Budget Build Advice

eshortie

Hi could anyone give me advice as to which way I should go on my new build. I'll be using the machine for light gaming, programming and image editing mostly.

I currently have a 7600gt that will do the job (no laughing ) and a 500W OCZ PSU so no problems there, I also have a new 500GB Hard Drive and Windows 7 ready to go.

I'm wondering should I go the AMD or Intel route. My budget is roughly €250-300 would I be better off getting an AM3 build with the Athlon X4 640 or trying to stretch out for an i5 Sandybridge? Would the i5 be worth the extra cash or should I get a bang for buck Athlon X4 and maybe upgrade to an Phenom when or if needed?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Jonny7

the amd 640 route would be cheapest well below budget (assuming its chip, mb and ram)

Sandy bridge, i5 2500k, 4 gig ram and lower end board comes in delivered at juust over 300 euros

Something inbetween like
AMD x4 944 quadcore and board and ram comes in at about 220 delivered


Here's a comparison between the i5 2500k and the 640

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/188?vs=288

eshortie

Thanks for the reply Johnny, I might get the Sandybridge form hardwareversand as they're much cheaper than komplett. I've only dealt with Komplett before and had no problems are hardwareversand reliable?

deconduo

You'd be fairly hard pressed to get a 2500k + P67 board + 4GB of RAM for under 300. A better option would be an i5-2400 + a H61 board.

eshortie

Yeah I was looking at the 2300 or 2400 with the H61 plus on hardwareversand. Think I might get the Phenom X4 and stay within the student budget haha if I have too

Solitaire

i5-2400 with a not-cheapest H61 and 4GB cheap DDR3 would be €260ish shipped from HWVS. Should do you a while even without HyperThreading or OCing though.