Cheap CPU/Motherboard Recommendation

Votivee · October 18, 2019

Looking for a cheap mobo/cpu combo to upgrade a friend's computer.

Budget: around $100, max $120. Buying used.

For gaming only
DDR3
Good pair for a GTX 970.
Upgradability isn't a concern

Slayer3032 · October 18, 2019

Posting what your friend is upgrading from would help prevent the upgrade from being a possible downgrade.

Votivee · October 18, 2019

Just now, Slayer3032 said:

Posting what your friend is upgrading from would help prevent the upgrade from being a possible downgrade.

Xeon E5520

OEM dell board

Not much in the $100 range that's going to be a downgrade from that

Slayer3032 · October 18, 2019

You could probably get away with a X5670, X5675 or X5680. There's also the X5687 which might work okay. Sometimes the OEM Alienware/XPS boards can be found cheap for X58 and you can get a nice high 3 to low 4ghz overclock out of them. I'm using a GTX 1080 with my X5675. But if it's one of the old dual channel LGA1366 motherboards, I wouldn't bother.

Good deals on used hardware are usually found locally, otherwise most stuff easily available in that price range isn't really going to nearly as much of an upgrade as $150-200 would get you.