Mid-range rig, decent upgrade path?

H

Hal|9k

Supreme [H]ardness
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Yeah, it's another one of those, "critique my list" threads. Bear with me, though, as I haven't been in the game for a while. My old XP Pro rig has an Athlon 64 3000+ (2GHz), 2GB RAM, and a Radeon X800 Pro. In other words, an upgrade is LONG overdue! Aside from the XFX card, those are the brands I've been running, without incident, since I built this rig back in the Bronze Age. I figure that deserves some loyalty.

Here's what I'm looking at from the Egg:
CPU Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz - Retail
Mobo ECS A790GXM AM3
RAM 4GB Kingston HyperX PC3-12800 (2x2GB)
Vcard XFX HD-485X-ZDFC Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256bit GDDR3
HDD Kingston 64GB SSD SNV425-S2
Case Antec VSK-2000 mid-tower
PSU Antec TP-750 TruPower 750W
(I'll be recycling optical and hard drives, but booting from the SDD.)

Basically, I set myself a $750 budget for hardware and, even with misc. cables and brackets, I made that goal. Does anyone see any obvious bottlenecks that I might be missing? My intent is to enjoy the massive performance increase from the old rig, then add a faster CPU, more RAM, and another video card down the road. Oh, and I'll be running Win7.

Any input is greatly appreciated!
 
Shitty motherboard, old gpu, overkill on the psu.
Go with gigabyte/asus, atleast a 5750, and you would only need a 500w psu.
 
 
You already have an O/S? Or, you will be purchasing Win 7? What size monitor and resolution?

Oh, and I agree with Shadowssong. The build looks unbalanced.
 
HardwareGuru said:
You already have an O/S? Or, you will be purchasing Win 7? What size monitor and resolution?
Click to expand...

Still shopping the OS, but it will definitely be 7, and definitely 64bit, because I really need to learn it before we move that way at work.

My monitor is a Sammy 254BW. Desktop runs at 1920x1200 and I'll game at whatever resolution/settings the rig can handle.

edit: Oh, and I threw in the 750W PSU to give myself the headroom, down the road, to handle more CPU, dual video cards, and many, many gigs of RAM. I'd rather have it and not need it now than have to swap power supplies then.
 
Nope, the $750 was just for hardware. I'm hoping to find a copy of 64bit Win7 for $100-150.
 
$750 with O/S. Massive Upgrade

CASE- Antec VSK-2000 for $39.99 ($10 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129069

PSU/RAM - Antec Truepower New TP-750 + G.Skill 4GB DDR3 RAM both for $194.94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.343597

CPU/VIDEO CARD - AMD Phenom II X4 925 + HIS Radeon HD 5770 both for $277.98 ($10 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.324025

MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 for $76.99 ($10 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 500GB for $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

Forget about tha small 64GB SSD drive for now. You can always get a larger SSD later when prices go down.

O/S - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit for $104.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

Total: $749.88 before shipping & taxes

Zipzoomfly.com has Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit for $99.99 ($10 MIR)
 
Hal|9k said:
edit: Oh, and I threw in the 750W PSU to give myself the headroom, down the road, to handle more CPU, dual video cards, and many, many gigs of RAM. I'd rather have it and not need it now than have to swap power supplies then.
Click to expand...

Problem with your logic: even a 750W PSU might not be enough for dual video cards. So you might have to swap PSUs .

In addition, this is a better deal:
$147 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Combo

You would not notice an iota of difference between the X2 240 and the X2 250 CPU. However you do gain a motherboard supported by a better manufacturer.

Also, it looks like you have room in your budget for this video card:
$160 - XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card

EDIT: Or go with HG's build :D
 
This is why I so love the [H]. I knew you guys would get me going in the right direction.

Everyone seems to be hawking Gigabyte mobos. I got burned by them a few years back, but you're saying I can trust them?

Either way, thanks much for the guidance! I'm really looking forward to loading a game and NOT getting the, "Your POS computer doesn't meet minimum requirements..." message.
 
The GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P only has 1 x PCI-E slot but, nevermind Crossfire dude. That's why they have the Radeon HD 5870 and 5970 video cards. Plus Nvidia Fermi videos cards coming out. 1920 x1200 I don't feel it's a super high res. 2560x1600 or doing eyefinity is.

You can Crossfire 2 x Radeon 5770s but, the bottom speeds won't be that great because of it's smaller 128bit memory bus and its Alternate Frame Rendering mode. I would just sell the video card and later get a more powerful single video card.
 
