Help with computer upgrade

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prelag

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
77
I have been out of the computer scene for a little while.

First, I plan to try and reuse what I can from my current build

Q6600
Gigabyte MB (forget which, but it was cheap and was rock solid)
8800 GT
4GB Patriot Ram
Corsair 400-500 watt power supply. (forget which wattage exactly)
Seagate 120gb HD

Ok, so I would like to reuse my Case, PS, DVD-RW, and HD if Solid State HD is not worth it.

- Is it worth upgrading my MB and Processor to one of Intel's new flavors? If so, which is the best bang for your buck?

-I want to get a 5850 as a Video Card. Is this a decent choice?

-Are Solid State Hard drives worth it?
 
In addition to answering the questions, we need to know the serial/model numbers to all of your parts, as well as the parts' individual ages. This would help us recommend which parts you should reuse for this build.
 
have to ask, does your system feel slow?

is your 6600 overclocked at all cause you could get 3Ghz out of it easy

what do you want to do with your new system you feel you cant do now?
 
Sorry for the long delay, I have had a crazy work schedule the past few days.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Web Browsing

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$800

3) Where do you live?
Las Vegas, NV

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, MB, RAM, Video Card (monitor is a little old as well, I like Samsung), maybe a Solid State HD?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Seagate Barracuda 120gb 7200RPM HD, CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W, Cooler Master Centurion Case, 19inch Samsung Monitor.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Currently have 19inch, would like a 22inch

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
November

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Just the basics. Perhaps support for a Solid State HD? I don't know much about them.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Plan on getting Windows 7.

I guess I am just looking for a PC that can play games for the next couple of years. My current PC has served me well since 2007.
 
ASUS P7P55D LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail and Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail Combo $330

------------------------------------------------------------------------

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Retail $86

XFX HD-487A-ZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $145

or

XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $175

SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 2333SW Black 23" 5ms Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail $210

SSD is bit outside of your budget. I personally would go with 5770.
 
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I say you should upgrade your hard drive for sure. The 120GB sounds like a hard drive from over 5 years ago and probably is pretty slow compared to today's standards.
 
I might be be able to change my budget a little bit. What HD would you recommend?

Also, is the 5800 series worth the extra bit of money if we are talking long term?
 
ya an SSD would add about $200-$300 just for the HD

get a Western Digital 640G drive, plenty fast! that is if 640G is enough for you, they can be had for about $80

If you get a decent cooler you can do some small overclocking, more performance for a little price :) always worth it.

If it is long term a 5800 series could be worth it, but also with this new rig of yours, if you dont upgrade often, you can always buy a new vid card in 2-3 years and toss it in.
 
... and their nicely priced, just with 3yr warranty instead of 5yr like the cavblacks:

$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA300 16MB Cache
$80 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA300 32MB Cache
$55 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA300 16MB Cache
$90 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA300 32MB Cache

These use 500GB-platters, making them faster than the cavblacks that use 333GB-platters.
 
I think he just needs a couple small ssd's in raid 0 , a ~500gb storage drive, a better VC and a PSU.
 
With an $800 budget and needing most parts, I don't think an SSD would fit nicely in that budget. The PSU and case save you around $150, but thats only good enough for a single 30GB or 60GB Indilinx based drive. Therefore, I'd hold off on the SSD for now. Maybe you can snag a 40GB Kingston for under $100; it's based on the Intel X25-M, but thats at least a month away from release, IIRC.
 
prelag said:
First, I plan to try and reuse what I can from my current build

Q6600
Gigabyte MB (forget which, but it was cheap and was rock solid)
8800 GT
4GB Patriot Ram
Corsair 400-500 watt power supply. (forget which wattage exactly)
Seagate 120gb HD
Ok, so I would like to reuse my Case, PS, DVD-RW...
Click to expand...
This is what I was talking about.

A new ssd, Vid card and PSU would wake this system up
 
good to know about those other HD's, i haven;t been keeping up on them, i tend to avoid Seagate now after the 7200.11 firmware fiasco, haven't gotten any trust back in them yet.
 
7200.12 has no such issues but Samsung F3 drives perform just as well as the 7200.12 line
 
gwarren007 said:
This is what I was talking about.

A new ssd, Vid card and PSU would wake this system up
Click to expand...

Oh, sorry, I skipped the first post, and went straight to the questions post, lol.

prelag said:
...
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, MB, RAM, Video Card (monitor is a little old as well, I like Samsung), maybe a Solid State HD?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Seagate Barracuda 120gb 7200RPM HD, CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W, Cooler Master Centurion Case, 19inch Samsung Monitor.
...
Click to expand...

I agree, if you're re-using all that from the Q6600 build, go with g's suggestions. An SSD, or even two in RAID0, would give a nice boost to that system.
 
I'll chip in for real this time. I say keep your Q6600, get a better cooler (I have no viable recommendation but I'm sure others will), overclock if you feel like you need more CPU power. Remember, once you slap in a new video like the HD5850, you'll already see a dramatic increase in your games, so you may not NEED to upgrade the Q6600 like you might think now. Spend the money on a new video card like HD 5850, SSD like the Intel X25 line, and a 24" LCD. Finally, slap in Windows 7 and you'll see a big difference in your gaming and computing experience.

Your current Corsair 520W is more than enough to power your system with the new parts, even the 5850, so I'll just keep using it until you start to throw in 6 hard drives and another video card for crossfire, if your mobo permits.
 
... some good coolers for the Q6600 are the Xigmatek Dark Knight, Xigmatek HDT-S1283 + extra bracket, and the Cooler Master Hyper 212+.
 
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