Hi, I am looking at upgrading my pc new case, mb, cpu and memory. i'm not much of a techie and i am overwhelmed by the number of different motherboards and cpu's available on the market. I am looking at spending about £300 (approx 480 usd) on motherboard and cpu. Chipsets and sockets goes right over my head. My local pc hardware shop recomended the Core 2 quad 2.33 (1333fsb) Q8200 socket 775 processor and the Asus P5PKL/1600 Intel G31 chipset. As the cpu was the only quad core he had in stock made me think he was being a bit biased in his advise. I have a GTX260 which i will be going to use and i'm going to be buying the Antec 902 or 1200 as my case. I use my pc mainly for gaming Thank you in advance for your advice.
The Q8200 or a Q6600 (or a 6700) would be good choices with a P45 based board. Check out the Bit-Tech hardware guide for more advice: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2009/05/06/what-hardware-should-i-buy-may-2009/1
There are so many options out there that like mine you will get biased opinions of what we like. One fact to consider is cost. If you read and check you will hear that AMD give performance for less investment. I have the MSI 790FX-GD70 with the X3 720BE. AMD is a very affordable way to go with a quality product. AM3 is the new socket and less voltage use systems now on the market with a future of growth. You said your not a techie, but don't let that stop you from buying a board with features! To me it better to have options unused than not having and learning how to use. There are a wide variety of boards and manufacturers out there so reasearch reviews, look for sales and specials to save money and if you do it like I did for a budget. I bought the X3 thinking that when stronger newer processors become available I can uograde the CPU and move up. The X4 955 is now out and I find myself in no rush to change my X3 720 because the X3 is great and overclockable. I have a 140watt CPU board and 125w is the highest available at this time. When the 140's come out I can upgrade or sooner, but my point is that there should be a future and time to enjoy AM3. Don't but what we love because we love it. We AMD/ATI fans are devoted just as much as the others with the more expensive pound for pound Intel CPU's. You can get for example an MSI 790GX-G65 and AMD X3 720BE for about $250 with specials. That leaves another $200 from your $480 so consider the X4 955 and you will be impressed. Good luck.
get the same as panther...and me cuz i have order the same thing. AMD x3 720 BLACK Ed $150 US MSI 790fx GD 70 $170 US with the extra money by 4 gig DDR3 Ram (u need for this board) that will be around $70 US And u still got change. That's a powerful, future proof PC. A buddy of mine has a 720, a Gigabyte UD4p board and YOUR graphics Card, and he scores all 5.9 vista except on one (which was 5.8 anyway) Affordable power But it all depends on what you like. Intel is more expensive, and it's unclear for noobs like us, how to future proof your pc if headed in that direction. Amd is simple and easy for us to future proof, and performs well, not at Intel level, but still great. Affordable, and good value