In that case forget about the Fermi. What kind of a name is that anyways Fermi? It makes me wanna say Fergie instead. :p

Oh, also I agree that the Coolermaster Elite 335 is a nicer case for $50 w/free shipping.
 
Gigabyte Mobo wasn't really that popular back then. It was performing a tad slower than motherboards from ASUS, ABIT and MSI. But now, Gigabyte has really stepped up and offer really good solid advance motherboards.

Hal|9k said:
This is why I so love the [H]. I knew you guys would get me going in the right direction.

Everyone seems to be hawking Gigabyte mobos. I got burned by them a few years back, but you're saying I can trust them?

Either way, thanks much for the guidance! I'm really looking forward to loading a game and NOT getting the, "Your POS computer doesn't meet minimum requirements..." message.
Click to expand...
 
Danny Bui said:
Problem with your logic: even a 750W PSU might not be enough for dual video cards. So you might have to swap PSUs .

In addition, this is a better deal:
$147 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Combo

You would not notice an iota of difference between the X2 240 and the X2 250 CPU. However you do gain a motherboard supported by a better manufacturer.

Also, it looks like you have room in your budget for this video card:
$160 - XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card

EDIT: Or go with HG's build :D
Click to expand...

He can't go with HG's build because the motherboard only has one PCIe x16 slot. Remember, he wants to go CrossFire in the future, so I don't know why the two builds above yours feature a single video slot on the motherboard.

Your build is the only attempt so-far to bring a good CrossFire capable board to the table :D
 
Yah, if you want CFX, that Gigabyte board is your best option. Do you live near a Fry's or Microcenter?
 
enginurd said:
Yah, if you want CFX, that Gigabyte board is your best option. Do you live near a Fry's or Microcenter?
Click to expand...

Nope, no Fry's or Microcenter within 4 hours of here. Heck, these days we don't even have a CompUSA or Circuit City. :rolleyes:

After sleeping on it, I think I'm going to throw in a DX10 card, just to get by. That way, I can more thoroughly educate myself before I pull the trigger on the new rig. It's probably an understatement, but it looks like intel is owning the processor war right now, so I don't want to rule them out completely base on my years-outdated knowledge.

Thanks again for all the input, fellas.
 
dude, it's a total waste of monety getting a AGP Dx10 card. Just save your money and wait till you're sure.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Who cares if Intel is faster than AMD right now. In your case, what matters is how much budget you can spend and increasing the performance of your current setup. Besides, an AMD build is more suited for your budget. An Intel Core i5 750 quad would be out of your budget. They have the Intel Core i3 and Core i5 dual core cpus but meh, I wouldn't even bother with those Intel Dual Core cpus if I was to upgrade. The prices don't look that attractive. If you want to be more conservative than get an AMD Athlon II X2 240 or 250 cpu. It's a massive increase over the single core Athlon 64 3000+
 
that would cost you more in the long run... what are thspecs of your current rig? nm I see it from the first post. ok, My rig plays games pretty fair (in Sig) and its from the same time as you. get a 3850 or the 4xxx agp card ( the latter will run cooler with less power, while the former is slightly faster). also see about dropping in a faster processer. You could probably get one for pretty cheap. hell, I just bought a heatsink on the FS/T forums and was given a 2.0Ghz P4 for free.

My 3.2 Ghz I bought much later ( Used to have a 2.8) for $30 from the forums here and gave me a large noticable boost due to me being CPU bound.

I also used to have an X850pro and I would have to say the jump to a 3850 was large.

the problem I see though is you would be spending about $200 on a build that can only play the hard hitting games on medium.

My rig Plays crysis on medium with high shaders, dragonage on medium-high. supcom on high, but pretty much all modern games on medium-high.

I am currently building an I7 rig because I feel I need more power, mostly in the CPU department though so if you can find a fast CPU that will drop in for cheap I say go for it.
 
Two things, one I read the entire discussion and nowhere does it say what your build is for. Second, Hardware Guru's build looks like a hell of an upgrade from your current rig, and includes an O/S. If you're anxious for a SSD put the 100-150$ budget you have for an O/S towards a SSD, and you're all set.
And really there's nothing wrong with AMD. So what if intel has better processors at the 190$ and over range? Just about anything under 190$ you're better off going AMD.
 
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