System upgrade, alternatives?

[Pob255]

Someone at work asked me to look at her pc, it's an acer aspire and not booting.
2x2gb ram ddr2, c2q q6600, matx case, delta 300w psu
motherboard is an msi one the old nvidia 610i chipset, so onboard GeForce 7050
on power up both the POST and BIOS screens corrupted, my guess is it's the motherboard.
I stuck a spare 610gt in it and they are no longer messed up, but windows is refusing to boot.
Took the hard drive out and tried to access it on another pc and I can.
Trying to boot it via a windows8PE and I get a bsod, error code points to motherboard AHCI error
So I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard.

Replacement socket 775 matx boards are rather thin on the ground now so I suggest an upgrade and replace the internals.
The case is fine, hard drive is good, bluray is good, psu . . . not sure delta's are normally solid but bios is only showing 11.85v on the 12v which is a bit low.

So need new cpu+motherboard+ram, max budget is £300 but lower is better, would be good to squeeze in an ssd
Main use is part dvd player, part remote control plane stuff (relatively cpu heavy not gpu heavy) hooked into a tv via hdmi So I was thinking maybe AMD APU

From scan
Asus F2A55-M, A55 FCH, FM2, DDR3, SATA II 3Gb/s, RAID, PCIe 2.0 (x16), D-Sub/DVI-D/HDMI, MATX, USB 3.0
£55.86 inc VAT
AMD A10 7850K Black Edition, S FM2+, Kaveri Core, Quad Core, 4.0GHz, AMD Radeon R7, 95W, Retail
£130.54 inc VAT
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V
£62.16
Total £248.56 leaving £50 for an ssd or PSU

Opinions?
Options?
Intel equivalent? I was thinking i5-4440 3.1GHz Socket 1150 Quad Core Haswell £132, same ram, not sure on the motherboard?

[AETAaAS]

You have selected a FM2+ CPU and a FM2 mobo. FM2 APUs can go in FM2+ boards but FM2+ APUs cannot go in FM2 mobos. I think a 7850k is overkill for what I imagine is largely office work (though I have no idea what your friend does).

If you are going to go with APUs,
Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-DS2 (FM2+ for a little future proofing, minimal cost anyway £40.54) http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...sub-dvi-d-matx

Then take a A8 6500 (can go for a 6600K, but the 6500 offers a lot of the same in a 65W package plus it is still miles ahead of the current system especially in the GPU department). ~£74

Can keep your RAM choice.
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V £62.16

That is about £180 which leaves you a lot of room to breathe for SSDs. Don't know how big you want it but a 240GB Crucial M500 is the cheapest ATM and is a solid choice. £88
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/240gb...-250mb-s-write

[Pob255]

Opps Sorry I meant Asus A88XM-A FM2+ £45.46
Total £238.15

That gigabyte motherboard is no good because it lacks hdmi, it's being used for both sound and image so dvi adaptors are out.

The A8 6500 looks good though

I was looking at a 120gb ssd, with the current hard drive for extra storage

[Agent]

What's the PC used for and was the old one powerful enough before it went?

I'd seriously take a look at the AIO solutions out there like the Revo and NUC. For home users, they have tons of power, are small and super energy efficient. You could drop a SSD in them too.

I guess it just depends on how much power they need, but don't underestimate the new wave of AIO machines. I was in a similar position recently and there was no point in my case going with anything else

[Pob255]

Nice idea but I'm not sure they would cut it (in the price range you're looking at a laptop dual core i3 cpu) and they lack an optical drive for dvd/bluray watching.

I mentioned the use

Main use is part dvd player, part remote control plane stuff (relatively cpu heavy not gpu heavy) hooked into a tv via hdmi

although I do need to get some more details, I know one of the rc things is real flight which is cpu and ram heavy, while the official "specs" are dual core most seem to recommend quad core for it.

Which is why I was looking at an i5-4440 alternative, less gpu grunt but more cpu grunt, just not sure which motherboard, I'm behind on the intel side
edit: there's some video editing stuff too, nothing to major though, mainly 720p from a camera mounted on an rc plane.

[AETAaAS]

If you think the GPU can go light, the 4440 is a possibility. However, it is £132 on Scan. It potentially runs hotter and louder than the 6500 and costs significantly more; I'm not sure it's worth it.

The Intel system could cost;
Intel i5 4440 £131.94
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...tio-84w-retail

Asus H87M-E (selected over the H81 for expandability and avoided the more expensive Z boards, which don't offer much in this scenario anyway) £64.64
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...vi-d-hdmi-micr

Same RAM £62.16\
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V

Total £258.74

Compared to the £180 or so for the 6500, the Asus mobo and RAM. On the SSD front, you can similarly go for the 120GB M500 but I'd push for the 240GB since the incremental cost is not that much, the write performance is better and larger SSDs generally last longer because of better wear leveling.

edit; Should add a caveat that even a 120GB would last for a very long time before potentially failing, but with a Q6600 still in play, I imagine long upgrade cycles are a possibility with this system. Also, depending on the case, may as well throw in a nice cooler for to keep it quiet since it will be used for watching media. My recommendation if it fits; a Zalman CNPS5X. Used it on my 1090T with no problems on a mild 3.6GHz overclock (mind you, the 1090T was a 125W part out of the box) and it was still pretty quiet. On a system like this, it should be near silent and you can get one for around £15 if you are so inclined. Or I have a Thermaltake Frio which I would happily negotiate away for a similar price.

[DanceswithUnix]

On the old machine, have you tried replacing the battery and doing a clear CMOS?

I think the current bang for buck APU is the 6790K at £92

http://www.ebuyer.com/613494-amd-a10...-ad679kwohlbox

Would need an aftermarket fan to make an APU quiet enough for DVD watching though.