Custom Built I3

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bigd0170

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May 30, 2012
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I recently got a great deal on an custom built I3 on Ebay, the specs currently are:


CPU : Intel Core i3 Quad Core 3.07Ghz 8MB Cache

Heatsink/Fan : Standard Intel Heat sink and Fan Included

Motherboards : Intel DH55TC Media series micro-ATX Motherboard

Hard Drive : 160 GB SATA 3 Gbps

CD / DVD / CDRW 1 : 24X LG SATA DVD /-RW/CDRW w/Nero

Video Card : PIntegrated with VGA and DVI outputs

Operating System : Windows 8 Professional 64bit Installed

Case : Custom LG Mid-Size Gaming Case (4 5.25, 6 3.5) 3 Fans, Audio/USB

Power Supply : Stock 500 Watt Power Supply

Networking : Onboard LAN included

Sound Card : Onboard Sound included

Case Fans : 120mm Case Fans x 1

Ram : 4.0 GB DDR3 (2x 2.0 GB w 2 slots open)



I know it is an older basic motherboard, but for $80 for the whole system who's complaining :D

What I want to do with this is to upgrade it as much as I can into a decent computer I do some medium gaming, web browsing and general word processing and spreadsheets and some web page building, I plan on putting an SSD Drive in it for my main drive, adding an IDE Add in card since this don't have none as I have a couple of 500 and a 750 gb hard drive I use for back up purposes, installing more memory, it can have a Max of 16 gigs adding a video card, and possibly upgrading the cpu, and dumping Windows 8 and installing Windows 7 Pro..

My main questions are:

1: What would be the best video card for some medium gaming? within about a $100 price range that would fit? I have no preference whether ATI or Nvidia.

2: Would it be better to get a cheaper I5 for it, or spend the extra money on an I7 Core CPU about a $100 price difference on Ebay from what I can tell.

3: Add another 4 gigs of memory for a total of 8 or should I max it out to the entire 16


Also after doing all this would be wise to go ahead and upgrade the Power Supply or would the stock 500w PS be all right.. Thanks for any and all help and suggestions..



 
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twelve25

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Oct 8, 2012
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$80 is a DEFINITE steal, but it is an 1156 system (and a dual core, not quad) so you do have more limited options regarding upgrades.

1. For about $100, I'd find a rebate deal on a Radeon 7770 or a GTX 650 Ti. The latter being significantly more powerful. I'd spend more here vs the CPU honestly. Radeon 7850 would be my vote.

2. You've got a dual core i3-540 (with hyperthread making it look like a qaud to windows). You'll have to compare benchmarks for the apps you want to run. The i5-600 series are honestly a non-upgrade as they are still dual core with hyperthreading.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/144?vs=143

The i5-700 and i7-800 series are full quad cores (i7 hyperthread, i5-700 not) and would be an upgrade for certain apps, but not much better in many games:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/107?vs=143


3. You may not even need 8GB of RAM. 4GB is often enough for gaming and light office work. 8 is comfortable, but I'd spend more on the video card and CPU and only upgrade the RAM if you are running low. I have 17 applications open on my computer right now and I am using 3.2GB of RAM. I've never seen a game use more than 2GB since they often run in 32 bit mode for compatibility.

500W power supply should be fine.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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there are no quad core i3s, that's a 2 core with hyper threading.

for medium gaming all you'd need to do is stick a GPU into that thing.

Nothing else needed. The performance gain from upgrading to an i5 or i7 would be basically negligible, as you're rocking an older lga1156 mb... which means you've got a 1st gen i series cpu.. a clarkdale i3-5xx chip i think. That said you're boned on the cpu upgrade... nothing you'd buy (CPU wise) would be worth the nominal performance gain.

if you want the cpu upgrade you need to find an i5-7xx or an i7-8xx; trick is if you can find them, they go for a lot of cash... $200-$400 and i'm not sure you'll even notice the performance upgrade.
 
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bigd0170

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May 30, 2012
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Thanks for all the quick replies, after looking at the answers and looking at the benchmarks I think I will go with the gtx 650ti price wise is about right in the middle and looking at how much gaming I do its probably pretty much overkill, but you never know when the gaming mood may hit, I found a pretty good deal this morning on for Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 for $39, so decided to pull the trigger and get it since it was pretty cheap,

I'm looking at SSD drives, and this is my first foray into SSD, a couple of questions I have is I'm planning on getting about a 240gb ssd, I found one for about a couple for about $150.00 which after research doesn't seem like a bad price, but they state that there were in MacBook Pro, and formatted for MacBook, now this may seem like an extreme noob question here but does it make a difference whether they were in a MacBook or not? and what would I have to do to make them work in a windows Pc, couldn't find an answer to this question anywhere.. Thanks again for all your help and advice.. you guys are the best.. :D
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
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well... there are 2 things to consider with SSD.

1) reliability - generally cheap SSDs fail/suffer data loss at a much much higher rate then cheap HDs. The high end SSDs are about as reliable as a HD. So you're not gonna want to pick around for old models as it's only recently that they've become reliable enough for everyday use.

2) Speed - you really do pay for speed with these babies... the fastest SSDs generally are the most expensive (unless there is a sale)... Speed sorta matters with an SSD, as they have 2 different messurements for it. one is thier max rated data transfer, the other is their "small file" transfer speed. Most cheap SSDs will flash high max data transfer, and hide the fact that they're generally slower then a traditional HD with small (under 3mb) files.

Conclusion - generally you'll want a SSD with a rock solid rep, and great specs... Tom's does a good job listing the best buys for SSDs, and generally that list is dominated by Samsung 840 Pros. Find yourself a Samsung 840 Pro, and be happy (make sure it's the pro version, the normal 840, while reliable is about 1/2 the speed).

EDIT- i forgot to check your MB for SATA III ports. If your mb has SATA III that previous advice for samsung is gold. If you don't have SATA III on that mb, you can grab a Samsung 840, or an Adata or something midranged, cause the 840 PRO saturates the SATA III, and will be seriously bottlenecked by a SATA II connection (which is 1/2 the speed).
 
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bigd0170

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May 30, 2012
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Thanks for the info. Before I read this, I found a OCZ AGILITY 3 AGT3-25SAT3-240 - 2.5" 240GB SSD SATA III for a reasonable price that I bought, Hopefully this will last and not be a dud... and yes the motherboard has 6 Sata III ports..
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
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the agility is a solid midranged ssd. You probably will love it. good luck. SSDs vs HDs are like broadband vs dialup... once you go SSD you'll never go back.
 
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