Upgrade vs prebuilt

[btx926]

Hey all, new account, but I've been around for a while. I've posted some things about this elsewhere, so if you read something twice, I apologize...just looking for some opinions.
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, software development

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~800, but flexible

3) Where do you live?
US

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.

my box: CPU, PSU, RAM, MOBO, Hard drive
parent's box: CASE, videoboard (old machine)

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

My box: floppy drive, Antec 900 case, WD 500 MB JB SATA drive
Parent's box: Q6600, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, 4GB Ram, WD 500 MB JB SATA drive, Corsair 520 Watt PSU

6) Will you be overclocking?

My box: maybe, assuming yes although I haven't OCed much in the past.
Parent's box: probably not

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
My box: 1680x1050

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP

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

SATA6, I do not anticipate a need for a dual GPU solution ever.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

My machine: no (need win 7 64)
parent's machine: Yes, win 7 64.


So, the backstory. My parent's machine is old and has gotten to the point it is too painful for me to help maintain, so I am buying them a machine. I have two options:
a) buy a pre built for them and leave my machine alone (which will cost me around 400-450 for something like an Athlon2 634, 6GB Ram, 1TB HD)
b) upgrade my machine, and build them a machine out of the parts left over -- which will probably cost me around 400 more, roughly.

What I have now:
q6600, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, 4MB Crucial Ballistx DDR2, 2 500GB Western Digital JB drives, Antec 900 Case, Corsair 520W PSU, Floppy Drive

What I'm thinking about:

My Machine:
-2500K - 225
-MSI P67A-G45 - 140
-2x4GB Gskill Ripjaw DDR 1600 - 100
-WD Caviar Black SATA 6 500 GB HD (primary) - 60
Old WDJB SATA 500GB drive (secondary)
GTX 260
-Corsair 650TX PSU - 80
Antec 900 case


My Parent's Machine:
Q6600
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
4MB Crucial Ballistix
500 GB WD JB drive
Reuse their old DVDR
- Sapphire Radeon 5670 - 70
- Antec 300 case - 60

Grand total: 735 + Win 7 license.

I'm mainly looking to ensure that my folks get a box that will be stable and fast for general use for 3-5 years (my old parts are about three years old). For me, my gaming is pretty light (hence I wouldn't upgrade the videoboard in my machine right now), but I do a little video, a little audio and software development -- so the extra CPU is always welcome.

So -- is my thinking for these two machines right? Are there places I should skimp on? Anything I'm not thinking about here, or do you think I am just better off going with a pre-built machine?

Thanks for any advice, and sorry for the initial partial post. Thanks!

 

[tiraides]

What are the most resource-intensive games or programs that you and your parents, respectively, will use?

Where within the US do you live? We ask this question to see whether or not you live near a brick-and-mortar computer store like Fry's or Micro Center, where they oftentimes have in-store specials that are competitive with NewEgg's prices.

 

[btx926]

The nearest Microcenter is several hours away...no Fry's in my area.

No gaming for the folks, it will just be a everyday machine. A little image editing is the worst that one will get. For me, I do some FPSes -- I think Battlefield Bad Company 2, Black Ops and Dirt 2 are probably the most taxing things it gets.

 

[Dangman]

For your machine:

- Don't bother with that HDD: it's still somewhat slower than this equal priced drive:
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

- You won't notice a difference between that 1600 RAM and this cheaper 1333 RAM even if you're overclocking:
$80 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

For your parent's Machine:
- The Antec 300 is not a good case for $70. It shouldn't cost more than $50 to $55 max. So I recommend this case instead:
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case

- You can easily drop the GPU down the $40 to $55 HD 5450 1GB and still be fine.

 

[tiraides]

For your parents, $90 will net you:

$50 - Cooler Master Elite 430
$40 - HIS H545H512 HD 5450 512MB

As for you:

$100 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
$340 - Intel Core i5 2500K & MSI P67A-G43 combo
$35 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
$80 - Two G.Skill Value Series 4GB DDR3 1333 DIMMs
$40 - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD
$80 - Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W PSU

The total of all of the above is $765 before shipping and taxes. I chose to grab the WD5000AAKS from Amazon to give you similar performance (to its Caviar Black cousin) for considerably less. If you definitely aren't going to overclock, you can omit the Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler and swap out the motherboard and processor for:

$210 - Intel Core i5 2500
$110 - MSI H67MS-E43

(Then again, the combo deal makes the i5-2500k/P67 combo only $20 more than the i5-2500/H67 combo.)

 

[btx926]

Awesome, thanks for the advice. Is my general premise here correct that I am better off reusing these parts and upgrading my machine than buying a new pre built off the shelf? Sure seems like there isn't much difference between a q6600 and a Athlon2 quad 635.

Extra thanks on the case recommendation (I had no clue, too many options and I've been pretty happy with my Antec) and GPU. I hadn't considered a PSU other than corsair as I have been so happy with my 520W one, but I will certainly look at those Antecs too -- that makes such a huge difference on how nice (and quiet) a machine is.

I also hadn't considered a non-stock HSF, so I am glad you guys mentioned that...not much headroom in the stock cooler, I take it?