Gaming/Work Upgrades

J

jebro

n00b
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
33
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming and Web Dev
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
500ish can be slightly more just trying to stay around this.
3) Where do you live?
Pittsburgh, PA
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, Video Card, Ram?, HDD, PSU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Lian Li PC-60B, Asus M2N SLI Deluxe, Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 2 gig, Old hdd as backup, cd drive, sound card.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
2x 20 inch, no upgrade needed here.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within 3 months.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Raid, Optical audio, esata. Trying not to upgarde the mobo however.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes Windows 7 ultimate 64


I've had this machine for a while now and i'm looking for upgrade a few pieces, but trying to keep the motherboard to make it easier for one, and of course cheaper.

The PSU is good, but it's not as reliable as it once was and the cables are kind of annoying, hoping to go modular.

I'm not sure about the RAM, I have 2x 4 gig kingston sticks and 2x 1 gig sticks of corsair XMS so I have a decent amount, but i'm wondering if it will be faster to upgrade to a certain type or combo of sizes.

HDD are not essential, but i've had them for about 3 or 4 years now and it's probably a good idea just to upgrade before they explode.

I'm looking for a video card that will last a decent while as I don't upgrade that often and a quad core cpu if those two are possible in the small budget.

Thanks!
 
What kind of gaming do you do and @ what res? How much hd capacity do you need?
 
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Given the general age of your system, a complete rebuild is probably a better idea. The following is a (rather) cheap yet effective way to go:

$243 - AMD Athlon II X4 620 + Asus EAH5770 HD5770 combo deal (free shipping on both)
$90 - Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 (free shipping & $10 MIR)
$105 - A-DATA 2x2GB DDR3 1333 (free shipping)
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB HDD (free shipping)
$20 - Samsung SH-S223C SATA DVD burner (free shipping)
$80 - Seasonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W PSU ($10 shipping)
=====
$593 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

The long story short is that it isn't worth keeping your motherboard, as you won't be able to use it with newer processors and RAM. (A used Phenom I processor, however, is a different story, but you'd still suffer from a limited upgrade path. In other words, sooner or later, you would have to upgrade the motherboard eventually.) The HD5770 is more than enough for your monitor (provided that you don't have one of the newer 1080p monitors). You can omit the HDD and optical drive to save some money, but if you really want a modular PSU, you have to pay a little extra for the privilege. And no, you won't need to reuse your sound card with this build.
 
My target for gaming performance is diablo 3, sc2, and final fantasy 14. My res is 1600 x 900. Hdd space I would like to go about a tb.

I appreciate the advice for the full rebuild but I'm weighing my options right now. My full rebuild budget would be double at about 1000.
 
jebro said:
I'm not sure about the RAM, I have 2x 4 gig kingston sticks and 2x 1 gig sticks of corsair XMS so I have a decent amount, but i'm wondering if it will be faster to upgrade to a certain type or combo of sizes.
Click to expand...

Wait, so you actually have two 4GB sticks of DDR2 RAM? Meaning 8GB of RAM total? If so, what speed?

Regardless of whether you're doing an upgrade or a total rebuild, you're still looking at a new motherboard as your motherboard does not support any of the newer AMD CPUs. However Tiraides does make a point about a used Phenom I CPU. Your best bet would be the Phenom 9850. Try to find that CPU for around $90 because it performs pretty close to the AMD Athlon X4 620.
 
jebro said:
My target for gaming performance is diablo 3, sc2, and final fantasy 14. My res is 1600 x 900. Hdd space I would like to go about a tb.

I appreciate the advice for the full rebuild but I'm weighing my options right now. My full rebuild budget would be double at about 1000.
Click to expand...

For immediate upgrades to your system, you would need to buy a used Phenom I processor (assuming that your board could support one of them; if not, it's definitely time to consider buying a new system) and replace the PSU, HDD, and video card. (While we're on the subject, please answer Danny Bui's questions regarding the RAM.) Considering the number of parts that you want to replace, unless you get great deals on everything, you may be better off going straight into a new build.

As for a new $1000 build, you wouldn't have to change much from my earlier build. Simply swap out the AMD combo for, say, the Intel Core i5 750 and the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3, get the 1GB version of the Samsung F3 HDD, and you could keep everything else the same.
 
I have 6 gigs of ram total, 2 sticks of 2 gb and 2 sticks of 1gb. Sorry for the confusion there.

My semi-plan was to hopefully be able to buy about half of the stuff and then upgrade the motherboard later and just pop the new chip in, so if I'm having to go for an older discontinued CPU that kind of defeats the purpose.

Looks like it's time to start fresh. Thanks for the help!
 
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