Platform Dilemma

[BennyB]

Hello all, Newboy here !

In the new year I will be building my first PC from scratch and I’m already stuck.

I was going to build an AM2 platform, I’m not a fan boy but I’ve been running a Socket A platform for the last 4 years now and with multiple CPU and GPU upgrades it’s proved to very cheap platform to maintain but it’s gone as far as it can go.

I don’t have bags of cash (around £400) and apart from future CPU & GPU upgrades the platform is going to have to last me 3 or 4 years, as I said before I was going to go AM2, this was until I read something yesterday about AM3 coming in 2008 which has made me think again.

How old is the 775 platform and are there any plans for intel to change this, I could only afford the entry level Core 2 Duo CPU but I’m thinking possible cheap future upgrades here ?

My £400 will have to buy me a MOBO (not SLI), CPU, 2G DDR2 and a new hard drive (250G), I’ll mostly be using my PC for gaming and video encoding.

I will sell my 850XT PE, CPU, RAM & Mobo and use the cash towards a new PCI GPU card so I’ve not included this in the budget. I have a 530W Superflower PSU which I’m hoping will last me too.

Any help / suggestions would be appreciated

 

[apt403]

definatly get a C2D, intel is going to be changing there socket sometime in '08-'10 as well, but theres always going to be something new coming out. although the C2D will give you a little better performance. , are you going to be oc-ing at all?

 

[BennyB]

No, no plans to overclock, I've dabbled before with MY XP chips but never really got it stable which is important for me.

Do used Intels hold their price better than AMD, I've never taken much notice of Intel prices

It's seems like I have less choice on Mobo's with Intel, I need two IDE's so I can use my old hard drive for storage, this cuts down my choice somewhat

 

[quantumsheep]

i would go with a C2D system as Intel have said they will be changing socket late '08 at the earliest and sometime in '10 at the latest, which should give you a good few years out of your platform.

A site i recommend is www.ebuyer.co.uk for memory - very cheap

www.overclockers.co.uk for graphics cards - again, very cheap.

But asking to get 2GB DDR2, a mobo and a CPU on a £400 budget is asking rather a lot from your cash! So this is what i recommend:

I have an idea for your system that could be quite useful as you could keep your current x850xt (which is far from out dated). If you get the dual vSata ASRock Mobo it has both a PCI-E and AGP slot! You can find it over at www.aria.co.uk for around £45. Although i'm not sure about the overclocking abilitys of that board.


2GB DDR2 around £300, mobo (see below) around £50 and CPU around £130 (C2D E6300). Which totals £480, which is really as cheap as it gets. But at least you won't have too buy a new graphics card so you can put the money from the sales of the other pieces towards this build.