Yet another noob who is no good at building PCs

[Zyon]

Greetings everyone, just another average-Joe who upgraded from his old Pentium-D computer two weeks ago for a price that didn't burn a big hole in his pocket (~$1100 Australian Dollars) and is hoping to build another PC, only this time making it as cheap as possible without much penalty in performance (Just above Pentium-D Smithfield should suffice).

But like the high end market, there's way too much options on the budget side too, since I will be using it only for browsing the internet and watching a few movies.

I am currently thinking of ~200 budget with a motherboard that uses LGA775 and DDR2 (so I can use my old RAM) with IDE ports (may need IDE controller if necessary), integrated graphics and an Intel CPU (if you have good idea with AMD then feel free to talk about it too even though I'm not a fan of AMD).

Any help is appreciated, it's too hard picking between something like Celeron E3400 and E3500 or spending a bit more for better ones.

(Currently looking at the combo http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI...13416&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_5581wt_1018 and looks like a pretty good deal)

 

[PSPianist]

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 255 - $69 (You can try a Phenom II x2 if you want for 30 bucks more)

MOBO: ASRock 880GM-LE Motherboard - $75 (You can try a J&W A880GM-FUSION mATX Motherboard that supports DDR2 which is 4 bucks more, but I have no experience with J&W's products)

RAM: Corsair VS2GB1333D3 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 - $29

This should be powerful enough, me thinks.

www.pccasegear.com

Also, upgrade your sandy bridge PSU to something more reliable like Antec, Corsair.

 

[Fourstaff]

+1 on suggestion, whenever you need more power in the future, drop a Phenom II x4 (or even potentially Bulldozer).

 

[Zyon]

Wow, never thought you could get such good parts at that price too, even ebay labels x2 255s for about $100.

I like how AMD keeps their CPU family on the same sockets so there's a long upgrade path, comparing to Intel which invents new sockets every now and then and your fate is sealed with whatever board and CPU you buy (lol). A few questions:

1. I heard 780G chipset motherboards gives you a chance to unlock the CPU's cores, can the board that you mentioned also?
2. If unlock successful does it put a lot more stress on your PSU?
3. If unlock failed does your CPU go down in flames and you lose $69?
4. Is it quiet even using stock coolers?

Haven't decided yet since I just joined so I'll wait for more opinions, pretty good idea so far.

 

[PSPianist]

1. Motherboards with a SB710 or SB750 with ACC may unlock a AMD Phenom II x2 555 or x3, or a Athlon II x3. You can't unlock that dual core I listed.

2. Not that much

3. If they're unstable you can just relock them again by turning off ACC

4. They are pretty quiet with stock speeds.

 

[xBruce88x]

@OP, yes the cpu's you listed would do for web browsing and some movies (had a celeron 540 in my laptop and i used it for just that) however the web is getting more and more demanding. espicially if your into flash games.

any athlon II with a mobo that has a radeon 3200, 4200, 4250 would be fine. I got an Athlon II x2 3ghz for a friend of mine (well with his money...) and 4gb ram. his computer handles everything with ease that he does. we later threw a GT240 in there and he's playing the new empire: total war just fine.

just for reference. i picked up a Biostar A780L (DDR2 board) for about $50USD. If you can find that model mobo i'd go for it. its a cheaper board but its doing pretty well for me so far and it has a lot of features for the price. most motherboard still have at least one ide channel (2 devices on one cable) so you can have your system ide hdd and a dvd burner on one cable if needed. here in the US the Athlon II x2 at 3ghz goes for about $60.

as for running cool, my athlon ii x4 2.8 is overclocked to 3.2ghz with the stock cooler. it rarely gets past 100deg F. (about 38C)... and its still pretty quiet. I'm sure the temps will change come summer time though.

 

[Zyon]

Ahh my bad then, but finding that at $69 instead of $99 even at ebay (supposedly 1 of the best places to find bargain) and having seen benchmarks that makes Intel's low-end look like Volkswagen seems too good to be true, by the way which graphics card would allow you to use hybrid crossfire and any recommendations? Can't help it when I see all these cool features on the card you mentioned.

 

[xBruce88x]

honestly with the money you'd spend on a gfx card that can do hybrid crossfire, an extra 10 or 15 would get a single video card that would beat the hybrid crossfire (and give you 256mb of system memory back!)

what e-tailers are in your area, like newegg.com for example is pretty big here

edit: i think the hd5450 is the newest card that can do hybrid crossfire. i found one for about $37usd. specs are 650mhz 80 steam processors and a 64-bit memory controller with 512mb ddr2. for $50usd i found a hd4650 with 600mhz 320 stream processors and 1gb of 128bit ddr3 memory

 

[DrunkenMafia]

Wow, never thought you could get such good parts at that price too, even ebay labels x2 255s for about $100.

I like how AMD keeps their CPU family on the same sockets so there's a long upgrade path, comparing to Intel which invents new sockets every now and then and your fate is sealed with whatever board and CPU you buy (lol). A few questions:

1. I heard 780G chipset motherboards gives you a chance to unlock the CPU's cores, can the board that you mentioned also?
2. If unlock successful does it put a lot more stress on your PSU?
3. If unlock failed does your CPU go down in flames and you lose $69?
4. Is it quiet even using stock coolers?

Haven't decided yet since I just joined so I'll wait for more opinions, pretty good idea so far.

Yeah stay clear of ebay for new pc parts they are all overpriced these days. Pccasegear is the best online retailer in aussie, thats my opinion. You can also try megabuy, msy & umart. They are all fairly cheap.

I have a 4gb set of G-skill DDR3 2000mhz ram sitting here you can buy, I haven't gotten round to chucking it on ebay yet. It's $89 at pccg, I can send it to ya if you go down the DDR3 path.

Feel free to message me if you need a hand with anything.

 

[xBruce88x]

this seems like a decent board and you'd get to keep your ram

http://www.megabuy.com.au/amd-am2-amd760g-fsb5200-2ddr2-1200oc-vga-pcie20-p145693.html

they have a lot of other but they were not in stock. some are "by order". if you don't mind waiting for the to get you one this would be an ok option.

http://www.megabuy.com.au/asus-am2-nf7025-2000mt-2ddr2-pcie20-gblan-raid-p84420.html

 

[Fourstaff]

This might help: