Uprading livingroom PC

[Mr. Plow]

So the living room PC needs an overhaul... (it's about 6 years old and getting tired like an old dog). It's basically computer used for mail / browsing / music and it's mostly used by the old ball'n'chain and an apathetic teen-ager ; Though a little gaming isn't out of the picture (think steam titles like L4D, TF2). For now I've narrowed it down to either a AMD or Intel setup. The update includes MoBo, CPU and RAM (other components are fine) Should mention that I'm keeping my ASUS 8800 GTS gpu.

AMD:
MoBo: ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3
CPU: Phenom II X4 840 2 MB
RAM: Corsair XMS3 2 x 2 GB

Price: 209 GBP

Intel:
MoBo: ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Performance
CPU: Core i3 I3-2100 3 MB
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2 x 2 GB

Price: 255 GBP

I would appreciate it if some of you would share some thoughts on these setups. Cheers.

[Welsh]

i has an x4 amd and it works fine for me! (mine is in the bottom left of your link....whats the diff with this new one? lower power consumption and eco stuff?)


Maybe youll be able to win a game of fifa on this new machine plowy....

[Mr. Plow]

Not complete up to date on what's what with the phenom cpu's (really just looking at cost/power). And as fifa goes... no machine can deal with your 20-dollar-a-month hacks

[Mr. Plow]

So... decided to go with these components (I'll soon be joining the [MOAN] clan; not feeling the love around here ):

Asrock P67 EXTREME4 S1155 SATA6 USB3 CFX/SLI (B3)
Core i3-2100/3.10 GHz 3M LGA1155
Corsair Vengeance 2 x 2 GB 1600MHZ

I chose the Intel setup because of slightly lower power consumption at load + a bit better gaming performance. Chose an SLI board for the option of slapping an extra GPU in.

[IceT-Bag]

Have you checked the i3 CPU supports the 1600 DDR ram so you get the most out of it.

Some i3s only support speeds upto 1333mhz so buying anything faster would be a waste.

[Mr. Plow]

Hey Ice what-do-you-know you're actually right the i3 2100T only supports memory speeds @ 1333 mhz. Need to correct my order. Thanks!

[IceT-Bag]

God Im awesome!

This reminds me, I should get a *pats self on back* emoticon for this forum

[Mr. Plow]

Where other people sees flowers, sun and rainbows - Ice sees faulty hardware setups and flawed buying decisions. *pat on the bag*

[HanZ]

I could sure use a right now

[Welsh]

Just no.