www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

This used to be fairly straightforward - back in the days when there was only a few processor manufacturers and a couple of devices each between them.

Nowadays there is an absolute multitude of different proccessors, busses, BIOSes, Chipsets, etc etc etc and chosing a mobo is becoming a nightmare of "too much choice".

My basic requirement is for low/mid-duty gaming graphics (nothing like the top-end gaming software - I'm keen to play a space simulator or even Flight SimX - HDMI output, average sound.... nothing else particularly required (we tend to be Office and Paintshop Pro/Sketchup users in the main - Mrs k_e does an accounting package and website design). It's been over FIVE YEARS since we had a new PC in the house (other than tablets and 2nd hand lappies ).

I know I want an SSD HDD and 4 to 8Gb RAM and already have a 2Tb SATA drive to hand for basic data storage and backup (plus a USB3 1Tb external drive) but the motherboard selection leaves me utterly confused.

Whilst some would say 'get the highest performance MOBO you can afford' I still think that would be a waste of money as I can't see our requirement changing much from what I've listed even in the NEXT 5 years or more! No point in spending money on performance I won't ever use.

I've tried to find a 'selector' site but all I get are lists and lists of MOBOs with gobbledegook specs that leave me confused....... so.....

any help??

or is it now the case that purchasing a barebones base unit is cheaper?

or does anyone have one they want to flog?

I always go for a barebones unit from Novatech - such a bundle tends to keep the costs down and they have quite a choice. The last one I built was from them, in October last year. I even bought it ready mounted in a case.

Colin

Even for what you want, I would say you will save money buying one ready built.
Yes it did used to be cheaper to build your own, that way you had pride that you built it, and it was what you wanted, trouble is now it will cost you more £ to that, than to buy one ready built.

It all depends on budget, 8gb ram as a minimum, the processor will dictate the motherboard and chipset, graphics card is down to Amd or Nvidia

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/

There are only 2 PC processor manufacturers? AMD and Intel. The others are for mobile phones etc...

Overclockers.co.uk is the easiest site to view components on, but not always the cheapest. They have a section for bundles - have a look at the motherboard/CPU/RAM bundles as they simplify choice a lot.

I would go Intel over AMD as right now AMD are seriously lacking in the processor department.

With graphics an Nvidia GTX 970 is the best value for money at around £245, or a similarly priced AMD 290x (AMD are bad with their driver updates though).

For power supply would get an 800w-1200w one for future proofing. Modular ones are good since you can pull the cables out you don't need. Superflower is great and a lot of other brand PSUs are just Superflowers under a different name.

Get a nice spacious case just in case a future component doesn't fit. Disk drive can be transfered from another PC.

Basically, the case, Disk drive, HDDs/SSDs, and PSU can be future proof so make your choices wisely. Graphics cards and CPU/MB/RAM can never really be future proof as these are the components you'll be replacing down the road once a demanding game or piece of software you need exceeds your current PC's limits.

Look here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/intel-computers/

You can spec or look at bundles. I won't go into too much detail, but I'm sure you can find the information about the company (or if you trust me, I'm easy).

Have a play.

BG

That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for BG Simple (like me ) and easy to use (again, like me ).

Not as expensive as I thought it may be either (mid range spec for most items was my choice).

Off for another 'play' with the spec.

Brill

I was tasked last week with sorting out my daughters computer. She said her lad had managed to delete Windows off the HDD. No such luck, what he'd managed to do was break the vga connector at the back (it's looser than those women on ITV at lunchtime) Thought I'd just source a cheapish mobo for it. Sadly it's the (old ? ) LGA775 socket. Christ sake the computer's only about three/four yrs old, yet trying to find a cheapish mobo with the 775 socket on it is not the easiest of tasks. Plenty of secondhand ones on fleabay, but you know they ain't gonna come with full instructions for connecting everything up. As it is, I managed to install Win7 Ultimate on to a spare computer I had and he's now got that.. First question when I dropped it off was "What games will it run?" FFS Why can't kids be happy with solitaire and freecell?

joinerjohn wrote: FFS Why can't kids be happy with solitaire and freecell?

Don't forget Hearts...

joinerjohn wrote:I was tasked last week with sorting out my daughters computer. She said her lad had managed to delete Windows off the HDD. No such luck, what he'd managed to do was break the vga connector at the back (it's looser than those women on ITV at lunchtime) Thought I'd just source a cheapish mobo for it. Sadly it's the (old ? ) LGA775 socket. Christ sake the computer's only about three/four yrs old, yet trying to find a cheapish mobo with the 775 socket on it is not the easiest of tasks. Plenty of secondhand ones on fleabay, but you know they ain't gonna come with full instructions for connecting everything up. As it is, I managed to install Win7 Ultimate on to a spare computer I had and he's now got that.. First question when I dropped it off was "What games will it run?" FFS Why can't kids be happy with solitaire and freecell?

Where in the world are you JJ?

BG

I tend to use scan.co.uk there build systems are good for the money they also do mobo, cpu and ram bundles aswell barebones

I don't spec machines just off what I want to build - I spec them for the needs of the user and I use quality parts not cheap tat

as for the 775 cant you stick a cheap vga card in it ?? pci or agp ??

I think he's damaged the mobo, but without taking it apart there's no way to check the back of it. Dunna matter anyway It has a 1tb sata HDD in it and a blueray recorder as well as a quad core processor, so probably worth getting a mobo for. Once done I can load Win7 on to it and hide it away from the grandkids. Grandson tends to play a lot of these games on Steam, so I don't know what sort of graphics capablitiy he needs (but if that's how he looks after computers, he can wait till he leaves school, get a job and buy his own)

PS meant to say, I have used Scan Computers in the past for parts. Good service off them.