Budget Build for a friend.

VenomIreland · 28-10-2010 4:56pm #1

Will be for general use and some gaming on a 1600X900 monitor

Thoughts?

Monotype · 28-10-2010 5:14pm

Ben? I know him! He's just down the road from me. I haven't heard him mentioning a PC though...

Don't forget if he's a student that he can get discounted windows.

VenomIreland · 28-10-2010 5:22pm

Does secondary school count as student?

Monotype · 28-10-2010 9:01pm

Most of the time. W7 Pro is a good deal.
http://www.software4students.ie/SchoolSearch.aspx

With the upgrades you need either a previous OS. There's a trick also where you can install it for the 30/60-day trial without a key and upgrade from that but you'd have to look into it to be sure as I've never tried it myself.

Solitaire · 28-10-2010 9:43pm

Changing PSU to a SFC Amazon 450W saves €20 for largely identical performance

VenomIreland · 29-10-2010 9:45am

I can't get them an upgrade, they don't have a working drive with Vista on it

Thanks for the PSU rec Solitaire

cherryghost · 29-10-2010 10:27am

You could knock off an extra 20 euro if you wanted to get a tri-core and unlock the 4th

VenomIreland · 29-10-2010 12:13pm

Actually, if I get them a Tri Core Athlon there's a chance it could unlock into a Phenom II X4, right?

Can the 770 even unlock?

cherryghost · 29-10-2010 12:23pm

yeah it can

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=177770
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227019

Some of the similarly priced Asus ones feature it without any update needed.

VenomIreland · 29-10-2010 12:29pm

Yeah it can unlock into a Phenom II or yeah the 770 can unlock, or both?

cherryghost · 29-10-2010 12:33pm

Yes to both

http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/535501-official-amd-k10-5-core-cache.html

There's unlocking success with all featured processors on that motherboard with update, take a gander :P

Monotype · 29-10-2010 12:34pm

VenomIreland wrote: »

Actually, if I get them a Tri Core Athlon there's a chance it could unlock into a Phenom II X4, right?

If you can unlock, most of the time you'd be getting an Athlon II X4 (main difference is no L3 cache). If you're very lucky there might be a few disabled phenoms around.

VenomIreland · 29-10-2010 12:46pm

Heck, even a simple Tri Core Athlon II would be better than the virus laden junk they have now.

Think I'll save them the €40 and get the SFC and Tri-Core.

Solitaire · 29-10-2010 2:44pm

I'd like to say "now get the HD6850" but they don't even have a 1080p monitor...

VenomIreland · 29-10-2010 2:54pm

Pah, it's still not a terrible monitor at 1600X900.

Budget Build for a friend.

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