Need new mobo/ram/cpu bundle? Whats the best options?

[Sami]

As above, one of my HDDs just failed and the whole setup (2ghz p4 512mb RDRAM) is shafted and getting old, want to upgrade to something newer, might as well as im wiping it all and starting again!

Anyway been looking at getting a bundle including the mobo/cpu/ram, don't really wanna spend much cash at all though as Im pretty broke, so what would be the best/cheapest option to go for? Are bundles worth getting? Or would it be better to buy seperate?

 

[Sami]

*bump*

 

[16v_jon]

for a cheap option go for AMD sempron, asrock motherboard and 1 gig of ddr2 memory you could get that lot for £120ish

or go for a nice new base unit

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/systems.aspx the genie system is very good for the money

 

[wozzaa]

budget? And what do you want to use it for?

 

[GordonD]

Ask yourself whether if you buy the cheapest thing you can whether you'll end up with something noticeably better than you have now. If you were replacing a really crappy old system even a new cheap machine would be noticeably better. And if you were willing to spend a lot you could get something a lot better than your old machine.

Here's the problem with what you're doing. You say its your HDD that died. well replacing your motherboard and CPU won't fix that. You still need another HDD. And you need an operating system. If you're running Windows XP it requires activation and you'll find that it doesn't like being loaded on a completely new PC. That's where buying a complete new machine is cheaper, because Microsoft sells Windows a lot cheaper to people who build them than it does to you and I. And Vista is coming along in just a couple of months and it will require better hardware, and won't run on a lot of current low-end PCs. You could find if you buy a cheap-as-possible PC this month it'll suddenly be obsolete when Vista comes out in January.

 

[wozzaa]

If he has a legal copy of windows and he upgrades the machine its fine it will still work he may just have to call them only takes a couple minutes and they give you a key to enterin over the phone.

If its not legal its not gonna make any difference. And buying a new machine from somewhere still costs you more money than building one yourself you might save £50 on windows. But you could save a few hundred building it yourself.. You can get OEM versions of windows for rather cheap if you buy some ram / hdd etc. But the simple fact is many people use copied versions.

And most people will have no need ot move to vista for a year or so. Infact until i see a final version im telling people to stay away as the current versions are buggy just like XP was not particularly great at launch took a couple service packs before it was somewhat decent.

 

[Sami]

Mainly use it for browsing the net/work and sometimes games! Want something that could run newer games as my machine can't run half of them now

I know it was the HDD that died but I wanted a newer system anyway! I've got 2 80gb drives that are working fine at the mo so might keep those, but they are ATA133 so if I get a brand new mobo id need to get SATA drives?

Also I think my PSU is dodgy ive been having problems with it so need to replace that as well

Budget is probs max 200 but dont really wanna spend that much but obv I dont wanna buy crap so if needs be will pay the extra!

 

[Sami]

Also whats the disadvantage to having a sempron, is that like a celeron so last cache? And would I notice the difference?

 

[rory182]

try www.pless.co.uk they do combo deals

 

[Sami]

Just bought this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200053254595&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:UK:31

looks pretty gd?

 

[Clellandmc]

Just bought this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200053254595&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:UK:31

looks pretty gd?

lol, I love the way they have the description of it as 5.3ghz CPU!

 

[Sami]

^^ is it not very gd then :S

 

[Maxx]

I have a AMD Opteron 146 cpu going spare - all yours for 50 quid. Can overclock to over 2.5ghz. You may want to get dual core cpu's now tho

 

[Sami]

So is that a gd price for what i get or not?

 

[Sami]

Oh and how would a dual core 2.6 compared to a single core cpu? Say a single core 3.6 or whatever?

 

[Sami]

*bump* ne1?

 

[bigmouk]

Just bought this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200053254595&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:UK:31

looks pretty gd?

Those Dual core 2.66 overclock for fun ........ but need serious cooling, they run HOT!

Should have built it yourself mate, you could have had a lot higher spec than that for £250.