PC Upgrade on a tight budget

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
So my PC can't take it anymore. It is still running but switching between Opera and Firefox takes about 3-4 seconds. So it pretty much reminds me of my old 800 Mhz PC with 256 MB RAM.

Anyways, it seems I will be upgrading it soon. Having been a little away from the hardware scene for a while, I am not really updated on the current prices. So I need some suggestions.

Firstly, since this upgrade wasn't planned, the budget is a bit tight. take it around 8-9k. I need CPU, motherboard and RAM. I found this in another thread:

AMD Athlon II X4 640 4.7K
Asus M5A78L-M LX 2.7K
Corsair Value RAM 4GB 1333 Mhz 1.2k

that totals to 8.6k

I am not very confident about Asus (my current motherboard's experience). So could you people suggest some other motherboard in this same price range. Also, if someone from Kolkata could update me on the prices. I'd settle for X4 635 if it is cheaper.

I am not much of a gamer, I watch HD Movies once in a while and mostly use my PC for running applications, can go upto 10 applications at time.

These are the things I already have:

AMD Athlon X2 3600+
Asus M2N MX SE (or whatever, I don't remember properly and it doesn't really matter)
1.5 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 RAM
MSI Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5
Corsair CX400
20" Monitor, res 1600x900

Also, what should I do with my old hardware. Does CRY have any use for them?

and yeah, would an Intel option be possible within 10k. Don't want to go for it, just want to know how it compares currently with AMD
 

Jaskanwar Singh

Aspiring Novelist
get these for 10k budget -
Component | Make | Price Processor |AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE|5800
Motherboard |Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P (rev. 3.1)|2800
RAM |Gskill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL|1650
| Total |10250
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
Will see if that motherboard's available. As far as the processor is concerned, I think I'll stick to Athlon, 640 or 645 depending on the price.
 

topgear

Super Moderator
Staff member
^^ That mobo is available on the market @ 2.6k and regarding the cpu it's 6.1k ( street price ) - Athlon II X4 645 is 5k and Phenom II X4 840 is 5.35k.
 

d6bmg

BMG ftw!!
Under 9K budget I hardly believe that you can afford Phenom II X4 & a good AM3 motherboard. :unsure: 10K is the minimum amount/budget what you need.
 

topgear

Super Moderator
Staff member
^^ he have to opt for phenom II X4 840 or Athlon II X4 645 then along with Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P (rev. 3.1) which will be around ~7.6-7.8k - with the rest of the money OP can get 2x 2GB Value series Ram from Corsair/Transcend/Kingston ;-)
 

Cilus

laborare est orare
^^ he have to opt for phenom II X4 840 or Athlon II X4 645 then along with Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P (rev. 3.1) which will be around ~7.6-7.8k - with the rest of the money OP can get 2x 2GB Value series Ram from Corsair/Transcend/Kingston ;-)

Topgear, the gigabyte mobo is having only 2 Ram slots and buying 2X2 GB module will block both the slots, preventing future memory upgrade without selling one RAM. So I guess a single Corsair 4GB 1333 MHz Value ram will be a better choice. The price is only 1.2K
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
Yeah, I know the budget is a bit low. That's why I am going for Athlon II X4, otherwise I really wanted to buy Phenom, 955 BE. Also, I will buy single module, dual channel won't matter much for my purposes. I run a lot of applications at the same time, which also includes Photoshop sometimes. So I might want to get another 4 GB in future. So I'll keep the slot free.
Also, I don't think I'll be using this desktop for long now (1 year at most). So no future proofing required and hence not much spending either.
 

d6bmg

BMG ftw!!
^^ Even if you bought the 955 BE, you must have to buy a good AM3 board with good vrm. As you know that 955Be is 125Watt processor, pairing it with cheap AM3 boards won't be a good idea at all.
 

topgear

Super Moderator
Staff member
if he does not OC or do a very mild OC ( without increasing any volts ) and can keep the temps in check then he will be just fine ;-)

Topgear, the gigabyte mobo is having only 2 Ram slots and buying 2X2 GB module will block both the slots, preventing future memory upgrade without selling one RAM. So I guess a single Corsair 4GB 1333 MHz Value ram will be a better choice. The price is only 1.2K

Ok ... nice idea mate ;-)
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
No OC. Doesn't matter. I don't want to OC. As for temps, I have an 80 mm side inflow fan. I'll get a 120 mm rear outflow fan, that should do it
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
OK, so Athlon is out. Nowhere in the market. Now I have 2 options,

Phenom 840 - 5200
Phenom 955 - 5800

considering that I am not at all interested in OC and both processors are 3.2 Ghz, I am more inclined towards 840. How much is the performance difference between the two?
 

Cilus

laborare est orare
Phenom II 840 is nothing but a rebranded Athlon II with higher clock speed as it lacks the L3 cache compared to the Phenom II processors. Performance wise it is equivalent to a 2.8 GHz or 3 GHz Phenom II processor. I think you can get it if you are not into OC.
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
OK, so it's pretty much what Athlon II X4 650 would have been had it existed. I am satisfied. I'll go for it

So this is what I'm gonna buy

Phenom II X4 840 - 5200
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P - 2500
Kingston 4GB RAM - 1100

Total - 8800 + VAT 350 = 9150

Well, pretty much a 9k upgrade I wanted
 

Cilus

laborare est orare
Get the Corsair Value Ram DDR3 4GB 1333 MHz one. The price is around 1.2K. The reason being is Corsair offers limited Life Time or 10 Yrs warranty on their memory products.
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
Hmm.. I too was inclined towards Corsair, but it seems the availability is an issue. I will buy corsair if availlable, will cost just 100 bucks more
 

d6bmg

BMG ftw!!
^^ Their availibility isn't an issue at all in chandni. You can find Corsair RAM modules in almost every renowned shop at chandni.
 
OP
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
I'll straightaway ask for it then. When I went to enquire everyone was like
corsair... corsair... mmmmm.......

I said OK, give me Kingston or Transcend

But that was because I was only asking for the price, while buying I'll simply say either corsair or nothing
 
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