Hi. I really want to downsize my case to a SilverStone TJ08B-E, mainly to save space as I will probably be moving around a bit. Along with that, I also need a new mATX motherboard. At the moment my plan is: Budget: Around £150 Main uses of intended build: Gaming, image editing (RAW files), general computing Parts required: Case: SilverStone TJ08B-E Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M LX OR Asus M5A78L-M LX V2 Previous build information (list details of parts): Case: CM Storm Scout Motherboard: MSI 770-C45 CPU: AMD Phenom II 720 BE CPU cooler: Antec Kuhler H2O 620 RAM: 2X2GB + 2X4GB (total 12GB) Graphic card: xfx HD4870 1GB Hard Disk: 1X1TB Samsing F2, 1X60GB Crucial M4 Monitor resolution: Samsung SyncMaster 2333 (1920x1080) will you be overclocking: yes Extra information about desired system: small! (and light) The current issues are: 1) will everything work? 2) can I get away with the V1 motherboard? As far as I can tell, the only difference is that is has a PCI-E 1.0 rather than a 2.0. Will this really limit my future upgrade potential? I know there are only 2 memory slots so I will be losing out on 4GB of RAM but oh well. I would also love to upgrade my CPU and graphics card but I don't think I can justify the performance upgrade to myself. Will eventually though and will probably be shifting to Intel hence the ultra budget motherboard now. Would really appreciate any thoughts soon!
How about selling the current motherboard and CPU to put towards a change of platform? Id say the tri core and motherboard would fetch £40-50 and that could be added to your budget? Could get a i3 and matx B75 chipset mobo (with 4 mem slots) for around the £150 mark? Then whatever you make off the old stuff for a case. Thats what id do anyway.
Depends how much you stress your machine. The 720 wasn't that great at release and its a couple of years old now.
is that possition I would for FM1 socket would give a nice GPU BOOST and give you 4 cores to play with. get high speed ram though. NVM saw budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131758 That would net you 4 ram slots and a newer chipset. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130634 A lower price... There are options out there. I know you're not US based, but at least you could look for the model numbers.
The 880G would definitely be worth getting over the older 780, if not just for the SB850 southbridge with SATA 6Gbps.
Thanks for the advice so far! The thing is, I don't actually mind upgrading the whole thing to a i5 3570K and new GPU. My main issue is I would have no idea what to do with the leftover parts... The 720 isn't the fastest thing no Earth but it doesn't seem to limit what I can do. Meanwhile, the HD 4870 is definitely showing it's age but it can still play games at 1080 and high settings (albeit without AA). This upgrade is mainly focussed on decreasing the physical footprint and I'll wait for things to start naturally dying/be so colossally outdated that only a monkey would use it (unless someone can convince me otherwise that is ) So far, the idea I like the most is the 880G chipset for the SATA 6Gbps for my SSD but I'm I can't seem to find any mATX mobo which have this. Might just be me being special though...
Scan have 3 mATX 880G motherboards, the MSI 880GMA-E35 (FX), the Asus M5A88-M and the Asus M5A88-M EVO Edit: If you don't plan on "upgrading" to Bulldozer, there is also the Asus M4A88T-M and the MSI 890GXM-G65
Save a bit of money and get the PS07 instead of the TJ08. It's the same case apart from the fact that there are 2 120mm fans in the front, and there is a front door covering them.
Thanks for pointing out the PS07! It's virtually the same size and £20 cheaper! (although it seems to have slightly higher temps but I'll live) As for motherboards, they either aren't in stock at Scan or don't actually have the SATA 6Gbps. Has anyone heard of Systo? I found this. Thoughts?
