Help me find a working PC build for a good cause

Post Reply New Topic

A friend of the family has a kid and she has a really old computer. My old computer in fact. They cannot afford to upgrade her system so I'm trying to make a nice xmas/thnxgiving gift for her.

Her system:

AMD dual core Athlon II 64bit 2.2 ghz
Asus A8NE motherboard
PSU 650W
Nvidia 7800GT
2gb RAM DDR 400


Since I recently upgraded my system's vid card and ram I have:

4gb DDR3 1333mhz (2 sticks)
Nvidia GT240

laying around that I can use for her upgrade.

I know I can put the GT240 in her old system and give her an oomph boost for when she plays LOTRO and other not so demanding games. The CPU isnt bad but the RAM is an atrocious bottleneck.

So... I need suggestions on a decent upgrade motherboard and AMD cpu that could give her a good performance without it costing much. I've been out of touch lately with the AMD chipsets so all these new 'A' series cpus have me confused.

I kitted out a simple rig:

ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 with 92mm PWM Fan
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 ATX AMD Motherboard

That runs me 195 bucks. Unfortunately this is a bit steep for me atm.

Suggestions on a less powerful but still good chipset/mobo? Im trying to keep it under or slightly above 100.

She plays lord of the rings online, the sims and I guess she'll also end up grabbing my copy of Skyrim.


Possibles I've been looking at: (comments welcome)

AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D

MSI A75A-G35 FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

For $132 bucks

.............................

AMD A6-5400K Trinity 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7540D

MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

For $114

............................

Last edited by Dantac on 23 Nov 2012, 1:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

You can't really go wrong with gigabyte motherboards. I have used the freezer 7 pro hsf many times, it's usually the best perf/price.

So you're doing really good, but you could just go with stock HSF on a am3 propus cpu and a 760g micro atx mobo for about 120$ total. Few other options is used components or maybe catch a awesome sale. Thats about as low as I can go for you without sacrificing some performance.

Goodluck!

http://www.hwcompare.com/977/geforce-8800-gt-512mb-vs-geforce-gt-240-gddr5/

You'll see from the link above, she's almost better off with the 7800 vs the newer GT240! (Minus DX11 features)

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/35?vs=406

And you'll see here her old CPU compared to a brand new $40 Intel G620 CPU... 60-100% increase across the board!

That CPU and mobo would be easily under $100 and crush anything AMD can offer in that price range.

(With the exception of any Black Friday sales... my local computer shop has an AMD A8 + mobo combo for $100... less than half price!)

1) The comparison is a gt240 vs a 8800gt, which is not what his friend currently has, they have a 7800gt which is FAR slower than a 8800gt. Anyhow the graphics card is free and even if it is a even swap moving to a faster chipset/ ram and processor would still add a few frames.

2) The intel setup you found looks better than the AMD one I proposed, when I plugged them in your setup comes up about same performance and 10-20$ cheaper. Good find!

ok... I see the CPU you list here..but what motherboard are you referring to?

Any thoughts on the 2 possibles I was looking on my first post?

Your A8 combo is a little better than my Intel solution in everything except games - it's also more expensive...

Let's see what Newegg's got... There are cheaper processors and boards but I chose inexpensive while still good and all 3rd-generation brand new stuff.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157303
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116779
This combo is under $120 and is the absolute latest generation processor and board. Unless you can get a screaming deal on the older FM1 A8 combo, I would avoid it - the only real reason to go with the AMD APU option is for the amazing onboard graphics which are already equal to your GT 240.

I'd go with the Intel because you'll also gain the ability to add a small SSD for amazing drive caching, better gaming performance (sounds like that's her "thing") and does so at half the wattage of AMD's processors. (Your GT240 uses a lot less power too. Might as well lower their electric bill at the same time!)

Thanks. Now, thats a celeron G555 . The G620 you mentioned earlier is 10 dollars more which is not a big problem. Would the 620 be *that* much better or no?

I'd go with the G555 simply because it's a whole generation newer than the G620. The performance will be equal or better.

Shop around though because what I quoted is regular price and you might find amazing Black Friday deals like this:
(Canadian only:) http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_3870K_A75AG35

she has a really old computer
Her system:
AMD dual core Athlon II 64bit 2.2 ghz
Asus A8NE motherboard

Really old computer ?!?!
That is almost a new computer!
The computer I wrote this on has a 1.5ghz Athlon XP and a Biostar M7VIT Version 1.0 motherboard.
Really old is a 386 SX 16mhz cpu.

Thanks! I also checked your andandtech link and compared my CPU , a Phenom II quad core black 965 to the G620 (G555 was not on their list) and the results came back as both being quite closely matched ... I think.

Odd though the phenom II is 99 bucks and the 620 is much cheaper. quad core vs single core i guess...

umm.. yours is a dinosaur . I built that Athlon II nearly 8 years ago. Thats OLD.

The configuration you show is good for working computer.