Upgrade or build new?

[dude112]

A friend of mine has a gigabyte ep43 ds3l laying around and wants to build a budget system. It's quite an old mobo these days so I was wondering. Should he build a system using this mobo or simply buy a new one?

Budget is around 400-500 euro's for all inc. monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.

Component recommendations are appreciated.

I think AMD is the way to go if you build a new budget system?

CPU AMD Athlon II x3 440 55 euro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103843&Tpk=athlon x3 440
MOBO ASUS M4A785T 45 euro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131609
Memory Kingston Valueram 2GB 44 euro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...kingston_valueram_1333-_-20-134-812-_-Product
Videocard ATi 4670 65 euro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4150450&cm_re=ati_4670-_-14-150-450-_-Product
HDD Spinpoint F3 40 euro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...181&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product
Case Xigmatek asgard 35 euro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=xigmatek_asgard-_-11-815-004-_-Product
PSU Gigabyte Odin 700W 30 euro
Monitor Samsung P2270 150 euro

Links are just for illustrative purposes. Is this a decent build?

 

[dude112]

Noone?

 

[NoNameNY]

Honestly I would get a new mobo with a little more current cpu. Not saying yours is a bad choice but if you do have the extra euros you might be well served to do so. What OS are you planning on using? Again if you have the extra euros and the board can support it I would bump the ram to 4gig

 

[Thal07]

I have pretty much a similar build but better for only a little bit more... (also, I don't know how much a Euro is so I will post the prices in $$ =P )



Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX
<--- Quad-Core, @ 3.0ghz, will last you a lot longer for only $105 ($30 more)

Newegg.com - Open Box: MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
<--- great open box mobo, supports 2-way crossfire, sata 6gb/s, and 16gb ram, $64 (open box = used/refurbished...prolly wont come with disks or anything but all you need to do is go the the manufacturer's website and DL them free )

Newegg.com - OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3OB1600LV4GK
<--- dirt-cheap memory, 2x2gb, dual-channel, DDR3 @ 1600mhz, only $68 after mail-in-rebate

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100294DDR5L Radeon HD 5550 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
<--- cheap GDDR5 card, 1gb, supports crossfireX, $84

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
<--- great hard drive, 1 terabyte (versus 500gb), 64mb cache, supports sata 6gb/s, only $89

Newegg.com - Rosewill DESTROYER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan,1x Top 120mm Fan,1x Bottom Fan
<--- 7 expansion slots, 3 120mm fans, 1 80mm fan, $44

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER R4-L2R-20CG-GP 120mm Green LED Case Fan
<--- best 120mm case fans on earth lol, pumps 90 cubic feet per minute, silent, only $10 each (most standard case fans you get from buying a case are 10-20 cubic feet per minute...these are almost 10 times as powerful and silent (19db)

Newegg.com - RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply
<--- 630watt PSU, supports 2-way crossfire, reliable, $39 after mail-in-rebate

I would say get a new mobo and build a cheap system with up-to-date components...The mobo also lets you know how upgradable your system is, too...This one you can get 16gb ram and another GPU in crossfire, as well as up to 6-way raid if you wanted to hehe

-Thal

 

[Abstract Hero]

Thal's comes out to 391E.

 

[dude112]

First of thanks for the advice. I guess that's a no to using the old mobo.

Stuff tend to be a bit more expensive here in Europe. A simple currency conversion doesn't really apply.
Also don't have open box or rebates here Atleast not the decent shops. Really wish we had something like newegg.

And to answer NoNameNY about the OS that would be WINDOWS 7 (not included in the budget).

I have pretty much a similar build but better for only a little bit more... (also, I don't know how much a Euro is so I will post the prices in $$ =P )

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX
<--- Quad-Core, @ 3.0ghz, will last you a lot longer for only $105 (E95) ($30 more)

Newegg.com - Open Box: MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
<--- great open box mobo, supports 2-way crossfire, sata 6gb/s, and 16gb ram, $64 (E80) (open box = used/refurbished...prolly wont come with disks or anything but all you need to do is go the the manufacturer's website and DL them free )

Newegg.com - OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3OB1600LV4GK
<--- dirt-cheap memory, 2x2gb, dual-channel, DDR3 @ 1600mhz, only $68 after mail-in-rebate (E86)

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100294DDR5L Radeon HD 5550 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
<--- cheap GDDR5 card, 1gb, supports crossfireX, $84 (E67)

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
<--- great hard drive, 1 terabyte (versus 500gb), 64mb cache, supports sata 6gb/s, only $89 (E81)

Newegg.com - Rosewill DESTROYER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan,1x Top 120mm Fan,1x Bottom Fan
<--- 7 expansion slots, 3 120mm fans, 1 80mm fan, $44

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER R4-L2R-20CG-GP 120mm Green LED Case Fan
<--- best 120mm case fans on earth lol, pumps 90 cubic feet per minute, silent, only $10 each (E5) (most standard case fans you get from buying a case are 10-20 cubic feet per minute...these are almost 10 times as powerful and silent (19db)

Newegg.com - RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply
<--- 630watt PSU, supports 2-way crossfire, reliable, $39 after mail-in-rebate

I would say get a new mobo and build a cheap system with up-to-date components...The mobo also lets you know how upgradable your system is, too...This one you can get 16gb ram and another GPU in crossfire, as well as up to 6-way raid if you wanted to hehe

-Thal

Taking your example would come down to around 400 without the case and PSU (couldn't find it) adding case and PSU would be around 470-500.

It's over his budget already so maybe I should advice him to simply build a great system instead of a budget one and be done with it for a while

 

[NoNameNY]

If you're running Win7 I would def. bump up the ram to atleast 4

 

[dude112]

My friend wants to build with some second hand stuff

Is this a decent build?

e6500 45nm, 40 euro or e6750, 50 euro, which is better?
cooler master hyper tx3 cpu cooler, 20 euro (new)
gigabyte ep43 ds3l
9800gt, 35 euro
crucial balistix 6400c4 4gb, 50 euro
cooler master real power m620 psu, 40 euro
samsung spinpoint f3 500gb, 44 euro (new)
Xigmatek asgard case, 40 euro (new)