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Hey all, so I'm basically trying to upgrade my current machine to a little bit more faster solution in order to play some of today's games and tomorrow's games with better eye candy.
What I've got now:
HP Pavilion (ATX Case, it's the small one)
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4800+ @ 2.4Ghz
MEMORY: 3Gb RAM (Some decent one I found online to upgrade already built in RAM)
PSU: 450 Watt (I bought this one a while ago to go along with the new video card I got but it doesn't really have good connector cables with it, and they keep not holding on to the connection, thus causing freezes. I'm sure I'll need to get a new one anyway, and I'd like to)
GPU: ATI Radeon HD4850 512Mb (I bought this with the PSU about a year ago, it's a great card, but if I can get something within my price range that is better (See Budget Below) I'd like that over this one, but if not, this is great too for now)
DVD Tray: 16x DVD Recorder tray (w/ Lightscribe) ( it works great, but I'm not sure if it's able to be taken out since it's HP's, I don't know how factory made PC's work with custom ones, etc.)
Hard Drive: 250Gb SATA drive that came with the PC, works well, would like a small one for Windows if possible to be put on.
MONITOR: This is one thing I won't change, it's a 22" LCD HD Monitor that came with this media PC, so it looks great and it's in mint condition. 1680x1050 is what I plan on gaming in, and that's great for me, plus it'll cut my costs down.
BUDGET: I am thinking about 400-450, maybe up to 500 at most, but what I'd like to get is:
- New Case definitely, one that can fit the following parts as well:
- CPU + Mobo, I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to the Athlon II X3/X4 models and the Core i3/i5 ones. I'm almost 95% sure I'd like the x3/x4 since they are cheaper and on newegg they come with motherboards for a relatively big bang for not a lot of cash. I'm simply unsure if the higher clocked X3's (Like the 3.0+Ghz ones) are better than the slightly lower clocked X4's, and how well both perform overall in games.
- New PSU, definitely, something of pretty good quality that will power everything nicely.
- New RAM, I was thinking about 6 gigs, or if someone is able to find a better deal than I can I'll gladly take more
- New GPU, if I can fit it into the budget that'd be great, I was looking at something like the 5 Series radeon's or the 6 series radeon's, perhaps even the 460 from nvidia? unsure as of now.
- Possibly New Hard Drive? I was thinking of buying a separate very small Hard Drive to put Windows 7 on, and using the old 250Gb I have for the rest of my stuff, UNLESS pricing allows for a faster one? Doesn't matter really.
Here's what I found, PLEASE give me your best recommendations wherever possible for each category, I'm especially lost on CPU's and PSU's, though will gladly take a good amount of help on the RAM and GPU (Case too) as well. I've been out of the loop since the 8800GTX era, so I know literally knowing about what's fast and good anymore, just what I happened to read here and there online:
CPU + MOBO
Quad Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.643115
Triple Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.643110
Which one of these is better for current gen gaming, and perhaps a couple of years from now, 2 or so at least. I'm assuming the quad, but I'll let you experts guide me in the right direction, please
GPU:
eVGA GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625
Found this one and it looked like it had a lot of good reviews, looks like a solid card to me, thoughts?
PSU + Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.638504
It's a 650 Watt PSU, reviews looked ok, and it comes with a 500Gb Seagate Hard Drive, I'm not sure if these two are great, or if the PSU is even enough for the CPU + GPU? I'm honestly not sure, I'm just trying to keep the price down.
MEMORY:
I didn't know what to do with memory, I wasn't sure if the motherboards for the two CPU/MOBO combos I listed are different, if anyone could find some RAM that is compatible that'd be great (Pending which CPU I should get), I'd really appreciate it
CASE:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094
This one looks nice, pretty solid reviews. How is it to you guys?
FANS/Stock Coolers:
I'm unsure what to do about that, I'll probably need a 120mm and some other ones, and possibly an aftermarket cooler for the CPU as well? I'm not sure what to do about these if someone can find those parts I need as well.
I appreciate any and all help, this will be about a 2-3 year upgrade for me in terms of speed, so I'm sure it'll blow the lid off of most games I'll be playing now, and plan to play in the near future. Thanks again
EDIT::::: I forgot to add that I had a Windows 7 64-Bit key, so the OS is all taken care of.
