Which processor to buy?

[Danni]

OK, probably put this in the wrong place, but since I want an AMD then I guess it might be ok

My partner wants a new pc. He wants me to get him an AMD Athlon 64 x2 4400+, for around £260-270 (not decided where we're buying it from yet). I was wondering if this is good, or if there's anything better out there?

We also need to buy the motherboard and cooler (got a 1gb stick of RAM and he's just bought a 250gb harddrive, and has a nice case with plenty of fans so I might overclock it when he goes out ) so any recommendations will be apprciated. I don't want to spend more than £400 on the processor, motherboard and cooler though.

Another thing... the motherboard needs inbuilt graphics, as we only have AGP graphics cards, unless there's an amazing motherboard out there that has both AGP and PCI-Express slots (he wants to get a new graphics card in a few months without having to change motherboards... and here I am with a crappy Radeon 9600SE on my Athlon 64 2400+ ).

 

[dude_1885]

OK, probably put this in the wrong place, but since I want an AMD then I guess it might be ok

My partner wants a new pc. He wants me to get him an AMD Athlon 64 x2 4400+, for around £260-270 (not decided where we're buying it from yet). I was wondering if this is good, or if there's anything better out there?

We also need to buy the motherboard and cooler (got a 1gb stick of RAM and he's just bought a 250gb harddrive, and has a nice case with plenty of fans so I might overclock it when he goes out ) so any recommendations will be apprciated. I don't want to spend more than £400 on the processor, motherboard and cooler though.

Another thing... the motherboard needs inbuilt graphics, as we only have AGP graphics cards, unless there's an amazing motherboard out there that has both AGP and PCI-Express slots (he wants to get a new graphics card in a few months without having to change motherboards... and here I am with a crappy Radeon 9600SE on my Athlon 64 2400+ ).

I would sugest DFI lanparty...either Ultra-D if your not having 2 graphics cards in SLI, or the SLI-D if you are, and as for the processor an opteron 146 - 148 - 150 somthing like that as for cooler, for air i would sugest a XP-120 from thermalright, they are quite good for the money, but only if paired with a good fan, i sugest a panflo ...thats just me though, i'll shut up now and let someone else speek

 

[mrbeef]

dfi sli-dr a64 san deiago as big as u can afford and an akasa evo 33 hsf

 

[Dav0s]

the AMD X2 is probably the best choice of processor, unless he was temped by the dual core opterons, which are going at quite a low price.

 

[bloodthirst]

yeah i agree with Davos a nice opteron would be good if you can find one. as far as motherboards go dfi lanparty sli-d or sli-dr would be nice, but dont think any of the dfi lanparty motherboards support onboard graphics. mine dosent anyway. so you might be better off getting a really cheap pci-e card to use

 

[FarFarAway]

If you want onboard then the new nvidia chipsets have a 6100 integrated

A duel core opteron or an X2 are the nicest procs at the mo

 

[Danni]

I only want onboard for a few months... my money doesn't stretch far enough to buy decent processors and decent graphics card together

Thanks for the suggestions... I'll see if I can find some dual core opterons, if not I'll grab the X2 4400+

 

[FarFarAway]

Yeah good choices.

As for the motherboard I would suggest maybe getting a PCI-E motherboard from DFI - Ultra-D of SLi-D and getting a very cheapo PCI-E card (like a 6200). Then you can get an upgrade to a decent PCI-E GPU in the future and sell the GPU later on

 

[Danni]

Yeah good choices.

As for the motherboard I would suggest maybe getting a PCI-E motherboard from DFI - Ultra-D of SLi-D and getting a very cheapo PCI-E card (like a 6200). Then you can get an upgrade to a decent PCI-E GPU in the future and sell the GPU later on

I'll check the prices of cheap PCI-E cards then... any that I get him is going to be better than what he's got right now (GeForce FX 5200 )

 

[FarFarAway]

Yeah even a 6200 will be better

 

[bloodthirst]

what are the new nvidia chipsets, nf5?

 

[Danni]

Yeah good choices.

As for the motherboard I would suggest maybe getting a PCI-E motherboard from DFI - Ultra-D of SLi-D and getting a very cheapo PCI-E card (like a 6200). Then you can get an upgrade to a decent PCI-E GPU in the future and sell the GPU later on

Just a quick question... where would I get that motherboard in the UK? I'm having trouble finding it...

Also, are there any other (slightly cheaper) ones that are pretty good? I like to have a selection

 

[Dav0s]

jus a few places i know sell it...

www.overclock.co.uk

www.overclockers.co.uk

im not sure if scan.co.uk do, but if possible go with them, they are good

 

[FragTek]

what are the new nvidia chipsets, nf5?

There's no new chipset?

 

[Danni]

Thanks Dav0s Will be getting him one of them from overclockers.co.uk most likely... am annoyed they've got a special offer on the processor he wants but don't have any money till Friday!

 

[mrbeef]

nvidia do have a new chipset but its still nf4 but it has 2 16x pcie's

 

[passy]

Why not considering a motherboard based on the new Nvidia chipset GeForce 6150/nForce 430 like the Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9:

http://uk.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8N51PVMT-9.htm

Nice spec (and support for Athlon 64x2 4800+)