Need advice with system upgrade please

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freeman2k6

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
Messages
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Hey all. Thanks for taking the time to check out my post. I did check out the sticky above so I've answered the questions below accordingly then I'll go ahead with some words of my own... basically what the situation is is that I need a performance upgrade for my gaming PC I put together about 2 years ago.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? All things Gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $500-$600 prefer to include T&S but not a deal breaker.

3) Where do you live? KY, US

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific. Mobo, CPU, RAM, Vid, new case.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

PSU: Antec TPII-550
HD: WD Caviar SE 16 320 GB

6) Will you be overclocking? No.

7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have? 19" at the moment.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Between 2-4 months from now, however could be in 1-2.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc. Nothing special.

Right now the pertinent parts that will be needing replacing are:

Mobo: Asus A8N-SLI Premium
CPU: AMD 64 4000
RAM: Can't remember exact specs, was 2x 1GB sticks but one went out so running on 1x at the moment.
Video: BFG GeForce 7800GT

So the story is, I did a bunch of research--alot with assistance of these forums you'll see if you check post history--a few years ago and put a system together with the goal of being a solid gaming system that would last a while.

Well it's lasted fairly well but the case hasn't really been maintained as well as it should have, a stick of ram went bad, and I am becoming increasingly aware of how far behind the curve I seem to be.

So I'm looking to get a fairly good performance boost here if I can. I am getting back into the research stage now and I honestly haven't paid much attention to the hardware world for a long time now so any advice would be appreciated.

One thing I had picked up on was Intel's processors becoming superior for gaming with quad cores, etc. That's just what I had picked up on though so if that's not true I'm ok with sticking with AMD.

With the video card being included in the upgrade plans, I'm not sure how realistic my budget is, but it is a budget none-the-less.

On a side note, I did purchase the hard drive as a replacement not too long ago and I believe I made the right choice as far as performance value/storage goes. If that was an overly poor decision I"d like input on that as well as it relates to gaming systems.

Thanks alot for reading all of this if you have and thank you in advance for any input.

Freeman2k6
 
Well I've done some looking around and I've come up with some things.

CPU: Intel Q6600
+ Mobo:ASUS P5Q Pro @ $294.98
RAM: G.Skill 4GB @ $39.99
Video: BFGTech 9800 GTX @ $149.99
OS: Vista Home Premium 64 SP1 @ $99.00
Case: Cooler Master RC-590 @49.99

Price at the door is: $648.98


From what I've looked into so far this seems like an ok setup at worst. I had a bad experience on my current setup with Vista and ended up getting rid of it so I'm slightly apprehensive of getting back into it this time, but hopefully the newer hardware will make the difference, plus 4GB would be handy. So that was an additional $99 tacked on that isn't necessarily essential for the upgrade per se but is certainly an acceptable expense.

The new case would be handy and it's a decent case for the price. But also not necessarily essential. So If I needed to I could take off roughly $150 off the price tag.

I guess some of my concerns are Vista giving me issue w/ hardware compatibility. Also I"m a little unsure about the video card choice. Historically I haven't really been such a Radeon fan but I've seen other people recommending them and I have seen some cheaper cards on Newegg. So I don't want to overspend on that. Lastly I'm wondering what the likelyhood is of these parts getting replaced in the next couple months. For instance if I were to settle on some hardware I wanted what the likelyhood would be that there would be a better card available for the same cost in 2 months.

Also I should add for video card considerations, I'm running a Samsung 990DF that's recommended for 1600x1200 @76hertz.
Sorry for the long post. This is what I've come up with so far, any ideas or thoughts?
 
Is that Trupower II making any kind of squealing or whine when in use and when the has just been turned off? If so, RMA it back to Antec and you'll get a quality Earthwatts 500W PSU in return. Otherwise, I recommend getting a new PSU. The Trupower I and II series were well known for their above average failure rates due to a poor cooling design and caps choice. Your new upgrades WILL push that PSU to the point where it can die. Considering that PSUs can kill the rest of the PC when it dies, it is not a smart idea to keep using that PSU with a new system.

So basically you'll have to drop the OS and new case for now if you want to stay within budget. I recommend getting this high quality PSU:
BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU - $67

Actually the 9800GTX is already technically outdated. The HD4850 is slightly faster than the 9800GTX and is in the same current price range. Also, the GTX 260 replaced the 9800GTX in the $250 to $300 price range a few months back. So basically the 9800GTX has already been replaced twice already: Once by the GTX260 in the $250 to $300 range and again by the HD4850 in the $150 to $200 range.

The mobo, RAM, and CPU are all good choices.
 
Thanks for the information Danny. My PSU doesn't seem to have the whining issue so that means I'll be replacing it then..thanks for the heads up on that. That's a pretty good price on that BFG PSU as well.

I went looking at some video cards, here's what I came up with.
Sapphire HD4850 512MB @ $169.99

But then there is the same card except with 1GB for the same price as well on Newegg.
And there are some 4870's for about $30 more, for example.

Hightech HD4870 512MB @ $199.99

While the 4850 is certainly an upgrade from my 7800, would I be kicking myself later if I didn't put up another $30 for a 4870?


