Budget New Build in 2 stages

[dgcbev]

Im in UK - Exchange rate.... 1 pound = 1.5 dollars

Ok I posted last week about upgrading my 7 year old PC, and the general consensus was that it was not worth upgrading without making big changes.

Current System:
NZXT Cyberpower case, 5 fans, watercooling, temprature display
Motherboard - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe ACPI
Processor - AMD Athlon 64x2 2.41 Ghz Dual Core (4800+)
RAM - 2GB (2x 1GB)
HDD - Samsung HD400LJ (400GB)
External HD - 1TB WD
Graphics - ATI Radeon HD5500 Series (1 year old)
OS - Windows XP Proffessional x86
Power Supply - 250w

I dont play high end games so graphics is not a main concern for me, also i have 1380 x 768 res, 20" screen. But I want PC to be relativly future proof and run some strategy games such as total war, xcom, sim city etc.

I have a limited budget so this is what I plan to do:

Buy new futureproof motherboard for around £50-60 ($75-90)
Buy 8GB (2x4GB) of DDR3 RAM for whatever that costs
And windows 7 for either £70 or £110 for the version you can re-install

Possibly buying 128gb SSD drive for £68 and installing windows on that.

Recycling everything else for the time being. Then when I can afford it in a few months:

Buy Intel i5 proccessor, no idea which one
New power supply
And cooling for the proccessor if needed

So keeping the case, peripherals, and cooling system (if possible), and the graphics card (for at least a year or so, until there is a game that needs a better one.

Please let me know what you think and if there is any fundamental flaws in this, and please suggestions on which motherboard, future proofing...especially the SSd drive (whether that is worth it)

I totally realise that the proccesser will be holding me back considerably for the interim months until i get a new one, but I will not be playing games that need a faster one.

Many Thanks

 

[Aristotelian]

When I google your chip AMD's site says socket AM2, but Asus site says the board is socket 939. Are you sure they are compatible. Also I do not see HDMI out for video, so if you really want it to be future proof that would be a concern.

 

[mouse24]

Major flaw #1 would be with the new motherboard you would have to upgrade to a new proc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138357
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424
for procs you have some options
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116399
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116521
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078

Cheapest that would be is 102 pounds with the cheapest proc.

SSDs are completely luxury items and don't improve performance just loading times.

Also might wanna replace that psu, I generally don't like <300w psus for carrying over to a new build

For an OS you could try windows 8 (I think its still free :3) maybe.

 

[dgcbev]

thanks mouse24


ah...so there is no way that the AMD athlon 64 dual core will fit onto new motherboard?

that kind of ruins the 2 step plan really...

its so confusing with all the proccessors available....whats the best value intel i5 proccesser out there...roughly £100

and will the i5 cpu fit onto any modern £50 mobo?

would i need to get any other cooling if i got a new proccessor?

and would it be ok to recycle old internal hard drive....?

and with all that, do you think 500watt power supply would be fine?

sorry for all the questions, thanks in advance....am a real novice at this

 

[dgcbev]

When I google your chip AMD's site says socket AM2, but Asus site says the board is socket 939. Are you sure they are compatible. Also I do not see HDMI out for video, so if you really want it to be future proof that would be a concern.

and aristotelian...

thanks tfor the reply but that doesnt make any sense to me...i think what u are saying is I may have written down wrong current proccessor or mobo...but im am sure thats what i have...and they work

 

[mouse24]

thanks mouse24


ah...so there is no way that the AMD athlon 64 dual core will fit onto new motherboard?

that kind of ruins the 2 step plan really...

its so confusing with all the proccessors available....whats the best value intel i5 proccesser out there...roughly £100

and will the i5 cpu fit onto any modern £50 mobo?

would i need to get any other cooling if i got a new proccessor?

and would it be ok to recycle old internal hard drive....?

and with all that, do you think 500watt power supply would be fine?

sorry for all the questions, thanks in advance....am a real novice at this

The i5s should fit onto any 1155 board, er well I'll be more precise the i5s that state they are for the 1155 socket will fit, such as the 2300 to 2500k range and the 3450 to 3570k Prices and clocks vary, some procs also have an S or P etc after this number

P= no internal graphics card so you would need one, which you have.
S= low power and less heat, but heat isn't an issue as the stock cooler takes care of that
k= the "K" series are the only ones you can really truly overclock, but doing this will increase heat and need a new cpu cooler instead of the stock one.

