cpu/motherboard/memory suggestions

[distantt]

hi, i'm in need of a little help. i'm looking at upgrading spread over a couple of paycheques,

i've already got the case (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=250636) and a couple of dvd drives, hard drives + power supply and i'm looking to get cpu, motherboard + memory this time round and then next time a pair of new graphics cards (using an old x1300 radeon till then just to keep me ticking over)

basically my motherboards given up, probably from being knocked around here and there which is why i'm doing it this way round rather than buying everything together

i was looking at:


http://www.ebuyer.com/product/113844 - Gigabyte GA M57SLI-S4 SKT AM2 Nvidia MCP55P PCI-E 8Channel audio ATX
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140714 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (3.2 GHz) Socket AM2 L2 2MB (2x1MB) Retail Boxed
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130429 - Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18)

any thoughts? comes to around £233, £106 for cpu, £55 for the motherboard, £62 for the ram

i have to admit this is the first time i've done this, other than moving everything into the new case now i haven't really had any experience

the case is very light and airy with 3 * 120mm fans, i'm not at this stage planning on doing any overclocking

how do things sound?

appreciate any input, thanks

 

[distantt]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=401838

or maybe that for the motherboard?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=766626

and that for the memory?

 

[oushi]

The Asus you are looking at seems to be pretty popular if you're planning to SLI later. If not, I would go with a newer AM2+ board for a little future proofing. However, I'm not too up to date with AMD stuff.

The 6400+ and XMS2 ram you picked should work well for you.

 

[distantt]

I had looked at the phenom but for what I'll be doing, photoshop, illustrator, the odd game now and again I didn't think it'd be worth spending the extra money. Although it's only another £12 for the phenom, it seems to get a decent AM2+ motherboard is then another £50.

The second motherboard I posted has on-board RAID which would be a benefit, can't see any mention of that on the first Gigabyte one (but it is expandable to 16gb rather than 8)

I just can't decide! the more I think the more I'm tempted to get look at getting a board that'd support AM2+ but I haven't upgraded from my athlon 3400+ for 2 and a half years, I just don't know if it makes sense to try and future proof because I prob won't upgrade for a while again!

I just don't know, so much to think about, half the reason I'd end up buying the Phenom is just because I could rather than because I'd make enough use of it I think

Also, I was looking at http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142228 - Inno3D 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 Wind Edition Cooler Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

Probably just buying the one since it'd be suitable for my purposes, then if necessary buying another one a few months, half a year down the line if I decide I want to be playing newer games (I'm not the biggest gamer ever)

 

[iluvgillgill]

if i were you i will get intel instead much better performance.

 

[distantt]

worth it for the price increase?

seems to be hard to find a motherboard that is as fully featured as those for AMD

 

[distantt]

complete change of mind...

LN19488
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 SLACR, Kentsfield Core, Socket 775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, Retail £125.89 £147.92
LN20684
Abit iX38 Quad-GT, iX38 Express, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £108.99 £128.06
LN21700
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR2 6400 2x256Mx64 non-ECC 2x240 DIMM unbuffered 5-5-5-18 64bit OS DHX £53.64 £63.03
LN20817
512MB SapphireHD 3870 PCI-E 2.0 (x16), GDDR4, 320 Streams, S-Video 2 x Dual Link DVI-I £105.43 £123.88

TOTAL £469.88

haha, got tempted by quad core, i'm justifying it by telling myself that I won't be spending any more money on a pc for a very, very very long time

the thing I'm waying up now is whether to get a cheaper motherboard - i've been recommended the abit ip 35 dark raider or pro by a few people now and then put the money saved into a better 8800 GTS or really whetever 8800 I could afford and then forget about crossfire and buying a second card.

thing is, doing it this way means I could add a second card later if I wanted improved performance, for now the 3870 may be sufficent for my needs and the Quad-GT board looks pretty good all round..

I don't know, so much to think about and my plans on doing it slightly cheaper than this have gone out of the window completely!

 

[guanyu210379]

Well, what are you waiting for? Go spent those money!
But if you wanna save a bit of your green with only a slight performance decrease , then pick these :
1. E8400 or Xeon E3110
2. HIS ATI HD 3850 256MB
3. Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4
4. Mushkin 4GB DDR2 800 CL5