that it was a self-build (although a very old Athlon 754-type), and he is an IT guy himself, and also that the whole thing will reside in an Antec Sonata case. I'll ask him.

[Pob255]

What has he currently got?

Athlon 754-type? ummm I don't think they came in pci-e only agp which could prove to be a problem.

[Sputnik]

What has he currently got?

Athlon 754-type? ummm I don't think they came in pci-e only agp which could prove to be a problem.

Wouldn't the IGP on the board Cat has suggested be better than his current graphics card? (I'm not sure on graphics cards so might be wrong)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

He'll then be able to use his Radeon 3870 again.

What has he currently got?

Athlon 754-type? ummm I don't think they came in pci-e only agp which could prove to be a problem.

Wouldn't the IGP on the board Cat has suggested be better than his current graphics card? (I'm not sure on graphics cards so might be wrong)

An HD3870!

[MSIC]

???
It's a 3870, top of the line a few years ago and still pretty strong today.
I know, since I have one too, and can happily play Civ V at 1920 x 1080.

[MSIC]

What has he currently got?

Athlon 754-type? ummm I don't think they came in pci-e only agp which could prove to be a problem.

You lost me.
We are buying a new motherboard, CPU and RAM, so how do the slots in the old motherboard count?

[Sputnik]

You lost me.
We are buying a new motherboard, CPU and RAM, so how do the slots in the old motherboard count?

Because you can't use an AGP graphics card in a board that only has a PCI-e slot.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

An HD3870 is a PCI-E card. I still have the GDDR4 version in my second PC.

[Sputnik]

An HD3870 is a PCI-E card. I still have the GDDR4 version in my second PC.

All is clear now, I don't have a clue about graphics cards(or the specs. of them).

I was not sure if it was one of those GPU's they did both AGP & PCI-e versions.


The numbering system just seems soo confusing to me, Why can't it just be made simple with a more powerful GPU having a higher number.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

All is clear now, I don't have a clue about graphics cards(or the specs. of them).

I was not sure if it was one of those GPU's they did both AGP & PCI-e versions.


The numbering system just seems soo confusing to me, Why can't it just be made simple with a more powerful GPU having a higher number.

The HD3870 was released in late 2007 around the same time as Crysis. It was the fastest single GPU ATI card at the time. Basically it is between a 9600GT and 9800GT in games when AA is not used.