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Help upgrading a buddy's machine

J

Jon55

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
2,349
I've got a buddy who's looking to upgrade his machine.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming mostly.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$700. Tax and shipping are included in that.
3) Where do you live?
California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, Mobo, RAM, possibly PSU, possibly GPU, and HDD
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Case (standard ATX case, nothing fancy, but it works), 2 monitors (see below for specifics), mouse, keyboard, speakers, DVD drive (parallel ATA)
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
28" 1920x1200, secondary monitor is 22" 1680x1050 (not really used for gaming though, so this shouldn't really matter)
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Just the standard stuff. Any extras are welcome. I'd prefer ASUS or Gigabyte.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64-bit.


He currently has an 8800GT 512MB, Core 2 Duo E6600, 2GB RAM, Apevia AS680W-BL 680W PSU

The case is nothing fancy (Antec Sonota II), but if there's a nice case out there that you'd suggest I'd be all over that. I'm definitely picking up a 1TB F3 though. There is a Fry's near by but if buying it all online is cheaper, then that's totally fine with me.
 
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you should be fine with at least, Athlon II X4 640 AM3 Retail -$99.99 its affordable, and it really helps out on those games that bring dualies on their knees. (cough gta 4)

video card wise , at least 5770 or a gts 450 or even the 460 should do you fine (at around mid settings for 1920x1200 resolution I believe)
 
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HG's build is good but it's from Newegg which is not good since you live in California. I recommend this almost similar build from Amazon.com

$140 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU
$100 - Asus M54A87TD EVO AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
$40 - Patriot PSD34G13332 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$210 - XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$62 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$80 - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU
$61 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
----
Total: $693 shipped

With the savings from not having to pay taxes (Amazon.com does not charge tax to CA residents), you can now get a faster video card, slightly better PSU, and a better case for less than that Newegg build.
 
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HardwareGuru said:
What do you mean? I have it in there with the 650W PSU combo.
Click to expand...

My apologies guy. Don't know why I didn't catch that. Awesome build by the way.


Danny Bui said:
HG's build is good but it's from Newegg which is not good since you live in California. I recommend this almost similar build from Amazon.com

$140 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU
$100 - Asus M54A87TD EVO AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
$40 - Patriot PSD34G13332 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$210 - XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$62 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$80 - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU
$61 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
----
Total: $693 shipped

With the savings from not having to pay taxes (Amazon.com does not charge tax to CA residents), you can now get a faster video card, slightly better PSU, and a better case for less than that Newegg build.
Click to expand...

Awesome build as well. Is the 6870 a nice step up from the 6850? Also, I noticed that both cards you guys recommended have 1GB VRAM. Will that be enough, even for two monitors (albeit, one of them doesn't really get used when gaming)? Would something with 2GB be overkill?

How does that Corsair PSU fair against the Antec Truepower?

And sorry for all the questions, last one I promise (mostly). Is there any other case you guys might recommend? He kinda had his eye on the Antec Solo (yes, I know that might make him go a little over budget but he's fine with that).
 
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Jon55 said:
Awesome build as well. Is the 6870 a nice step up from the 6850? Also, I noticed that both cards you guys recommended have 1GB VRAM. Will that be enough, even for two monitors (albeit, one of them doesn't really get used when gaming)? Would something with 2GB be overkill?
Click to expand...
The HD 6870 1GB is a nice step-up over the HD 6850. 2GB would be a tad overkill and would be completely out of that $700 budget by an extra $80 or $90 or so. Not to mention the added costs for a larger PSU.
Jon55 said:
How does that Corsair PSU fair against the Antec Truepower?
Click to expand...
The Truepower edges out the Corsair.

Jon55 said:
And sorry for all the questions, last one I promise (mostly). Is there any other case you guys might recommend? He kinda had his eye on the Antec Solo (yes, I know that might make him go a little over budget but he's fine with that).
Click to expand...

If he wants the Antec Solo, that would mean he would have to downgrade the video card down to the HD 5770 1GB due to the fact that the Antec Solo will not be able to fit either the HD 6850 1GB or HD 6870 1GB.

Other case recommendations (look for them on Amazon):
$50 - Thermaltake WingRS 201 VJ60001N2Z ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$90 - NZXT Tempest Evo TEVO-001BK ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$106 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Danny Bui said:
The HD 6870 1GB is a nice step-up over the HD 6850. 2GB would be a tad overkill and would be completely out of that $700 budget by an extra $80 or $90 or so. Not to mention the added costs for a larger PSU.
Click to expand...


No worries. The XFX 6870 1GB it is then. I'll pick up the Antec Truepower as well.


If he wants the Antec Solo, that would mean he would have to downgrade the video card down to the HD 5770 1GB due to the fact that the Antec Solo will not be able to fit either the HD 6850 1GB or HD 6870 1GB.

Other case recommendations (look for them on Amazon):
$50 - Thermaltake WingRS 201 VJ60001N2Z ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$90 - NZXT Tempest Evo TEVO-001BK ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$106 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
Click to expand...

Yikes, forget that. I'd definitely want to stay with the 6870 1GB. I'll look into those cases you listed then. Thanks a ton guys. Can't wait to build this.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Patriots are pretty decent RAM. Plus, you can slap in another 4GB for a total of 8GB. Not that you'd need 8GB of RAM now though.I remembered configuring a Q6600 build for a friend a few years ago with Patriot RAM. The generic brand names are like Supertalent, PQI, Wintec
 
So everything is all put together. We got the following:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU
Asus M54A87TD EVO AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
2 Patriot PSD34G13332 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM (total of 8GB)
XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU
NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case

Everything seems to run fine, but the 6870 looks to be idling at a high temp. Is 50C a normal idling temp for a 6870? There is no overclocking of any kind going on in the case. All drivers and BIOS firmwares are up to date.
 
So after a little research, it sounds like 50 C idle temps is pretty much the norm, but I'd still like to get feedback from you guys. I just want to be sure on what kind of temps to look for/expect. Again, the rest of the case seems normal (temp-wise), and the room temp is no higher than 75 F.
 
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