A little help?

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[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2001
Messages
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Hello everybody. I'm a returning [H] member from way back. I'm currently running on some really old hardware and I've recently come into a bit of extra money so I've decided to spend a little to upgrade my machine. I've been out of the loop so long, though, that I have no idea of where to start.

I've got an old 1400 Mhz Thunderbird with 512 megs of pc2700 and a Ti4200 all overclocked as far as they'll go, if that gives you any indication of what I've been running on.

So I need a little advice. I'm looking to spend about $750 or so on a machine but I have no idea of what to look for anymore. Is there anything extraordinary coming out soon that I'm better off waiting for? I rather want to play Bioshock (and any other good ones that I've missed in the last three or four years, of course), so I guess that makes for a reasonable benchmark.

Think you guys can help me out?
 
Read through this thread... there is a ton of really useful information and a lot of good links...

Have fun!

Edit..... and you posted this thread twice....
 
Your machine (processor and board, judging by the age of the chip) is more than sufficient for most uses, and will be for the next few years.

Jack that mofo up to 2GB RAM and XP Pro, and you'll be set. Spend the leftover $$ on peripherals.
 
Whats included in that $750 budget? Do you need a new OS?

What size monitor do you have?
 
DigitalMP said:
Your machine (processor and board, judging by the age of the chip) is more than sufficient for most uses, and will be for the next few years.

Jack that mofo up to 2GB RAM and XP Pro, and you'll be set. Spend the leftover $$ on peripherals.
Click to expand...

I think you missed the bit about what he wants to use it for :)

Get a cheap Intel C2D system, 2GB Ram and a 8800GTs 640MB and clock them all :D
You should be able to get at least 3GHz CPU clock.
Be sure the motherboard clocks well, there are a few really good cheap boards.

If your hard drive is really old and slow you will benefit from a 250GB + drive with 8MB or 16MB cache.
Any smaller disk size and most are dramatically slower.
For the minimal cost difference its worth getting a 500Gb drive now.
 
digital_exhaust said:
Read through this thread... there is a ton of really useful information and a lot of good links...

Have fun!

Edit..... and you posted this thread twice....
Click to expand...

Thanks. I suppose I'm a bit of a fool for not having read the pinned guide.

Nenu said:
I think you missed the bit about what he wants to use it for :)

Get a cheap Intel C2D system, 2GB Ram and a 8800GTs 640MB and clock them all :D
You should be able to get at least 3GHz CPU clock.
Be sure the motherboard clocks well, there are a few really good cheap boards.

If your hard drive is really old and slow you will benefit from a 250GB + drive with 8MB or 16MB cache.
Any smaller disk size and most are dramatically slower.
For the minimal cost difference its worth getting a 500Gb drive now.
Click to expand...

That actually helps quite a bit. I really needed a bit of a jumping-off point. Now I have a reasonable idea of what to look for. Thanks.
 
Well, since I don't know whats included in that budget, nor do I know the monitor size, I'll just have some fun...

$126 - Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz
$115 - Sapphire 100199L Radeon X1950GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP
$89 - ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ($20 MIR)
$61 - pqi TURBO 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 PQI26400-2GDB
$67 - Hitachi T7K500 320GB 7200RPM SATA300 16MB Cache
$50 - XClio Goodpower 500W ATX 500W
$35 - Cooler Master RC-330-KKN1-GP ELITE 330 ($10MIR)
$31 - LG Black 18x SATA DVD Burner GSA-H62NK
$16 - Cooler Master RR-CCH-L9U1-GP 92mm Hyper TX2 ($15MIR) ($30 - $14 Promo: EMC920ACCE02)
===========
$590 + tax and shipping - $45 MIRs

Change parts as needed.
 
enginurd said:
Well, since I don't know whats included in that budget, nor do I know the monitor size, I'll just have some fun...

--CLIP--

===========
$590 + tax and shipping - $45 MIRs

Change parts as needed.
Click to expand...

Sorry about that. Well, I've got a 22" CRT that I run at 1920 x 1440 desktop resolution, but I have no illusions of maxing that out under anything intensive. Gaming at the 1280 range or so is satisfactory. I've got a perfectly serviceable IDE DVD burner. I guess it'd be nice to go SATA on that, but it's certainly not necessary. My keyboard, mouse, and speakers are all fine, as well.

That said, what you've listed includes a lot of what I was looking at. I guess a big part of my problem is that I don't know what a good brand is anymore. Last time I knew, Sapphire made bad hardware and I've never even heard of XClio or pqi.

I think my biggest hangup is on the video card. The X1950 is about what I've narrowed things down to in my modest searching, but that's only because it seems like there isn't really anything worth buying between it and the $300 8800's. Is there anything flashy and new coming out in the next month or so that would precipitate a price drop on the 8800's into the $200 range or is the X1950 just the go-to card right now?
 
A serial ATA DVDRW will also help with airflow in the case (SATA cable is much smaller than an IDE cable). Its not a huge expense, only $31.

Sapphire makes the reference ATI cards, so I wouldn't consider their hardware bad. I own quite a few Sapphire cards, and havent had any problems with them.

PQI has been around for a while, but they are on the more budget side of the spectrum. Other brands I'd suggest are A-Data, G.Skill, Patriot, Crucial, Corsair, etc. Theres a great deal on ballistix right now, which use the best ICs for overclocking 1GB sticks (Micron D9GMH):
$110 - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 BL2KIT12864AA804 ($47MIR)

XClio has pretty good PSUs. The Goodpower 500W is a solid, CWT built, budget PSU. Their higher end PSUs are typically CWT or Enhance built, which are two well known PSU manufacturers.

Corsair HX PSUs are pretty much the best bang for buck right now, but purchased elsewhere than Newegg, lol. They're built by Seasonic, one of the best PSU manufacturers. Their VX series is either Seasonic or CWT.

$106 - Corsair CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W ($10MIR)
$147 - Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W PSU ($20MIR) (Free Shipping)

The rebates come and go often. Check out zipzoomfly, clubit.com, or buy.com for the Corsair PSUs.

The X1950GT can be had for $115 at the egg, and can easily OC to PRO speeds. Its your best bang for buck card right now until you reach the 8800GTS 320MB. The 8800GTS' replacement is the 8700GTS 512MB, which is due out in November with a price point of $250+, or so rumor has it. Keep in mind, all newer games will have a DX9 mode anyway, so the X1950 is a good choice if you don't want to spend so much on an old DX10 card. The higher end replacements are coming in Q1'08. I'd stick with the 1950 for now and upgrade later, since you're only gaming at 1280 (and therefore don't need the 8800 series power).
 
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