Motherboard, RAM, and CPU for R2500

phoenix

New member
Hey folks.

Seeing as nothing else worked, I have taken the drastic step of letting go of my extravagant components [Core i5 2400, 8Gb DDR3 1600, MSI Z68 ED55, Radeon HD 6870], and shall be stepping down to a more basic setup in order to force myself to complete my backlog of ye olde games. I also wanted to make a break from splurging on fancy hardware to buying within my salary bracket without raiding my life savings.....and then I'll probably be spending R700 or less on graphics.]

I would like to spend no more than R2500 [consider that the upper limit] on CPU, motherboard, and RAM [going to make do with onboard graphics until I have finished with the older games, and ready to move onto my Warhammer 40000:Dawn of War titles. I would like to have a PCI slot for a TV-PVR card at some stage in order to record any shows I might otherwise miss.

What are your suggestions for the three components?
 
AMD FX-4100
MSI 970A-G46
Team Extreme Vulcan 2x4GB DDRIII 1600

That should set you back around R2500 and it'll be more than capable of running all the newest and you're older titles.
Depending on the GPU.

No onboard gpu option though....
 
Well suppose you could get a i3 2120, H67 Mobo and 4GB ram for that amount. If not then change mobo to H61.
I'm running a i3 2120 with a GigaByte H67 Mobo and HD 4890 and run all new games no prob.
 
Pentium G840 - R719
MSI H61M-P21 - R449
CORSAIR 8GB DDR3-1333 - R507

Total: 1675 excl. Postage. Thats is as cheap as I would go, you can always buy a Core i5 at a later stage.
 
@OP do you require better graphics capabilities or better CPU performance, at your price range the AMD fusion CPU's have better graphics capabilities than the Intel G series processors with their HD2000 graphics. However the Intel G series outperforms the AMD Fusion series in CPU power.
 
@Nomnom:

In terms of graphics capabilities, all I need for the present is to be able to complete my back catalogue of older games, for example Baldur's Gate, Spellforce, Sacrifice, Planescape:Torment, Homeworld, and Deus Ex.

Once that is done, I would be looking around for a sub R1000 graphics card.

Short answer: CPU power.

I am quite happy to stick with at most 4Gb of budget RAM for the foreseeable future. Perhaps even 2Gb.
 
@Nomnom:

In terms of graphics capabilities, all I need for the present is to be able to complete my back catalogue of older games, for example Baldur's Gate, Spellforce, Sacrifice, Planescape:Torment, Homeworld, and Deus Ex.

Once that is done, I would be looking around for a sub R1000 graphics card.

Short answer: CPU power.

I am quite happy to stick with at most 4Gb of budget RAM for the foreseeable future. Perhaps even 2Gb.

You going to Run Windows 98 with that 2GB of ram? :p
 
You going to Run Windows 98 with that 2GB of ram? :p


Nah....I can manage that quit comfortably with 64Mb ;)

A number of the games in my cupboard can be coaxed into running in a lean Linux distribution running LXDE. I do not still want to have to pay Microsoft in the vicinity of R1000 for one of their operating systems.
 
Here is the most "future proof" build you can get:

Motherboard: R902.00
ASUS P8B75-M LX: all-in-one LGA1155

CPU: R1,221.00
Intel Core i3-3220, 3.3GHz, LGA1155

Ram: R214.00
Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1600C11, Value Select, 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL11, 1.5v


Total: R2337.00 + R75(shipping) = R2412.00


Here is the cheapest I would recommend getting:

Motherboard: R473.00
MSI PH61A-P35 (B3), LGA1155, Intel H61

CPU: R730.00
Intel Pentium G850, 2.9GHz, LGA1155, Dual Core, 32nm, 3MB L3 cache

Ram: R119.00
Corsair VS2GB1333D3 , value select , 2Gb , ddr3-1333


Total: R1322.00 + R75(shipping) = R1397.00
 
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Have ordered solid and sensible B-75 motherboard. Have a maximum of R2000 left to spend on CPU, RAM.....possibly in Johannesburg this rAge weekend...
 
Have ordered solid and sensible B-75 motherboard. Have a maximum of R2000 left to spend on CPU, RAM.....possibly in Johannesburg this rAge weekend...

Cool, you can look at the apparently awesome specials on components there.
 
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