Rebuild For Swmbo

It would appear that Match and I are in the same boat, wifes PC has "Altzheimers & overthehillitus" so I am going to use the existing ATX case and PSU but everything else will be new and then W7 Home Premium 32 Bit as the OS.

I am going the Intel route so here is my initial goodies list, all from e-buyer. I would really appreciate our more experienced builders checking out the compatibility of the components, I have tried as best as I know how but that isn't a lot !

CPU Intel Pentium Dual Core E6500 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/183979
MOBO Asus P5-KPL-AM http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169508
RAM Crucial 2GB DDR2 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190904
HDD Western Digital WD5000AKS http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228
Optical Drive LiteOn 1HAS 124-19 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

As you can see, I am trying to keep the price as sensible as possible as my wife primarily just uses the machine for e-mail, web surfing ("Farmville" :down: )and as storage and then writing to disc of our digital pictures.

 

Hi,

Its not a bad setup but why go the Intel route?
If you are looking for a budget system then you have to look at the AMD route, the AMD Athlon II X2 240 is a Dual core 2.8GHz chip that can be easily overclocked to 3.5GHz and its £45 (and as from your previous posts I know you dont mind overclocking)

I would seriously consider this chip and the money that you would save using this chip could go toward something else

In regards to your previous, the compatibility of the components is fine.

 

Hi Dalo,
Yes I take your point re Intel/AMD, by using the cheaper CPU I have moved to a better MOBO and better faster RAM also.
This MOBO features "Express Gate" which I reckon will score me Brownie points with the better half !

Budget went up a tad. I think using the same Optical & Hard Drives as mentioned previously and these

CPU : AMD Athlon X2 240 2.8 ghz http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168971
MOBO : Asus M4A 785TD-V EVO http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169532
RAM : Kingston 2Gb DDR3 1600mhz http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169270

will give me a reasonable machine. I intend using the standard cooling at present, our existing case has a side and top fan. Nothing my wife will be doing will stress this PC (apart from the stress she gives me!). If I need to use a different PSU, is there one you could suggest ?
Once again, are these still compatible ?

 

Yes they are compatible, I would opt for an MSI board though, there is one I did a build for not too long ago (it was in Match post) I would get that as its around the £40-50 mark and get a dedicated GPU with the ££ thats left -

I'll dig it out later, unless you can have a quick search, I think its the MSI 770 from memory

 

Well, first of all, congratulations on your 1000th post

I think I will stick to the Asus MOBO as it has a few features that I like from using one previously in my son's build that I done last year.
I also have one of these :- "Gainward BLISS 7800GS AGP TV Dual DVI Golden Sample Goes Like Hell Graphics adapter - 512 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM " doing nothing so may pop it in if I need to.

In the Asus mobo tech description " 4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 1800(O.C.)*/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory" does the (O.C) mean Over Clocked ? does it mean 1600 RAM will only work if overclocked ? if thats the case I will probably drop back to 1333 RAM.

I am also leaning toward a new (cheap) case and PSU so that I can have another complete machine to use to educate myself a little more in the "Black Art" of partitions, alternative OS's etc etc, the thinking being that as its a spare I aint gonna get it in the neck when it rolls over and Blue screens me or whatever

 

Thanks!

Have a look at the MSI 770-C45 it costs £50 and supports DD3 RAM - I overclocked the exact same chip I recommended to you with one of these, now I dont normally rate MSI as a MOBO manufacturer but I have to be honest I was VERY impressed with it and with the £20 you save could go toward a case or PSU

 

In the Asus mobo tech description " 4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 1800(O.C.)*/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory" does the (O.C) mean Over Clocked ? does it mean 1600 RAM will only work if overclocked ? if thats the case I will probably drop back to 1333 RAM

was this assumption right ? Its also stated the same type of thing on the MSI spec.

 

yes, they don't support 1600/1800 unless overclocked