Yet another "Help me upgrade!" topic

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Endymion

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Joined
Dec 16, 2002
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I'm trying to decide on exactly what I need to get to upgrade my comp and if I can do it within my budget.

It started out by me realizing that I am a bit short on ram and my vid card could use a bit of a boost and I could also use a dvd burner. Well, if I am doing that much, why not go farther and get a new processor and motherboard and that way I can transfer the old stuff to my second comp.

I have a total of $900 I could spend on this, but I'd really prefer not to spend that much if I don't have to.

I am really lost when it comes to what processor and motherboard to choose. I've tried reading up, but nothing has stood out and so this is where I need the most help. I don't plan on overclocking, however, I suppose I could change my mind later. I have a feeling that the best option for me will be based quite a bit on price. For comparison, I currently run an Athlon64 X2 3800+ and I haven't had any problems with it's performance.

Ram is just as confusing to me, so whatever suggestions of ram that would go with the suggestions for motherbaord and processor would be appreciated. Also, is 2gb ok or should I be looking to get 4? I only have 1gb in my current setup and I am pretty sure it's not enough.

As far as vid card, I think I have decided on an Evga 8800GT. Seems to be the right boost that I need and the price is a bit high, but not outrageous for me.

Dvd burner I could use something besides a Lite On. I have a cd burner by them and my god is it loud. Something quiet and reliable. I read something on these forums about a Pioneer and a Samsung and so I am leaning towards one of those.

Like I said, I plan on using my old parts in my second computer which brings up new issues. The power supply in my second computer won't be able to handle the hand me down parts. This means I would need a new power supply. I have also been thinking about a new case because my current one is huge. So I was thinking about the Antec Sonata III, hoping that it might be quieter and it comes with a 500w ps that I could switch to my second comp.

Then it would seem like a good idea to do something about my crappy little 17" monitor that I use for my second comp. I use a 20" viewsonic on my main comp and I really like it. Would now be a good time to get something like a 22" widescreen or just get another 20"? In either case, which brands and features should I be looking at to make sure I'm getting something decent?

Suggestions are greatly appreciated. :)
 
Great minds must think alike because those are almost the same things I'm putting into my new build. However, with the video card I'm leaning towards the GIGABYTE GV-NX86T256H-ZL GeForce 8600GT and for my case I went with the Ultra m998. Gorgeous case, by the way. Tons of room.

The deciding factor for the GA-P35-DS3R (for me anyway) can best be summed up by this short review:

"The P35 mainboard comparison test in Hardware.Info Magazine #3/2007 showed that Gigabyte has the ideal value solution with the P35-DS3R. Thanks to the P35 northbridge the board is capable of accomodating processors with a 1333 MHz frontside bus. The versatile ICH9R south bridge offers among many other things extended RAID functionality. Gigabyte supplied the onboard audio codec with until now unheard audio quality for an onboard solution. They also equip this board with eSATA connectivity and a very stable 6 phase power supply. As this board is part of the Ultra Durable 2 series, it uses higher quality, long lasting components."

Here's a great spec page for the DS3R on HardwareInfo. I plan on having this board a while and the Ultra Durable 2 design was a definite plus along with the Dynamic Energy Saver(DES), which offers extensive power savings.

And if you're going to get a new DVD burner then let me suggest this Lite-On SATA model. A great drive at an awesome price, and it's SATA to boot.
 
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard $99.99
*good oc'able motherboad for cheap price
EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB $239.99
*nice video card that will last for a few years unless you wanting the best performance of all games.
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $45.99 - $15MIR or G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $46.99
*2gb is good for vista and fantastic for xp. if you want to waste $50 more then get a 2x2gb of ram @800mhz.
SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N $33.99
*nice optical drive with lightscribe
CORSAIR HX CMPSU-520HX 520W Active PFC NVIDIA SLI Certified Modular ATX Power Supply Retail $100.99 - $10 MIR
*good power supply thats modular for cable management and looks
E8400 $219.99 or Q6600 $250+
*truly it depends on what you use your computer for. the dual core e8400 is one of the newer 45nm processors and the q6600 is currently the cheapest quad core that has good ocing potentials at decent price.