Also if the proc says OEM that means it doesn't come with a heatsink.

the 3450 to 3570k are ivy bridge models these ones are cooler running and newer tech but perform about the same, the "K" series don't over clock as well as the previous generations "K" series (like the 2500k etc)

For value per dollar I would grab a 2400 or a 2500k if you want to overclock, if you don't and want lower power usage there is also the option for a 3450, which is 10 dollars more on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671%20600095610%20600005579&IsNodeId=1&name=Core%20i5

(newegg is us based so your gonna have to find something in your neck of the woods )

As for using a HDD is concerned is it IDE or SATA? This is easy to check just look at the physical connector, it should have either 2 small cords coming out (this is SATA) or 1 huge monster ribbon cable and a smaller power connector (this is IDE).

If it is IDE you would need either to get a new one or simply buy and IDE card and pop it in. If its SATA there is no problem and no need for an additional purchases. Heck I am using a 1tb + 2 IDE drives in my current rig, and the 1tb drive I am using because I ran out of room not because the IDE drives were slowing things down, so yeah definitely.

Yes a 500w is perfectly fine, I am using one with an athlon 2 x3 + 6870. Just make sure its a good quality one from Antec, Seasonic, PC&C, Corsair.

I recommend this model, modular and a pretty good unit also: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093

Ah and it should be noted that some Ivy Bridge (the new 1155) procs don't work with some 1155 boards. You can find out if a motherboard supports a certain type of proc just by going on its product page and checking out what cpus it supports it will be there if it does.

Hmmm thats all I can think of, if you have any questions be sure to ask

 

[ScrewySqrl]

whats your total budget?

given your old system is 7 years old(so, 2005?), very likely NONE of it can be brought forward to the new system.

The DVD and HDD are probably IDE, the RAM is DDR1, possibly DDR2,

only the external drive and 5550 could be used in a new system.

give me a TOTAL budget, and I think I can put a system together for you

 

[Aristotelian]

and aristotelian...

thanks tfor the reply but that doesnt make any sense to me...i think what u are saying is I may have written down wrong current proccessor or mobo...but im am sure thats what i have...and they work

OK, I see what you are trying to do now. The problem is that you want to buy a motherboard that supports your current AMD CPU but then upgrade to an Intel i5. That's not going to work, it will only fit an Intel 1155 motherboard as mouseman said.

The only motherboard currently sold by newegg that will work with your AMD CPU is this one but it would not support Intel i5:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153179

This motherboard would not let you upgrade to i5 but would give you HDMI out, and also allow you to upgrade later to a higher AMD CPU fitting the AM3 socket, e.g. these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103924
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871

You could still do it in stages but you would be stuck with AMD.

 

[dgcbev]

mouse thanks so much for that, really helped to clear things up there....

and thanks aristotel...it seems i will be getting a new rig then...keeping the case, peripherals, external hd, and the gpu

so need a mobo, proccessor, ram, psu, and windows 7 and anything else i forgot....probably for around £300...($450)...unfortunately i cant seem to find the deals u can in the US...most things are about 20% more

cheapest i could find the intel i5 was £145, windows 7 is £68 for the system builders copy...

pretty sure ill be going for the intel i5...so lets say that leaves me with £100 for psu, mobo and ram

Power Supply:

Here are some i found...

this Antec 450w one...£35 ($50)

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&sort=popularity&limit=10&store=2&cat=149&filtersubcat=2589%7C2590&filterpricebands=%5B0+TO+49.99%5D&filtermfr=195

or a Corsair 500w for $70

couldnt find any of the other makes you suggested...what is PC&C...is that powercool...cos i saw some of them cheap...

