New budget computer

[nunogand]

Hi all.

My brother's old computer (a Athlon xp2000+ I think) just toasted but the insurance company gave him some money for compensation (it pays to have relatives working there). Anyway, he now has about €350 (450$ +/-) to spend on a new computer and he asked me to do the job.

He will be using the machine mainly for design (Photoshop, Corel, Illustrator) and also some (light) video editing. As far as I know, the only game he plays is FIFA 2007.

What you think of this:

Motherboard GIGA EP31 DS3L S775 DDRII ST2 GBLAN PCIE 58.90 €

Box 2HiX NUCLEOUS 26.00 €

Disk Seagate 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 32MB (ST3500320AS) 55.90 €

Memory 4Gb Kingston KVR800D2N5/2G DDR2 2048MB 800MHz CL5 43.80 €

Processor Intel® Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHZ 3Mb 1066Mhz BOX 119.90 €

Graphics Powercolor ATI Radeon HD3650 PCS 512M DDR3 128bit Pci-e 56.50 €

With the grand total of 361€ (467$)

I had to compromise a little on the GPU but I thik that to hime the most important will be the CPU and Memory.

Do you believe I could change anything and still stay in budget. And what about changing the E7400 for a E200 for about 40€ less?

Hoping to see some thoughts. Thanks.

 

[theAnimal]

I would change the motherboard to ASUS M3A78 (which has on-board graphics about equal to the 3650, so you can leave that out), and the processor to AMD X2 7750+ or Phenom X4 9550.

Also get a power supply from Antec or OCZ, but do not use the one that comes with that case.

 

[Proximon]

Actually, I would go a different route for this.

Get a nice 790GX motherboard.
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p0433789?pid=geizhals
That will give you decent onboard graphics and a new chipset that will support modern CPUs.

And a cheap AMD quad core CPU:
http://www.perloxx.de/index.php?page=detail&artikelnr=30292&ref=geizhals

You can always upgrade GPU and CPU later if you like, and this gives you a good place to start.

You will need to keep looking for a power supply. You need a good one that will protect the new system and keep it stable.
http://www.pc-look.com//boutik/Prod_Antec_New-Solution-NSK4480B-EC-Mini-tower-ATX-power-supply-380-Watt-(-ATX12V-2.0-)-black-USB__14638_en.html
That might do.

 

[Proximon]

Well, I see the Animal posted while I was researching prices in Europe, with the same general ideas

 

[nunogand]

Hi all.

Thanks for all the advice. I thought also going AMD route (and using the IGP solution). But in Portugal (where I live) the price difference between a e5200 and a Quad AMD is about €60.

 

[Proximon]

The idea is to have a good platform that could be built upon.

Even if you cannot afford an AMD quad right off, a 790GX is an excellent board with an adequate GPU, that can eventually take a good CPU.

Another option could be an inexpensive P43 motherboard... I just feel that the older P31 you had picked out could be improved on.

 

[theAnimal]

Hi all.

Thanks for all the advice. I thought also going AMD route (and using the IGP solution). But in Portugal (where I live) the price difference between a e5200 and a Quad AMD is about €60.

The money you save by not buying a video card should make up the difference.