Finally time to upgrade - cpu/mb/ram $300

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Kueller

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 19, 2001
Messages
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My venerable 939 is about finished. Just had my 3rd hardware failure in 6 months on it (vid card, then psu, and now ram), I think it's time to bite the bullet and do a major upgrade. I'm no longer a big gamer like I used to be (though I'd still like to play some games from time to time, I played crysis, prince of persia, prototype and a couple others in the last year or so), I don't encode my own feature length movies. I'd probably be fine just buying whatever prebuilt they have on sale at bestbuy this week, I just dislike the idea of buying prebuilt in general...and I still have a [H]F account, so I'm gonna use it.


I'm shooting for around $300 for Mobo/Ram/CPU(/HSF if necessary).
I'm planning to reuse my HDDs (got a couple 640gb WDs), DVD drive, Vid Card (8800gts 512) and PSU (Stealthxstream 600w), I also have an XP90 hsf (is that junk now?). Not sure about whether I'm going to reuse the case again or not. It's getting a bit long in the tooth, I think it's 8-9yrs old, all steel, but it's not like ATX has changed a whole lot. Might grab an antec three hundred for $50 or something, that wouldn't count toward the $300 limit. I figure with my miniscule budget I'm probably looking at AMD, I'd like DDR3 ram (will have skipped the entire DDR2 generation), dunno what for a mobo, last time I shopped Abit was still a big name...


What I'm thinking about so far:
Phenom II X2 550/555 (no huge rush, I can wait for the 555) $90-$100?
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P $110 or Asus M4A785TD-V EVO $100 - I don't have a modern sound card, so passable onboard audio would be appreciated.
Whatever 4gb of decent DDR3 is cheapest when I buy the other crap, Gskill ripjaw 2x2gb seems like a contender at just under $95.

Mainly I'm looking for mobo advice here, but I wouldn't mind input on everything, so it's in general hardware. If you think I can go intel for $300, I'm open to suggestions, I've got a T7300 powered T61p that I love.
 
Please answer the following questions so that we can help you better:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
3) Where do you live?
6) Will you be overclocking?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
 
Danny Bui said:
Please answer the following questions so that we can help you better:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
3) Where do you live?
6) Will you be overclocking?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Click to expand...
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I'm no longer a big gamer like I used to be though I'd still like to play some games from time to time. I've played crysis, prince of persia, prototype and a couple others in the last year or so to give you an idea of what I play. I don't encode my own feature length home movies, or anything at all really. I'm here posting, so presumably I do web browsing as well.
3) Where do you live?
About Kueller
Location
Columbus, OH.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No, I came to [H]F to not overclock...Has the place changed so much that this is a legitimate question? Of course I'll overclock and unlock. I've overclocked with jumper switches, unlocked with pencil traces and defroster pens, give me some credit here. Simple bios tweaking is way too easy to pass up.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
No huge rush, I can wait for the 555. 0-1 months.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support?
I'd like DDR3 ram support, I don't have a modern sound card, so passable onboard audio would be appreciated. I'd also like it to accept a CPU, and PCI-Express graphics card and have sata ports too.
 
Kueller said:
No, I came to [H]F to not overclock...Has the place changed so much that this is a legitimate question? Of course I'll overclock and unlock.
Click to expand...

Dude, we get a ton of people in this part of the subforum asking for build help but not want to OC. HardOCP is attracting a ton more non-overclockers lately mainly due to the expertise of the GPU, CPU, mobo, and PSU reviews.

Anyway, either of the two setups that gwarren007 recommended will be a good choice.
 
Danny Bui said:
Dude, we get a ton of people in this part of the subforum asking for build help but not want to OC. HardOCP is attracting a ton more non-overclockers lately mainly due to the expertise of the GPU, CPU, mobo, and PSU reviews.

Anyway, either of the two setups that gwarren007 recommended will be a good choice.
Click to expand...
Sorry, guess things have changed. I did a bit of research myself before posting obviously. I was mostly looking for some feedback on the 790x/750 vs 785g/710 chipset combos and the Realtek vs. Via audio chips on the Gigabyte and Asus boards respectively. I don't plan to use the HDMI out or onboard video of the asus board.



Interesting deal on the i3-530 there...but I don't really need all that much CPU horsepower, so I think I'd rather roll the dice at unlocking an X2, it's not like I need an X4, but at least half the fun of OCing (at least to me) is just being able to say you did it and I can't even try to unlock an i3.
 
You don't have to use the OBV from the asus board. It has a lot of features for the price. And it unlocks cores too ;)
 
Little update: picked up a cheapo rosewill FB-01 case for $16 shipped, the Ripjaw 2x2gb kit for $85, and just ordered the asus M4A785TD EVO for $75. Three separate orders all free shipping from the Egg. Still kinda hoping to hold out for a 555 BE, but the current 550 deal with a $5 HSF combo and free wireless G card is pretty tempting. All together that'd come in around $271 shipped with a case! Great advice guys.
 
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