I’m currently deliberating to build a new system. The current one I have is at least 4 years old. It’s starting to show in the games I play how outdated it performs with the settings I have to run them at. I’m looking for a complete tower overhaul. I have a few items I know I want to buy and some others I’m undecided yet on. Here is my current rig..
CoolerMaster Praetorian 730 RC-730-KSN1 Black Aluminum
AMD Athlon™64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core
ASUS A8N-E nForce 4 Ultra
2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Corsair XMS High Performance
PNY Geforce 8600 GT 512MB
300GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM
SONY 16X DVD-ROM
SONY DWQ-30A DUAL FORMAT 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
SB X-Fi Fatality ExtremeGamer Pro
Antec TPII-550 550Watt ATX
I’m going to be taking the X-Fi Fatality out and carrying it over to the new system. I’ll more than likely be selling the rest of the tower to help fund the new build. There isn’t much of anything else worth carrying over that can be used as an upgrade. The case is nice and still in perfect shape, but it doesn’t have enough cooling power from my experience. The PSU isn’t half bad, but won’t be enough if I ever chose to do SLI in the future(dual only.. tri-SLI is a waste imo).
The parts that I know I want.. I want the Antec Nine Hundred tower, which currently there is a nice -$50 combo deal ending 10/15 with a 850watt PSU.. or 650watt for -$40 on newegg. The Antec Twelve Hundred is also very nice with the same combo deal. I’m just not sure if myself or anyone for that matter would ever utilize all that extra free space.
Everything else is up in the air basically between ATI/Nvidia, AMD/Intel, x2/x4 core processor, and obviously a motherboard .
The ATI 4870 and the GTX 260(216 core) are both what I have in mind for a video card. Anything else in terms of a video card seems like a parallel upgrade, I don’t see the point in only going with a 9800 GTX+. I have never owned an ATI card for gaming, only Nvidia. I have no biased opinions of ATI, but I’ve never been let down by Nvidia either. And the only way to utilize any potential of either card is to go straight quad core, dual core would not benefit me hardly anything at all yes?
The other wall I’m hitting is AMD or Intel? I’ve always used AMD from the very beginning. But seeing as how their chips have fallen far behind the curve(they have always ran hotter than Intel and used more power), I’m seriously thinking Intel this time around. Is it really worth going quad, or just stay dual and get a motherboard that still supports AM2+ quad core for an easy future upgrade?
The last and biggest wall is choosing the right motherboard. Again, I have always used ASUS since they have always seemed to be very stable and have never ran into a single issue with them. There are so many options to choose from it’s absurd. I’m not an over clocking junkie so I don’t need some $250+ board. At the same time I don’t want some $75 pile of crap with every single integrated device there is slowing it down. Is there any good recommendations for a board under 200 and has two PCIE 2.0 x16 and has good placements of the SATA ports? If I choose the 4870 or 260 I wouldn’t want them to become unattainable. The reviews from newegg.com don’t seem that helpful where one stands out to be better than the other no matter what the price is. There always seems to be a negative comment even with the best of boards.
I’m just looking for some educated experienced preferences that this community has had/read about. If anyone could choose any of the selected items I mentioned, how would you finish the build staying as close to the 1k limit as possible with whatever parts? If you go over a few bucks show the setup anyway. I've done a few myself, but can't narrow down these few yet important components.
Thanks for any feedback.
CoolerMaster Praetorian 730 RC-730-KSN1 Black Aluminum
AMD Athlon™64 X2 4800+ Dual-Core
ASUS A8N-E nForce 4 Ultra
2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Corsair XMS High Performance
PNY Geforce 8600 GT 512MB
300GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM
SONY 16X DVD-ROM
SONY DWQ-30A DUAL FORMAT 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
SB X-Fi Fatality ExtremeGamer Pro
Antec TPII-550 550Watt ATX
I’m going to be taking the X-Fi Fatality out and carrying it over to the new system. I’ll more than likely be selling the rest of the tower to help fund the new build. There isn’t much of anything else worth carrying over that can be used as an upgrade. The case is nice and still in perfect shape, but it doesn’t have enough cooling power from my experience. The PSU isn’t half bad, but won’t be enough if I ever chose to do SLI in the future(dual only.. tri-SLI is a waste imo).
The parts that I know I want.. I want the Antec Nine Hundred tower, which currently there is a nice -$50 combo deal ending 10/15 with a 850watt PSU.. or 650watt for -$40 on newegg. The Antec Twelve Hundred is also very nice with the same combo deal. I’m just not sure if myself or anyone for that matter would ever utilize all that extra free space.
Everything else is up in the air basically between ATI/Nvidia, AMD/Intel, x2/x4 core processor, and obviously a motherboard .
The ATI 4870 and the GTX 260(216 core) are both what I have in mind for a video card. Anything else in terms of a video card seems like a parallel upgrade, I don’t see the point in only going with a 9800 GTX+. I have never owned an ATI card for gaming, only Nvidia. I have no biased opinions of ATI, but I’ve never been let down by Nvidia either. And the only way to utilize any potential of either card is to go straight quad core, dual core would not benefit me hardly anything at all yes?
The other wall I’m hitting is AMD or Intel? I’ve always used AMD from the very beginning. But seeing as how their chips have fallen far behind the curve(they have always ran hotter than Intel and used more power), I’m seriously thinking Intel this time around. Is it really worth going quad, or just stay dual and get a motherboard that still supports AM2+ quad core for an easy future upgrade?
The last and biggest wall is choosing the right motherboard. Again, I have always used ASUS since they have always seemed to be very stable and have never ran into a single issue with them. There are so many options to choose from it’s absurd. I’m not an over clocking junkie so I don’t need some $250+ board. At the same time I don’t want some $75 pile of crap with every single integrated device there is slowing it down. Is there any good recommendations for a board under 200 and has two PCIE 2.0 x16 and has good placements of the SATA ports? If I choose the 4870 or 260 I wouldn’t want them to become unattainable. The reviews from newegg.com don’t seem that helpful where one stands out to be better than the other no matter what the price is. There always seems to be a negative comment even with the best of boards.
I’m just looking for some educated experienced preferences that this community has had/read about. If anyone could choose any of the selected items I mentioned, how would you finish the build staying as close to the 1k limit as possible with whatever parts? If you go over a few bucks show the setup anyway. I've done a few myself, but can't narrow down these few yet important components.
Thanks for any feedback.
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