Cases to choose from (IMO):
Antec P182 $149.99
*a nice case thats built for cooling while being quiet. you can sometimes find rebates for this case that lowers the price to $120 area
Antec 900 $119.99 - $40 MIR
*nice case that has nice cooling w/ window at side.
Coolermaster 690 $79.99 (you can usually find a rebate that lowers price into $30-$40 price range.
*nice case that can have up to 7 120mm case cans for cooling

personally i find one monitor is good enough. i have a 22' samsung 220wm that i bought on black friday and cant imagine needing another monitor. i can do so much with this monitor and i would think the same for a monitor only 2' less.


search around clubit.com, zipzoomfly.com, buy.com, etc to look for cheaper prices
 
I think I was a little wordy and caused some confusion. When upgrading my main computer, I would also be passing down parts to my second computer, thus, sort of upgrading it at the same time. This would be why I would want another monitor because the current one I use on my second computer is a cheap piece of junk. ;)

So if I follow the suggestions here, it would put my budget over $1000 including a monitor and there is no way I can swing that.

In case it helps, I would say I mostly use my computer for basic browsing and such with a few games thrown in here or there, but I am by no means a serious gamer.

The suggestions for the ram, vid card and dvd burner all seem ok and it would appear that where I might be able to save some money is possibly on the motherboard and processor. Like I said, I really don't have a problem with the speed of my current processor, but if I go ahead and upgrade all the way, I can upgrade my second computer with the hand me down parts which it could really use. So do I really need to go with the E8400?

Also, because the Sonata comes with a power supply, it makes it a better value to me case wise because I can use that power supply in my second computer. (My main computer currently has a Liberty 500w iirc while my second computer is using some cheap 300w that I am surprised can even run it.)

As for the monitor, I am just trying to look at ones in the $250 range, but again, I am just not sure what I should be looking at, so suggestions there would help.

I hope that clears things up some. Keep those suggestions coming! It may not be possible to get what I want on the budget I have, and if that's the case, you can let me know that as well. Thanks. :)

(I am taking a look at the different websites mentioned and comparing prices. Might be able to save a few bucks that way.)
 
You can get a nice 22" LCD for $250. Samsung, Acer, BenQ, Viewsonic. Go to Best Buy or similar and check them out in person before you order online, though. If you do a lot of image or photo editing you'll need to worry about the panel type (TN, IPV-A, IPS-V, MPV-A -- I probably mixed some of them up) but if you're just browsing and gaming what you're looking for is a panel with a low response time. 5ms or lower, ideally. High contrast (dynamic contrast is a plus) is more important than high brightness, but again, do /not/ just go by the numbers. Go somewhere and look at them. Some manufacturers exaggerate their contrast numbers, for example. Others actually seem to understate things. What's most important is how it looks to you.

Motherboard, I'd recommend the DFI Blood Iron P35-TR2L over the Gigabyte DS3L. The DFI has 2 more SATA ports, better RAID support, and even more OCing settings should you get in to that. It runs $100-120.

There are 4GB DDR2-800 kits for $95 shipped $75 AR at Newegg right now -- a GEIL kit and an OCZ kit. If you can spare the extra $20 or so I'd say it's worthwhile.

The Sonata case is OK, as is the PSU that comes with it, but if you can get a good deal on the Corsair 550VX or 520HX and the Coolermaster RC-690, I'd say that's a better setup. Better cooling on the case, better quality and warranty on the PSU. Also, the P180/P180B/P182 regularly goes on sale for $45-60 AR, so if you're willing to wait a bit that's an option as well. I've been very happy with my P180B.

I'd say go with the E2160 or E2200 ($75-100) and a nice aftermarket heatsink like the Coolermaster Hyper TX-2 or Scythe Ninja ($30-40). The E2xxx chips should OC to around 3Ghz (maybe as high as 3.4Ghz) cool and stable with either of those heatsinks. You can always buy a faster chip when they get cheaper.

I agree with the 8800 GT recommendation on the GPU.
 
Endymion said:
So do I really need to go with the E8400?
Click to expand...

