Budget AMD Athlon X2 System

[pp05]

I'm looking to build a budget system based on AMD Athlon X2 that will run quiet and cool. Gaming isn't important but multimedia will be.

I'll be using my existing tower and 330w Seasonic PSU. It won't be oc'd, will eventually have a single gpu or maybe go with one at start.

I'm not sure whether a mobo with onboard graphics is better than one without but with a budget end card as they can run quiet hot and might be noisy. Also ddr2 or ddr3?

Rough budget is 200 without gpu, 240 with gpu card.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I would look at the 785g boards which have plenty of reviews and come with onboard graphics. There is an MSI Am3 at scan for (~£50 but is on back order). DDR2 and DDR3 look to be about the same price atm; Budget DDR3 for £64 leaving about £85 for the CPU.

There are a slew of new tri and quad core athlonIIs out there and some energy efficient models too which may be worth investigating. A tricore is only £7 more at scan. I warn you the stock cooler will probably be horrible and I am sure it is teh same one that came with my S939 3200+. Check compatibility with the mobo vendors website for wattage and processor support (and the memory too!).

[simonw]

+1 with a 785G board.

If your multimedia needs include something like video encoding, I would strongly suggest stepping up to a X3 or X4.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It maybe worth checking out the budget 780G based motherboard I mentioned in this thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...therboard.html

[pp05]

I would look at the 785g boards which have plenty of reviews and come with onboard graphics. There is an MSI Am3 at scan for (~£50 but is on back order). DDR2 and DDR3 look to be about the same price atm; Budget DDR3 for £64 leaving about £85 for the CPU.

There are a slew of new tri and quad core athlonIIs out there and some energy efficient models too which may be worth investigating. A tricore is only £7 more at scan. I warn you the stock cooler will probably be horrible and I am sure it is teh same one that came with my S939 3200+. Check compatibility with the mobo vendors website for wattage and processor support (and the memory too!).

I've never used stock coolers. What heatsinks do you guys recommend for am3?

This is one that I had come up with without onboard gpu last night to get an idea. Not sure about ATI 4350 cards. Adding Athlon X3 adds £12 taking it to £208 plus a decent heatsink.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would probably go with onboard graphics TBH. The only limitation of the 785G is that it cannot output multichannel 7.1 LPCM audio.

I would probably look at the following setup:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 ~ £78

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173368

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170277

4GB DDR3 ~ £64

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166995

The total comes to around £212 using the free Supersaver postage from Ebuyer.

[Domestic_Ginger]

+1 for the quad; its more future proof and if I was not overclocking I wouldn't buy the ram with heatsinks. the UD3P os a nice board; very similar to mine but if you are not going to upgrade I would put the money on the CPU.

I would think about maybe a cheaper mobo to get you below the £200 mark.

What OS are you using? With a 32bit you may be able to cut back to 2gb; the price of ddr3 is going to keep falling (unless there is a shortage).

Not sure what heatsink they give away with AII X4; might be worth researching. Is your case ok (with at least one fan)? Should make a difference to the overall heat.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

MSI do the MSI 785GM-E51 which is around the £50 mark but it is out of stock at both Ebuyer and Scan

There is also the ASRock M3A785GMH for around £60 which has 128mb of DDR3 on the motherboard for the integrated graphics:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ource=googleps

[pp05]

I would probably go with onboard graphics TBH. The only limitation of the 785G is that it cannot output multichannel 7.1 LPCM audio.

I would probably look at the following setup:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 ~ £78

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173368

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170277

4GB DDR3 ~ £64

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166995

The total comes to around £212 using the free Supersaver postage from Ebuyer.

Thanks for those suggestions. You managed to get an x4 as well. Any idea for a good heatsink to go with that ?

not had much luck with asus boards in past sticking to Abit. Windows 7 would work with that.. ?

I am on a 2 speaker setup. Is 7.1 relevant for that..

[pp05]

+1 for the quad; its more future proof and if I was not overclocking I wouldn't buy the ram with heatsinks. the UD3P os a nice board; very similar to mine but if you are not going to upgrade I would put the money on the CPU.

I would think about maybe a cheaper mobo to get you below the £200 mark.

What OS are you using? With a 32bit you may be able to cut back to 2gb; the price of ddr3 is going to keep falling (unless there is a shortage).

Not sure what heatsink they give away with AII X4; might be worth researching. Is your case ok (with at least one fan)? Should make a difference to the overall heat.

My case has 3 fans plus psu. I will replacing two of them with quieter ones.

I was thinking of windows 7 32bit plus 2gb initially. Can always upgrade later if need be. I dont mind paying a little more now as long as board solid.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for those suggestions. You managed to get an x4 as well. Any idea for a good heatsink to go with that ?

not had much luck with asus boards in past sticking to Abit. Windows 7 would work with that.. ?

I am on a 2 speaker setup. Is 7.1 relevant for that..

Abit are no more BTW!!

7.1 output is not relevant for a stereo output. Asus should be fine AFAIK and the integrated graphics should work fine as my HD4830 was automatically detected by Windows 7 RC1. IIRC there is native support for many ATI cards under Windows 7.

[scaryjim]

The ASUS 785TD-M EVO is a fantastically rock solid board with a million and one tweaking options for overclocking your Athlon X4 if you fancy. The HD4200 is perfect for multimedia and casual gaming (one proviso - I don't have much HD media so my experience is mostly with SD content (predominantly DVDs)). The onboard sound is fine for stereo output. Windows 7 RC 1 recognises and installs the HD4200 drivers out of the box and runs very smoothly with the Sempron and 2GB DDR3.

[pp05]

Abit are no more BTW!!

I know. ah well..

The ASUS 785TD-M EVO is a fantastically rock solid board with a million and one tweaking options for overclocking your Athlon X4 if you fancy. The HD4200 is perfect for multimedia and casual gaming (one proviso - I don't have much HD media so my experience is mostly with SD content (predominantly DVDs)). The onboard sound is fine for stereo output. Windows 7 RC 1 recognises and installs the HD4200 drivers out of the box and runs very smoothly with the Sempron and 2GB DDR3.

Thanks for that.

I'm thinking Asus (never owned an uATX) or buy a cheaper MSI/ASROCK and add a hard disk to list.

[morda8]

get this:

https://www.pricelover.com/search/?s...IBAP0-G0EAY00Z

https://www.pricelover.com/search/?s...=ADX240OCGQBOX

and 4 of this

https://www.pricelover.com/search/?s...KVR1333D3N9/1G

u getting asus 785g with good onboard graphics, 4gb drr3 1333mhz which is on the compatibilty list for this mobo (so 100% compatible with mobo) and u have a nice athlon II 240 (if u got a bigger budget u can upgrade the cpu to athlon x3/x4)

total : £160.98 inc vat


u wont find a better deal anywhere else