Cheap PC build

Andeh

Andeh

is teahte tbungafloed
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Oct 23, 2007
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Cumbria, UK
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Afternoon all, with impeccable timing my computer has finally called it a day. I suspect the rather ancient motherboard has finally failed. It's some sort of AMD Phenom X4, with 6gb of DDR2 (well, until half of it died), and an 9600GT from the days of the old.

I've got a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HD I'd like to keep and use in my new one. The old PSU should be good too (700w I think). I'd like some sort of motherboard/RAM/CPU bundle to plug my drives and GPU in for now, with the aim of replacing the GPU when I can afford it. It'll be used mostly for office work and some gaming, but I'm not fussed about running the latest stuff on flat out. I mostly play simulators which aren't /too/ intensive. I do have 8GB of DDR3 on the shelf from a failed project, so RAM isn't that important, can cut that off to maximise the rest.

I've had a lifetime AMD bias, but will consider AMD, just want bang for buck in a motherboard/ram/cpu combo up for ?200 or so. GPUs that will complement too please! Even if I end up getting that a few months down the line.
 
Cheap? The integrated GPU in a A10 AMD APU is going to be similar or superior to your 9600GT, so I'd go with that. Get a midrange motherboard, however much ram you want, and a A10-7850k. Should be right around $300 or whatever that is in your currency, and it should serve you well for the forseeable future. A reasonable GPU addition would be a R7-260X or 270X, nice midrange card for the $130-180 price range.
 
Shopping around a bit, I think I've got a formula that will work.

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard - ?44
AMD FX6300 Black Edition - ?74
Sapphire (wee, no name?) R7 260X 2GB - ?85.99
Existing 8GB DDR3 (Only 1300Mhz, too slow?)
Existing 120GB SSD
Existing 1Tb HD
Existing PSU.

How does that sound? Works out at ?204 and seems to be fairly decent to my eyes.
 
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Can't fault Asus motherboards myself, CPU seems good for the price when compared to the closest Intel rival (i5-2500k is more than ?100). I've heard of Sapphire before, might've had one of their ATI cards many moons ago and it was fine.

If the memory is DDR2 it won't work, I saw DDR3 further up so was that just a typo?
 
Quick eyes there Matt, it is DDR3 yeah, so all should be fine. Going to pop it into my father's PC and test it first since it's an unknown quantity.

Ah right, glad Sapphire is someone, I've never heard of them, but then I haven't built a computer in five years. :lol:
 
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Andeh said:
Shopping around a bit, I think I've got a formula that will work.

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard - ?44
AMD FX6300 Black Edition - ?74
Sapphire (wee, no name?) R7 260X 2GB - ?85.99
Existing 8GB DDR3 (Only 1300Mhz, too slow?)
Existing 120GB SSD
Existing 1Tb HD
Existing PSU.

How does that sound? Works out at ?204 and seems to be fairly decent to my eyes.
Click to expand...

It's a good system, for ?200, but an Intel i3 machine with the same GPU costs the same, and runs cooler and quieter since it dumps out less heat.

Shoppinglist here: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W3DfRB

Either build works, but it's the Australian summer down here, and if I can reduce any amount of heat from a PC without losing performance, I'll take it!
 
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