All that said, if we leave the case and OS out of the picture and factor in the different video card and the PSU, the price to the door now is $564.81 with $30 in rebates.

If I wait on Vista till later, that removes any concerns about hardware compatibility for the moment.

So I guess the main worry now is just to make sure I don't make a poor selection for the video card.
 
freeman2k6 said:
While the 4850 is certainly an upgrade from my 7800, would I be kicking myself later if I didn't put up another $30 for a 4870?
Click to expand...

Well first of all you can get the HD4850 for $150 these days:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272

So the price difference is really $50, not $30.

Second, read this value guide and see if the HD4870 512MB offers enough extra performance over the HD4850 to be worth the extra $50:
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU1OCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

(NOTE: Note the different playable resolutions between the HD4850 and HD4870 512MB in certain games...)
 
Danny Bui said:
Well first of all you can get the HD4850 for $150 these days:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272

So the price difference is really $50, not $30.
Click to expand...

That's true. I wasn't planning on making the purchases before the 24th so I wasn't really figuring that one in for pricing purposes. If the prices weren't going to change for about a month or so, or if a better card didn't drop down to $150 by then, it would be worth it to just buy the video card now to get the extra $20 off. If that's the case I'd definetly do that tonight and put it up in the closet.

I had actually already had a chance to look over that review. Given the results of that and some other ones I've seen I think the 4850 seems to be a fine choice for the moment. But say if, I was to go for the Sapphire. Since the 512MB and 1GB are the same cards are the same priceis there any reason to stay with the 512 instead of the 1GB?

Danny Bui said:
So basically you'll have to drop the OS and new case for now if you want to stay within budget. I recommend getting this high quality PSU:
BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU - $67
Click to expand...

I just went and did some looking around after I posted the above. While reading over jonnyguru's review of the BFG 550 PSU, I saw him mentioning the BFG 680.
http://www.buy.com/prod/bfg-tech-68...-eps12v-power-supply/q/loc/101/208292268.html @ $78.27
But they do offer a $20.00 rebate on both of them. If I was possibly considering dropping another video card in later on for Crossfire it might be a fairly good play to spend the extra $12.00 for the 680W?
 
freeman2k6 said:
I had actually already had a chance to look over that review. Given the results of that and some other ones I've seen I think the 4850 seems to be a fine choice for the moment. But say if, I was to go for the Sapphire. Since the 512MB and 1GB are the same cards are the same priceis there any reason to stay with the 512 instead of the 1GB?
Click to expand...

None really besides the $10 difference in price. The extra VRAM certainly won't hurt and might come in handy with future games.

freeman2k6 said:
I just went and did some looking around after I posted the above. While reading over jonnyguru's review of the BFG 550 PSU, I saw him mentioning the BFG 680.
http://www.buy.com/prod/bfg-tech-68...-eps12v-power-supply/q/loc/101/208292268.html @ $78.27
But they do offer a $20.00 rebate on both of them. If I was possibly considering dropping another video card in later on for Crossfire it might be a fairly good play to spend the extra $12.00 for the 680W?
Click to expand...

If you were planning to use Crossfire and if you had a 24" monitor @ 1920x1200 or higer to make Crossfire worthwhile, then yes it's a good idea to spend the extra $12. Then again I still recommend getting the LS-680 even if you weren't planning to use Crossfire since it's a pretty awesome deal for a quality PSU. It's still within your budget and you would have to worry even less about power requirements of future upgrades.
 
After a little thought I've come to the conclusion that the OS and Case, while not primary parts of the upgrade, they are still somewhat necessary just given my circumstances. So I'm thinking about buying a portion of my parts list here in the next couple of weeks, then the remainder in about a.1.5 months or so.

Any glaring flaws with that idea? If not, I'm thinking it'd probably be best to leave the CPU/mobo and Video card till the last purchase and get everything else here in the near future.

CPU: Intel Q6600
+ Mobo:ASUS P5Q Pro @ $294.98 w/ $15 MIR
RAM: G.Skill 4GB @ $39.99
Video: Sapphire HD 4850 1GB @ $169.99 w/ $10 MIR
OS: Vista Home Premium 64 SP1 @ $99.00
Case: Cooler Master RC-590 @ 49.99
PSU: BFG LS-680 @ $78.24 w/ $20 MIR

Total Delivered: $769.26

With $45 in rebates, $724 doesn't sound bad at all for all that I don't think.

if wanted to just operate on the 3GB of RAM for a few months, I could forego the Vista for now, I bet XP would run nicely on that setup especially for $624.
 
freeman2k6 said:
if wanted to just operate on the 3GB of RAM for a few months, I could forego the Vista for now, I bet XP would run nicely on that setup especially for $624.
Click to expand...

XP does run pretty nicely on 3GB of RAM. In fact that's the way my setup has been for the last few months. Out of your list, Vista and the case are the only two items I recommend that you get in a month or two cash permitting. The other parts are far too important to get later on.
 
I agree with Danny. Also, that case no longer has free shipping (for now).
 
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