Need a sub £100 mobo/cpu/ram combo

[Paddy]

My dad has managed to kill his A7V motherboard and is looking for a cheap upgrade. His needs are very modest

I was thinking about something along the lines of an A7N8X/XP2500/DDR. I think you could get this on ebay for under £100. Any other suggestions?

[Dr Mordrid]

That or the MSI K7N2 Delta2.

$15 USD....

[Paddy]

cheers. Any advice on the CPU? I seem to remember 2500+ bartons being the ones to get?

[GNEP]

It's worth seeing if ebuyer have any bundles going - they can sometimes be pretty cheap...

[Gurm]

cheers. Any advice on the CPU? I seem to remember 2500+ bartons being the ones to get?

I have NO complaints about the mobile 2500+ Barton I got. Thing runs at 3200+ like a champ.

Now the a7n8x-e deluxe I got to go with it that will only go up to 12x multiplier... THAT pisses me off.

But the chip? ROCKS.

[Tjalfe]

I just recently bought a mobile 2500+, only to find it is on a 266MHz bus with a 14.x multiplier
just keep this in mind if you expect it to be a great overclocker

[Mehen]

I would convince him to go dualcore/PCI-E/DDR2 (and new vid or onboard). Future proof him. Arm him to the teeth. Take no prisoners! QUADCORE!! 4GB RAM! ARHGH@J!!!! SLI!



512mb DDR2, a socket AM2 cpu + mobo w/ onboard vid.
Priced in CAD from ncix.com

512 DDR2 $60
ECS C51GM-M mATX AM2 GF6100 $68
A64 3200+ venice AM2 $78.
Total $206 CAD.

[Dr Mordrid]

Or he could get one of those killer Tyan Thunders

[Mehen]

Damn straight. Go big or go home.

Seriously though, check out a cheap AM2 option, better performance and a bit more upgradability.

[Taz]

An AM2 solutions is marginally above your budget

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 3200 @ ~£50.00
ECS or MSI mATX M2 mobo @ ~£35.00
256Mb Corsair PC4200 DDR @ ~£20.00

Total £105 or £115 if you went for 512Mb

[Paddy]

Cheers for looking that up Taz. Where did you cost it?
Would the AM2 route be significantly faster?

Is this the CPU?, RAM.... looking for a mobo..


What mobo chipset would you recommend? I think he has an AIW8500 card (although I might have made that up)

[Taz]

Prices came from Scam

The CPU was a proper Athlon64 rather than a Sempron although the later would do.

Yep that was the memory.

The motherboard was a MSI K9VGM-V although there are similar models from ECS, Gigabyte and Asrock for around the same price. Being mATX boards they have pretty much everthing on-board including video

[Paddy]

Cheers. The CPU and RAM look great, although I am not so certain about the motherboard.
Are there any other chipsets to look at? I'm not fussed about the micro atx formfactor, and more PCI slots would be nice.

Did I mention that his graphics card is a 8500DV which must be AGP.
The PSU is '... a fairly new Tagan TG380 which is supposed to be a decent bit of kit. Nice and quiet, and although only 380W, they are proper James Watts with a decent head of steam on each rail.' Will this be sufficient?

Cheers again.

[Taz]

Are there any other chipsets to look at?

I'm not fussed about the micro atx formfactor, and more PCI slots would be nice.

Did I mention that his graphics card is a 8500DV which must be AGP.

What about this one, it's nVidia NF3-250 based, ATX and has an AGP slot

Will this be sufficient?

Yep it should be.

[Paddy]

Looks great thanks. It says that it supports DDRII800/667/533. I assume (again) that the PC4200 RAM will be ok?

Cheers for all of your help matey.