My pc is now about 5 years old so looking to build another one, So much new stuff now its unreal!

but basically to start me off i was wondering what people would recommend for a Motherboard/CPU set up. Ill be using this for internet, iTunes mainly but do want to run the odd game, it doesnt need to run cyriss or anything extreme like that also was thinking about using Sli. Im using a AMD cpu atm, and was maybe wanting to go for Intel?

would be looking to spend around £175-200

Any help would be great

 

A few pointers to remember with your £175 - £200 budget:

If your pc is 5 yrs old, then most probably it will have DDR-2100/2700/3200 ram, An IDE hard drive and an AGP graphics card.

Nowadays a new board and chip combo will require DDR2 memory, a SATA HDD and a PCI-Express graphics card, so all these things will need acquiring on top of your new chip and board.

Next point to think of, your PC currently may have a small output power supply, say 200w or similar, and if you end up with a few extras in your new PC that require external power (Ie a moloar connection as well as being connected to the board) then you may need a new power supply.

Next, because of the gigantic changes you have made to your PC setup, it is unlikely that even if you manage to use your IDE HDD, that it would boot into windows, so you have to have some great knowledge with an XP disc to get it to boot, or prepare yourself for a flat install.

Realistically it can still be done, but you would perhaps have to set yourself a stretch target budget closer to £300 to do it properly. By properly, I mean, that if you want it to last and be functional for another 5 years, then you may as well go for decent parts ie; a decent VGA card, at least 3gb ram (this is the max that 32bit XP and Vista will 'see') and a large hdd (1tb or 2 x 500gb, striped for backup perhaps)

If you are on XP and are using this as a chance to upgrade to Vista, make sure the components you are carrying over from your old build are Vista compatible (check manufacturers website for drivers) or this could also bring in unforseen costs.

Once you have considered all of this, pop into your local computer retailler (I should know, worked at pc world for 8 yrs up until last monday) and see what perhaps £300 - £350 (without monitor) would get you 'off the shelf' I bet you would be surprised... And it all comes with recovery data and a 12month warranty.....!


Hope this is of help

 

32-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate: Maximum 4GB

Youre graphics card memory will determine how much of the 4GB windows Vista will see

 

cheers for the info guys,
I understand that it might not work with me having the older system etc but I was just looking for a motherboard CPU bundle fir my budget, maybe some memory if there ate good deals around.

 

I just bought 4gb of very quick ddr2 corsair memory for 29.95 so memeory is really cheap mate

 

aye i know just been having a look on ebay etc, some good deals on there