best cpu/mobo <$200

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BigJavy

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Jan 18, 2004
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Hey,
My cousin had his mobo die on him (Gigabyte 8SG667 - s478) so we're trying to salvage as much as we can and build a new pc. I know I could just pick up another s478 mobo but I hate the idea of dropping another $50+ on a PC w/ no upgrade potential. My thoughts were to go with the Asrock 775 dual mobo and a cheap Pentium D or something. That way, we can keep his DDR, AGP vid card, etc and have the potential to go DDR2, PCI-E, Conroe in the future. Only thing I'm kinda worried about is that the PCI-e only runs at 4x and sort of limits what can get put in there (though, a 7900gtx is on the list of compatiable vid cards so maybe it's not THAT limited).

Anyways, my question is... does this seem like a fairly decent upgrade path? He uses the pc for like... 95% internet stuff... and maybe 5% gaming (if that) so maybe the 4x thing isn't such a big deal. Anyone have any better sugestions? Thanks!!!



Jason
 
I'm assuming that the motherboard you're talking about is the ASRock 775i945GZ, let me know if that's the wrong one.

I'm not sure what kind of video card her currently has, but since he rarely plays games he should have no need for a new video card or any new components in his computer unless something goes bad. I would get the aforementioned mother board and pair it with a Pentium D 820, that puts it at a little under $200 and should last him for a long time.

Unless he gets into the expensive habit of gaming. :D
 
Uhm, that board uses DDR2.

Your best option is the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 (Link) and an AMD A64 3500+ (Link). That way, he can keep the AGP vidcard and DDR RAM. If you're goin for upgradeability towards a conroe system, you'll need a higher budget to get some new RAM, PSU and possibly a video card.

With this setup, you won't need a vidcard for a while (since he doesnt game much):
$90 Intel BOXD946GZISSL (Link)
$96 Intel Pentium D 805 (Link)
$85 pqi POWER Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2-667 (Link)
$30 ($40 - $10MIR) Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply (Link)
$311 total, $301AR, plus tax.

if that extra $100 is not possible, then stick with a $50 s478 mobo and save the rest for an upgrade later on.
 
I'm talking about this mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157092


it uses ddr OR ddr2... so i'm thinking of just going w/ that, a cheap (but not crappy... since his last motherboard was killed by a bad PSU I think) power supply and a pentium d 805 for now. Then in 6 months or something, he can pop in a conroe, pci-e vid card, and some ddr2 and have a pretty nice setup.


sound good?
 
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