VOGONS


First post, by Zup

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Mi PC died last week, so it seems I'll have to update it now.

It was a Phenom II X4 965 on a mainboard with AMD 970 chipset with 2x4Gb RAM sticks, and it was coupled to a Geforce 1050Ti and a Asus Xonar DS soundcard. It seems that either the CPU or the mainboard has died (I've tried it with another PSU).

So, I've been looking for a cheap CPU/motherboard/RAM replacement because my budget is limited. The chosen parts (for now) are:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1200. It outperforms Intel CPUs at the same price range. Ryzen 3 1300 is also on budget, but it cost about 30% more and gives only about 15% performance boost.
  • CPU cooler: It seems that stock coolers are fine... what do you think? Can I stick with the stock cooler or get a better one?
  • Motherboard: I'd like a board with B350 chipset. It seems a better choice than A320, and X chipsets seems to be for high end users. Also, I guess I can pass without the features offered by a B450 chipset, but I can buy a B450 is it's about same price as B350. What brands would you choose? Also, it seems that most motherboard lacks PCI slots... do anyone knows of a B350 board with a PCI slot for my sound card? Or is it better to use the integrated board?
  • RAM: It seems a very expensive item... so I'll get two 4Gb sticks. Any suggestion?

What do you think about this configuration? What would you change? Any suggestion about memory/motherboard brands or which ones to avoid?

Thanks.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 1 of 3, by oeuvre

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2200G is your best bet for price/performance.

Stick with stock cooler for now, you can always upgrade that later. RAM prices are kill so that's what stinks.. 8GB would be alright. Really might be hard to find a board with PCI slots so I'd just skip the idea of a PCI sound card altogether. Onboard audio is more than good enough for most use cases.

As per mobos, ASUS/Gigabyte/Asrock/MSI are usually solid choices.

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
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Reply 2 of 3, by gdjacobs

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Shame. The 965 is a nice CPU.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 3 of 3, by ODwilly

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Nice AM3+ 990fx are a dime a dozen, I bought a Fx-8350 on a top end motherboard last month for $30 to upgrade my sister's am3 Athlon ii system. Give you a chance to keep chugging along and save more money for a better build.

Edit: If you decide to go AM4 id suggest making sure you have 4 ram slots, and 95watt+ cpu support. Alot of cheap AM4 boards only accept 65watt

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1