Hey folks, I'm looking to put together a system for a friend on a limited budget. It will be used for general tasks and a little gaming (@1280). Toms hardware had recommended the athlon II x3 455 (£60) in their 'Best CPU under £100' thread again for november and I was originally set to go for a system based around that. However, given the price of the g620 (£48-50), the performance in reviews and benchmarks running general tasks and some gaming AND ontop of all that being on the 1155 socket (therefore having the option to upgrade to 2500k in future should he get more seriously into gaming) then I've swung round to thinking this might be the best option. The g850 is £14-17 more expensive than the g620 for only a 300mhz boost in speed, and so I'm thinking this wouldn't be worth the additional cash right now. If going the g620 route (with a view to upgrading to a 2500k and overclocking in future) which chipset/particular motherboard would you recommend? I am planning on matchin these up with 4gb ddr3 1600mhz 1.5v, and a second hand graphics card that will be suitable for now (something like a 4870 currently under £50 on ebay) What do you guys think? Thanks in advance! http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/202?vs=406 (455vg620) http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=404 (g620 v g850)
P67 or Z68 as the chipset. P67 is end-of-life, so popular boards like the MSI P67A-GD53 may be hard to find now (but grab one if you can!). Z68 is the better chipset, it has more features, it's just unlikely that you'll ever use them. Personally I'd always take socket 1155 over any of AMD's current options, because as you say the upgrade to a 2500K is always an option. Between the g850 and the g620 I would probably go for the g850 normally, but as your friend is gaming at 1280* I'd stick with the cheapest. other than that, looks good. Get a 450W PSU from Corsair's budget range as they are cheap and reliable and you'll be good to go
