[jamess71]

Posted in the non audio gear and gadgets but figured this forum would be more appropriate.

Ok it's time to upgrade my home pc. I built it about 4 yrs ago. I'm not a gamer so the latest and greatest is not needed. I'm not partial to Intel or AMD. I won't overclock. I just want a stable, easy to set up motherboard and cpu for about $200. Thanks for any suggestions.

James

 

[22906]

asus p5k pro + conroe-l e2180

 

[tru\head]

$59 mobo:
Newegg.com - ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 LGA 775 VIA PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

budget board. has AGP and PATA connectors if you still need that for older hardware, but also has PCI-E and SATA connectors. has on board lan & sound. will work with your old DDR or DDR2-667 if you plan on upgrading.

$129 cpu:
core2duo, wolfdale core. budget king at the moment.

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

total= $189.98

 

[jamess71]

1333 vs 1066 fsb? Will there be a marked improvement with the faster FSB with the wolfdale/Conroe processors vs. the E7200 Wolfdale @ 1066MHz?

 

[tru\head]

the bus speed is largely irrelevant, but the higher bus is for the newer processors which support them, and potentially faster memory. they are also more expensive which is why i didn't list them.

just pick a board that fits your needs and then the most you can afford on the processor. boards over $80 are only really necessary if you plan on overclocking.

 

[Hookem]

What kind of memory does your current rig have ???

What ever you do steer clear of boards using DDR3.

It is very expensive compared to DDR2.

Do you run any CPU intensive app's or expect the rig to multi-task ???

And last but not least is there a Fry's in your area ???

 

[Operandi]

AMD holds an advantage in the mid-range in my opinion. Not only that but they also have the best integrated chipset out there, the 780G. I would also advise against the bottom end budget boards if you value long term reliability and stability..

I would go for the following setup...

CPU: Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H
Board: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Brisbane 2.9GHz (tri & quad core is bit out of your range)

 

[jamess71]

Sounds like I'll be able to get a big improvemint over what I have now, a 1.7GHz athlon socket 939. I'll also be getting new ram once I've decided on the mobo cpu. I've been busy so I haven' t pulled the trigger yet. I'll keep looking for a good deal and go from there. Right now I'm leaning towards AMD 5GHz and up. They seem to be the best bang for the buck. Thnaks for the help so far, the search is still on.....

James