What I've got now:
HP Pavilion (ATX Case, it's the small one)
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4800+ @ 2.4Ghz
MEMORY: 3Gb RAM (Some decent one I found online to upgrade already built in RAM)
PSU: 450 Watt (I bought this one a while ago to go along with the new video card I got but it doesn't really have good connector cables with it, and they keep not holding on to the connection, thus causing freezes. I'm sure I'll need to get a new one anyway, and I'd like to)
GPU: ATI Radeon HD4850 512Mb (I bought this with the PSU about a year ago, it's a great card, but if I can get something within my price range that is better (See Budget Below) I'd like that over this one, but if not, this is great too for now)
DVD Tray: 16x DVD Recorder tray (w/ Lightscribe) ( it works great, but I'm not sure if it's able to be taken out since it's HP's, I don't know how factory made PC's work with custom ones, etc.)
Hard Drive: 250Gb SATA drive that came with the PC, works well, would like a small one for Windows if possible to be put on.
MONITOR: This is one thing I won't change, it's a 22" LCD HD Monitor that came with this media PC, so it looks great and it's in mint condition. 1680x1050 is what I plan on gaming in, and that's great for me, plus it'll cut my costs down.
BUDGET: I am thinking about 400-450, maybe up to 500 at most, but what I'd like to get is:
- New Case definitely, one that can fit the following parts as well:
- CPU + Mobo, I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to the Athlon II X3/X4 models and the Core i3/i5 ones. I'm almost 95% sure I'd like the x3/x4 since they are cheaper and on newegg they come with motherboards for a relatively big bang for not a lot of cash. I'm simply unsure if the higher clocked X3's (Like the 3.0+Ghz ones) are better than the slightly lower clocked X4's, and how well both perform overall in games.
- New PSU, definitely, something of pretty good quality that will power everything nicely.
- New RAM, I was thinking about 6 gigs, or if someone is able to find a better deal than I can I'll gladly take more
- New GPU, if I can fit it into the budget that'd be great, I was looking at something like the 5 Series radeon's or the 6 series radeon's, perhaps even the 460 from nvidia? unsure as of now.
- Possibly New Hard Drive? I was thinking of buying a separate very small Hard Drive to put Windows 7 on, and using the old 250Gb I have for the rest of my stuff, UNLESS pricing allows for a faster one? Doesn't matter really.
Here's what I found, PLEASE give me your best recommendations wherever possible for each category, I'm especially lost on CPU's and PSU's, though will gladly take a good amount of help on the RAM and GPU (Case too) as well. I've been out of the loop since the 8800GTX era, so I know literally knowing about what's fast and good anymore, just what I happened to read here and there online:
CPU + MOBO
Quad Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.643115
Triple Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.643110
Which one of these is better for current gen gaming, and perhaps a couple of years from now, 2 or so at least. I'm assuming the quad, but I'll let you experts guide me in the right direction, please
GPU:
eVGA GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625
Found this one and it looked like it had a lot of good reviews, looks like a solid card to me, thoughts?
PSU + Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.638504
It's a 650 Watt PSU, reviews looked ok, and it comes with a 500Gb Seagate Hard Drive, I'm not sure if these two are great, or if the PSU is even enough for the CPU + GPU? I'm honestly not sure, I'm just trying to keep the price down.
MEMORY:
I didn't know what to do with memory, I wasn't sure if the motherboards for the two CPU/MOBO combos I listed are different, if anyone could find some RAM that is compatible that'd be great (Pending which CPU I should get), I'd really appreciate it
CASE:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094
This one looks nice, pretty solid reviews. How is it to you guys?
FANS/Stock Coolers:
I'm unsure what to do about that, I'll probably need a 120mm and some other ones, and possibly an aftermarket cooler for the CPU as well? I'm not sure what to do about these if someone can find those parts I need as well.
I appreciate any and all help, this will be about a 2-3 year upgrade for me in terms of speed, so I'm sure it'll blow the lid off of most games I'll be playing now, and plan to play in the near future. Thanks again
EDIT::::: I forgot to add that I had a Windows 7 64-Bit key, so the OS is all taken care of.
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