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&sort=pricelow&limit=10&store=2&cat=149&filtersubcat=2589%7C2590&filterpricebands=%5B0+TO+49.99%5D&filtermfr=1462

RAM:

its between Corsair vengance and gskill ripjawsx...both £40...both 2x4gb, 1600...which one is better?

..there doesnt seem to be a good value option...the 1333 versions are only a couple of quid cheaper...

and what is the differnce between the corsair vengance in black, red and blue?

MOBO:

This is the tricky one for me...really dont understand what features to go for..

want to buy from www.ebuyer.com or www.amazon.co.uk

want something that has the usb 3.0, 6gb sata thing for ssd drive, and someone said about HDMI for the future...and anything else im missing....and want to spend under £50

if anyone could suggest a few possibles from ebuyer.com that would be great...and which make is the best?

thanks for all ur help

 

[ScrewySqrl]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2380P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£141.20 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£47.52 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Value 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£19.58 @ CCL Computers)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.76 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply (£35.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer (£12.96 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £306.34
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)


I assume you will reuse the 5550 and your case. this should be a sizable step up for you

 

[dgcbev]

thansk for that screwysqrl...good site

i see some of the motherboards only use ram of 1066 or 1333...

do you think it will be better in the long run to spend more on a motherboard which is compatible with higher speeds of RAM?

 

[mouse24]

Nope, it won't make a bit of difference, heck a benchmark was done on ram speeds in relation to FPS in games, going from 1033 to 2100 was a difference of less than 1 fps

 

[ScrewySqrl]

what mouse said. there's no real significant difference for this build.

your 5550 will be the major bottleneck on this build, but you can get something faster later

 

[dgcbev]

So should i get the i5 2400 or the i5 3450? both same price...

and will the amtec 450w power supply i found be ok for that proccessor and any new graphics card i get in future?

and internal hard drives are far more expensive than i thought they would be...might it be worth getting an ssd drive instead of a normal hard drive...128gb SSD for £68 rather than 500gb for £50.....really dont need any storage otehr than windows and a game or 2...plus i already have external drive

basically can i use an SSD 128gb with an external 1tb drive...and no other internal hard drive?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

should work fine. load times off the external will be slower, bur it should work.


the antec vp-450 should handle nvidia up to 450/550ti, maybe 650/660 when they come out, amd 6xxx up to 6850, and 7xxx up to 7850

 

[dgcbev]

what you think about the difference between the i5 2400 and the i5 3450?

I see you have the 2400, would you recomend it?

 

[dgcbev]

and should i get a Z68, or Z70 something motherboard...or is a B75 Gigabyte mini gtx one ok for £20 less...especially if im getting a SSD drive

and is there a diiference between gtx and gtx-mini apart from the size...i have a case big enough so should i get the bigger one?

also i think my power supply slot is located at the back top of my case...does that matter?

 

[mouse24]

Depends, most of the time the Z68 board comes with a few nifty features, most people won't touch them though. Most "cheap" Z68 boards don't take ivy bridge procs, while the Z7x series do.

The size of the mobo might matter, some cases only allow ATX or mATX. Most newer cases provide holes for both.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

what you think about the difference between the i5 2400 and the i5 3450?

I see you have the 2400, would you recomend it?

The 2380 I put up is the 2400 without the built in GPU.

the 3450 is 5-15% faster than the 2400, being the ivy bridge equivalent


for not overclocking or crossfire/sli, the B75 is good enough

 

[dgcbev]

just wanted to clear up one thing...if I were to get an i5 3450 and got this motherboard for a bit more money:

Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H

how would the SSD thing work? it says that it has a slot for a microSSD on the motherboard..and uses an SSD cache..would it be better getting a micro SSD rather than a normal one...or are they the same thing..

and can i install windows onto this cache, and games at a later date...or will it be better just getting a normal SSD and plugging it in though a SATAIII slot and using it that way

 

[mouse24]

I haven't heard of micro ssds, there are MicroSD cards that go in small devices like phones, cameras etc.

But Just get a full fledged SSD. I'm not 100% sure on how cacheing will work but I'm fairly sure it won't let you install the OS on a cached SSD.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you're better off just using an SSD than doing SSD Caching.