I thought that's what I needed, but then everyone keeps telling me to go for the Quad Core (Q6600).

Endymion said:
As for the monitor, I am just trying to look at ones in the $250 range, but again, I am just not sure what I should be looking at, so suggestions there would help.
Click to expand...

If that is your budget for an LCD monitor you should take a look at this CHIMEI 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor. I have a friend who owns three of these and they are gorgeous monitors. This is the one I'll be getting myself.
 
Just to add:

The P182 and 900 had huge rebates and deals dropping them into the $50 price range, not the higher prices shown, if it helps.
 
desktop said:
I thought that's what I needed, but then everyone keeps telling me to go for the Quad Core (Q6600).
-snip-
Click to expand...

If all he's doing is browsing and some occasional gaming a dual core will do fine for him and save him about $175. Photoshop is very CPU-intensive, and it scales well, so the quad is actually beneficial for what you're doing.

Most games on the other hand, if they're multi-core aware at all -- and more and more are, certainly -- only make good use of two cores at this point. The only real stand out example of an exception to this rule would be large-scale extremely detailed RTS games like Supreme Commander. It benefits greatly from the use of a quad, but it's far from unplayable on a reasonably fast dual core system.
 
silent-circuit said:
If all he's doing is browsing and some occasional gaming a dual core will do fine for him and save him about $175. Photoshop is very CPU-intensive, and it scales well, so the quad is actually beneficial for what you're doing.
Click to expand...

So even with XP Home the extra processing power of the Q6600 would still be utilized?
 
desktop said:
So even with XP Home the extra processing power of the Q6600 would still be utilized?
Click to expand...

Yes. That said, if it's stressing your budget I wouldn't say to go with it. It's a big step up, and the only differences you'll see are filters taking less time to run and faster program startup.
 
silent-circuit said:
Yes. That said, if it's stressing your budget I wouldn't say to go with it. It's a big step up, and the only differences you'll see are filters taking less time to run and faster program startup.
Click to expand...

silent, thanks for that input. I was unaware that the Q6600 could run effectively under XP. As far as stressing my budget I'll save enough on RAM (silent-approved GEIL kit, thank you) and the video card to make it up.

Speaking of vid cards ... Endymion, I don't know exactly what your video card needs are but this is an awesome deal on a Diamond Viper Radeon X1650PRO. I just ordered one myself. If it turns out to be a bad deal I apologize ahead of time, but I'm taking a chance.
 
desktop said:
Speaking of vid cards ... Endymion, I don't know exactly what your video card needs are but this is an awesome deal on a Diamond Viper Radeon X1650PRO. I just ordered one myself. If it turns out to be a bad deal I apologize ahead of time, but I'm taking a chance.
Click to expand...

He's far more gaming oriented than you, so the GPU is a bigger deal. The 8800 GT at $230ish makes sense for him, whereas the X1650 would be underpowered.
 
Thanks for the help. :)

desktop, silent is right about the vid card. I currently have a 6800GS and it's a pretty good card, I find that I just need a bit more power and ram than it has. The 8800GT seems perfect for my needs from what I have been reading.

I keep coming up about $60 or so over my budget after shipping so I am not sure how I am going to deal with that. (This is why rebates don't work plus the fact that most likely I will either forget about them or screw them up. lol) To be fair, I could trim that figure down a little bit since that's including the suggestion of 4gb of ram. It also includes the E2200.

I might be more willing to look at other cases as long as they don't involve rebates. I just want a case that is somewhat small, quiet, adequate cooling, and a clean look to it. I think it was the coolermaster that's been a couple of times mentioned that had a nice look and was that mesh on the front? Very nice, but too much. Is there something similar to that, but costs less? But then I would still need a power supply for my second computer, but since it is for my second computer, it can be just an average power supply with a low price. But would I really be able to save any money over the Sonata by going that route?

What I might have to do is hold off on the monitor for a bit. This doesn't mean I could go crazy and spend more on the other parts, but I could get the rest of them now and then wait until I have that extra $60 or so to get the monitor. I'm gonna have to mull that over. That might be a good idea anyway, because I think the monitor is what I am most worried about getting as far as making sure I am getting something decent.
 
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