please help with upgrade: two birds, one stone

J

jholanda

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May 29, 2007
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I'll be in San Francisco for a week in Nov, 1st. My wife asked me to buy a budget desktop for her and that sounded like the perfect excuse to an upgrade for me :) But I will also have to build a nice pc for her who only needs a reliable computer to her doctorate (web, word processing)

This is what I have today:
- e8500
- Corsair HX620
- GT 240
- 4 Gb RAM DDR2 800
- ASUS p5k deluxe
- XFX HD 6870
- 1 Tb HD 7200 rpm seagate
- DeathAdder mouse
- Sound Blaster THX TruStudio Pro
- plantronics dsp 500
- DELL Monitor 2407WFP
- Coolermaster stacker case

I also have in stock here:
- Core 2 Duo 4400
- GT 240
- logitech keyboard
- microsoft mouse
- HD 500 GB 7200 rpm
- stock case
- windows vista home premium 32
She will buy a new LED monitor for her


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming. I am particularly interested on playing BF3

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 including taxes and shipping

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

I live in Brazil but I'll be in San Francisco for a week.

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, MB, RAM, PSU. Maybe another video card for SLI. If not possible maybe a new mechanical keyboard

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
XFX HD 6870, 1 Tb HD, DeathAdder mouse, Sound Blaster THX TruStudio Pro (?), plantronics dsp 500, DELL Monitor 2407WFP but I am really open to suggestions

6) Will you be overclocking?
If necessary

7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
two weeks :)

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
USB 3.0, SLI, RAID

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I will buy a Windows 7 home premium 64

 
Where will you be buying the parts? A week isn't exactly long enough for PC parts to ship.
 
I can buy in advance but only in Amazon and best buy . If i am not mistaken Newegg still doesnt accept intl orders
 
Ahh so you're ordering the parts on Amazon before you leave Brazil and having them shipped to wherever you're staying in SF?
 
Here's a prelim build:
$190 - Intel Core i5-2400 CPU
$125 - MSI P67A-G43 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$43 - Kingston Hyper KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$170 - XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$79 - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-620 620W PSU
----
Total: $607 shipped.

For 1920x1080 for BF3, I'd say HD 6870 1GB Crossfire might be needed.
 
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Thank you :)

Some doubts:
1. 2500 is just a little more. Worth difference? In theory, Will I need overclocking to Play bf3 comfortably?
2. PSU supports carde in crossfire?
3. I will probably buy Another 6870 and crossfire as its so much cheaper there - I've paid 400 dollars for mine here. Btw I'll also have to buy a Crossfire bridge right?
4. Isnt it worth buying a ddr3 1600?

I know something here and there means more money but it's hard to stick to my budget When things there are só much cheaper

Thx

Joao
 
Last edited:
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1) The Core i5 2500 isn't worth it. You might need to OC to play BF3 comfortably. But we won't know until the game is released

2) That PSU will be enough for HD 6870 Crossfire

3) Yes

4) No. Not at all.
 
Thanks again :)

I guess I get easily impressed with Bigger numbers. Nice to see i dont have necessarily to pay more.
One last question: you mentioned that i may have to oc. 2400 will allow it?

Joao

Ps: as a side note, sometimes typing in iPad is a real pain!
 
jholanda said:
I guess I get easily impressed with Bigger numbers. Nice to see i dont have necessarily to pay more.
One last question: you mentioned that i may have to oc. 2400 will allow it?
Click to expand...

The Core i5 2400 will allow for an OC of up to 3.6Ghz on all four cores. Going with the Core i5 2500K will allow you to OC past 3.6Ghz.
 
Thx ! Decided :) Ill just have to check if one of mu visita to silicon valley is close to santa clara as prices were really much better than Amazons
 
sorry mobo has run out of stock. any other suggestion pls? just remember I am going to crossfire :)
 
$120 - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$145 - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
 
So you're just going to build your wife's PC from the older parts, right?
 
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