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$175 mobo, processor, ram upgrade OK?

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - $175 mobo, processor, ram upgrade OK?

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About ready to jump on this deal... I'm looking for a motherboard (with onboard video), processor, and ram for a light media, light gaming machine that could be upgraded to a better gfx card (and more ram) a few months down the road. Already have a decent power supply, hard drive, etc.. Just wanted to check to make sure these were compatible and that I wasn't missing some obvious better components for close to the same price $175 or so

Combo from newegg:
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX245OCGQBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.254103

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231144

thank you!

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You won't be able to play much with onboard graphics, you should get a cheap mobo and a low end GPU instead.

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz
+
OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800
Combo Price: $114.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.251519

ASRock N68-S AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025
$44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157158

ASUS Radeon HD 4650 512MB
$54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121338

Comes to $195 after rebates

Reply to build

I didn't realize there were 4650's so cheap now... thanks for pointing that out (there's a $20 rebate now bringing it to 34.99). I may tack that on anyway since right without it the total is at $166

I think I may stick with the Gigabyte due to the features. Esata, gigabit lan, more ram slots. I do realize the onboard graphics aren't going to be the greatest, but they're comparable to the machine it's replacing. But a 35 graphics upgrade seems to be a no-brainer in this case

Reply to donpacific2k

For gaming performance on a tight budget, the rule of thumb is to figure out how cheap you can go without sacrificing quality on everything else, then allocating as much as possible to the GPU. The jump from integrated graphics to even a $30 graphics card will be quite noticeable.

If you anticipate having another hundred bucks to spend in the not too distant future, you could skip the GPU for now and buy a better one later. You're going to get a very high return on investment for every extra dollar you can spend on GPUs, from $0 (integrated mobo graphics) to around $150 (at which point the benefit you get from each upgrade compared to the increased cost starts ramping down dramatically - a $100 card is WAY better than a $50 card but a $200 card is only about 10-15% faster than a $150 card.

Reply to solistus

This Asus 9600 GSO is also only $35 amir delivered (on sale this weekend) but is equal to the 4670, so get this and get even better performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

Message edited by skora on 09-27-2009 at 07:32:10 AM

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$175 mobo, processor, ram upgrade OK?

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - $175 mobo, processor, ram upgrade OK?