Need help with New system

[lnbear]

I'm trying to build a new system. i have been out of touch with the new processors. i perfer AMD just had better luck. This will be a game computer. Is there much of a difference with the dual core, vs the triple and quad.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc 1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mainly Gaming, email web browings. Working with MS office
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 before taxes and shipping
3) Where do you live?
Texas
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, and RAM, HD CDrom, Video card. 1 TBHD, power supply
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Old Case ATX case. Not sure on brand
6) Will you be overclocking?
no
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24",
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
next 5 months
9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
USB 3.0. LPT Parallel for printer (for my hp 5p), COM header or port (for my UPS)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, XP OEM 32 bit.

 

[nmanley]

Here ya go. Pay ATTENTION to this guy. "Danny Bui" He won't steer you wrong.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1568453

 

[E4g1e]

I'm trying to build a new system. i have been out of touch with the new processors. i perfer AMD just had better luck. This will be a game computer. Is there much of a difference with the dual core, vs the triple and quad.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc 1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mainly Gaming, email web browings. Working with MS office
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 before taxes and shipping
3) Where do you live?
Texas
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, and RAM, HD CDrom, Video card. 1 TBHD, power supply
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Old Case ATX case. Not sure on brand
6) Will you be overclocking?
no
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24",
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
next 5 months
9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
USB 3.0. LPT Parallel for printer (for my hp 5p), COM header or port (for my UPS)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, XP OEM 32 bit.

Unfortunately, what you're looking for is all but impossible. You see, no new motherboards have LPT or serial ports onboard any more. Nor do most new motherboards have any provision whatsoever to add either of those ports.

In other words, you will have to buy a new printer and a new UPS since old printers and old UPSes are practically worthless nowadays. In fact, the most recent drivers for your printer and UPS are not compatible at all with Vista, let alone Windows 7. And that's not to mention that Windows XP is now on life support (my term for things that are on their death beds) - as time goes on, fewer and fewer critical bug fixes will be made available at all for XP, increasing the system's vulnerability to PC security breaches and malware attacks. Service Pack 2 is now no longer further supported by Microsoft (only archived support is available), so Microsoft will not patch SP2 at all even if a severe security hole exists. Only SP3 is still supported. Moreover, most installation setup disks of XP will not work properly or at all on systems with more than 2GB of installed memory; if you want to add more memory, you'll have to add the memory after you update to Service Pack 3.

 

[nmanley]

I should have added that 5 months from now the cost will GREATLY vary as the new Sandy Bridge will drive some prices down on current great products.

 

[Dangman]

Unfortunately, what you're looking for is all but impossible. You see, no new motherboards have LPT or serial ports onboard any more. Nor do most new motherboards have any provision whatsoever to add either of those ports.

Assuming that the OP sticks with Windows XP, his printer, and UPS, couldn't the OP just use these add-on cards?:
$14 - Rosewill Single Parallel (SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP) Universal Low-Profile PCI card Model RC-302
$13 - SYBA PCI to Serial 2-port host controller card

This will be a game computer. Is there much of a difference with the dual core, vs the triple and quad.

Depends on the game. Some games will do just fine on a dual core while some really need a quad-core. And some games a tri-core CPU may actually be a better choice than either a dual or quad core. So what games will you be playing?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Old Case ATX case. Not sure on brand

If that case uses 80mm fans, it won't be suitable at all for a modern PC. So you're looking at anew case there.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
next 5 months

Whatever parts we recommend today aren't gonna be the best parts to buy in a month let alone five months. If you want the best selection as well as best price of hardware, I recommend waiting till 2-3 weeks before you actually buy to ask for build help. Maybe a month at the most. Otherwise, you're wasting your time looking for and using what will be out of date parts recommendations.

 

[E4g1e]

Assuming that the OP sticks with Windows XP, his printer, and UPS, couldn't the OP just use these add-on cards?:
$14 - Rosewill Single Parallel (SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP) Universal Low-Profile PCI card Model RC-302
$13 - SYBA PCI to Serial 2-port host controller card

But that would require a minimum of two PCI-Legacy slots on the motherboard. Many new motherboards have no PCI-Legacy slots at all - and many others have only one PCI-Legacy slot. This will significantly reduce the OP's choices in motherboards.

And I agree with you about waiting almost until a week or two before the OP actually purchases the parts: Whatever parts we recommend now may not be the best value or even available at all five months from now.

 

[lnbear]

the games i will be playing, just a few of them is battle field 2, cyris, cod4, some older games like command and conquer, raven shield. i play some MMO games where i run 5 clients.

for the printer port, the new boards are not putting the lpt port on them. are they all going to usb printers? the old case dose have a 80mm fan. so what you are saying it the new systems run hotter?

how stable is windows 7? can it run 5 clients of MMO you think.

thanks for the help and info.

 

[Dangman]

for the printer port, the new boards are not putting the lpt port on them. are they all going to usb printers? the old case dose have a 80mm fan. so what you are saying it the new systems run hotter?

how stable is windows 7? can it run 5 clients of MMO you think.

Yup, most new printers these days are USB. The new PCs need better cooling than what a 80mm fan can provide.

Windows 7 is super stable. It's pretty much MS's best OS at this point.

 

[lnbear]

on windows 7 do i want the home or the professional edition?

 

[E4g1e]

on windows 7 do i want the home or the professional edition?

Depends on two things:

1) Do you want all those networking and/or file system encryption features that Professional offers?

2) Are you planning to upgrade to more than 16GB of RAM?

If "no" to either, get the Home Premium. If "yes" to 1) and/or 2), get the Professional.