Upgrading MB/CPU, need recommendation

[maverick383]

My current desktop is about 8 years old, and my motherboard just recently stopped working, so I am looking for a replacement but with so many combo's to choose from it's a bit overwhelming and I could use a hand.

This is what is in my current system:

Asus P5N-T Deluxe motherboard
AMD CPU
geForce GTX280 video card
Corsair tx650w power supply
4 gb ddr2 ram

Now I am not much of a PC gamer, what little I do game is done on consoles so I don't really need the latest and greatest of hardware. Most of what I do on my desktop is some minor graphic design, general browsing and youtube, and occasionally play minecraft with my son.

I have 4 gb of ddr3 ram that I was given if that would save me a few bucks on a ddr3 setup vs a ddr4.

I am not above buying second hand hardware from ebay so that is also an option, and honestly it's probably where I will be sourcing it from as I really only want to spend about $150 on this upgrade. Any recommendation made would be appreciated and if you could include an explanation or a reason why you picked that over something else of a similar price point, so that way I'm not just buying parts blindly.

Thanks

 

[The Paladin]

well you have two choices, buy new (see below) for about 171$, and this permits you to upgrade the cpu later to an i5/i7 as listed on this web site
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/H110M-E-M-2/HelpDesk_CPU/

this would bring you into the new millennium and do what you need, and then just sell your ram and cpu on eBay for some cash back

other choice is is find a LGA 1150 CPU like a I5-4670, LGA 1150 model H,P,Q or Z87 motherboard and DDR3 ram for it and it will run you about that 150$ price range, but downside it may take time to get a great deal .

last choice

Since your not much of a gamer on PC, to get a workstation from HP/Dell used on eBay or even a pawn shop, for that price you can easily get a complete system like duo core 2 with ram and motherboard, just change the power supply with your s and slap your video card in it.

 

[Finstar]

Look for Intel Xeon E3 1220 from ebay.
Xeon for the reason that they're usually in better shape and cheaper than their Core i counterparts.
v1 and v2 need a lga1155 socket motherboard, v3 needs a lga1150 socket board.
Don't bother with the v5 as that needs DDR4.
Use your old GTX 280 as the gpu or if you want to spend extra on a new gpu then look for used AMD R7 360 or 260x.
R7s for the reason that they have aged a lot better than their Nvidia counterparts + there are a lot of scams going around on ebay selling low end old Nvidia gpus as newer ones.

 

[maverick383]

Thanks so much for the suggestions, I will look into all of them and see what works best for me. This is nothing urgent so I have time to watch ebay for a deal to pop up.

Any recommended brands I should be looking for, or staying away from? I've always been told asus is a good one, but beyond that I don't know much.

 

[Finstar]

Thanks so much for the suggestions, I will look into all of them and see what works best for me. This is nothing urgent so I have time to watch ebay for a deal to pop up.

Any recommended brands I should be looking for, or staying away from? I've always been told asus is a good one, but beyond that I don't know much.

Asus is what i'd stay as far away from as possible. I had 2 of their motherboards (both lga1155) which both broke down less than year after purchase. 3rd time i didn't want to take any chances with them and bought a Gigabyte board which still works just fine. My tier list for 2010-2014 motherboards would go like: 1.Gigabyte 2.ASRock 3.Msi 4.Asus.

 

[maverick383]

Awesome, I feel much better moving forward, thanks again.