$350 mobo/cpu upgrade

[SugarJ]

So my oldest son wants to upgrade his E8400/P35 combo.

Budget is NOW $350 before tax, includes mobo/CPU/ram only. Case, drives and GTX460 will be reused.

He will not be OC'ing his build.

I was thinking a H67/i5 2400 combo, but mATX boards are out. Suggestions?

[_dangtx_]

i wouldnt be able to jot down a better idea than waht you already had.

whats up with matx boards though? love em.

[3.0charlie]

300 is tight for board + 2400 + ram. Why not matx? There are some nice fine boards.

NCIX.com - Buy Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 4GB 2X2GB PC3-10666 DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memory Kit - Mushkin Enhanced - 996768 - in Canada: Mushkin 2x2gb DDR3-1333 - no oc, right?
NCIX.com - Buy Gigabyte GA-H61M-USB3-B3 mATX LGA1155 H61 DDR3 1PCI-E16 1PCI-E 2PCI DVI RGB Video Sound Motherboard - Gigabyte - GA-H61M-USB3-B3 - in Canada: H67 matx, single PCIe, USB3 - no need for esata, nor crossfirex?
NCIX.com - Buy Intel Core i5 2300 Quad Core Processor LGA1155 2.8GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB - Intel - BX80623I52300 - in Canada: to meet the budget, i5 2300


299.97$. Quick and dirty, no price match, no shopping done.

[SugarJ]

He doesn't. He has a full size case with window, and a couple of expansion cards (sound/wifi). Anyone know of a H67 ATX board? or cheap P67's? As long as it's got USB and SATA connections, he'll be ok with it. He's not going to bite on a $180 board and sacrifice on the CPU though.

I should state that he uses Photoshop for work, and games quite a bit on it. I think a quad is the way to go, but he might look at a AMD 6 core combo too if it can be done in that range.

Edit: I'll give him an early birthday present. Add $50 to the budget. Now $350 plus tax. Sorry.

[Eldonko]

Tough budget. Really your only option is 2400/h67 matx.

Might be a better idea to go AMD. Perhaps AMD Phenom II X4 965 ($140), ASUS M4A79XTD Evo ($97), Corsair CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 4GB ($43) = $281. Plus if you price match you can save a few more $. You could also upgrade the CPU to a 6 core X6 1055T for that $20 difference.

[3.0charlie]

Ah, well that's different. PS wants as many cores as possible and the more ram the better.

NCIX.com - Buy G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-10666CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1333 CL9-9-9-24 Memory - G.Skill - F3-10666CL9D-8GBXL - in Canada: Gskill 2x4Gb DDR3-1333
NCIX.com - Buy MSI 870-G45 ATX AM3 870 DDR3 2PCI-E16 PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 GBLAN Audio CrossFireX Motherboard - MSI/MicroStar - 870-G45 - in Canada: MSI 870 board, you may want though to add a few more bucks for USB3.
NCIX.com - Buy AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 6 Core Processor 2.8GHZ Socket AM3 Retail Box - AMD - HDT55TFBGRBOX - in Canada: AMD 1055T

302.97$

[SugarJ]

Yep, Eldonko just informed me about that. I've never used it, so looks like an X6 build would be better for him.

Edit: I think I can get a 1090T and some faster memory inside the $350 budget easily, too. And I'll cheat and OC it before I hand it over to him.

[3.0charlie]

rofl - Daddy kicks in...

I still think 1055T is the best bet. I've built a few rigs for PS especially, using this board: NCIX.com - Buy Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD870 ATX AM3 DDR3 1PCI-E 2PCI RAID HD Sound GBLAN SATA3 USB3.0 Motherboard - Gigabyte - GA-870A-UD3 - in Canada. Nice power distribution for the X6 cores, very stable. Though Zac's board looks mighty fine too, and it's the board he reviewed if I'm not mistaken (edit: is it LL? Can't seem to find the review anymore. Sorry about that mishap). Nothing better than hands-on experience.

To answer your edit, if you can make a 1090T happen, even better. But I don't think faster memory is required in your Son's case - quantity definitely is with PS.

[Eldonko]

USB3.0 may be nice to have in the future. You have to bump up to a $120 board for that though. Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H or similar.

[3.0charlie]

Cheaper than that - the board I linked in my last reply is 99$.