Im going to cover more topics here as well 
Current system
E6750 (2.66ghz)
2gb Corsair DDR2 (800mhz)
650w corsair psu
Xion (cant remember model offhand) case, its small, but was cheap and has great airflow (wanting something bigger)
SB audigy
MSI p6-N SLI-FI Mb (again was cheap and had decent reviews, and its lasted over a year with no issues)
MSI 9800GTX + video (this thing barely and I mean barely fits in my case, which is why I think a VC upgrade is out of the question on this thing at least with the current case)
couple of 320gb seagate 7200rpm 16mb hdd's
anything else im in there if im forgetting anything is irrelevant and recyclable into anything new I get.
so Question 1 is upgrade? or new? (my GF is using an old aging p4 system of mine I gave to her when i built the above, so if I get a new one its also a win for her) if upgrade, please post reccomendations.
Now on to question 2 now every time I build a PC its like a 3 hour anxiety attack until it boots and a wave of relief hits me.
So i visited IBUYPOWER and CYBERPOWERPC and put together some builds (I sure as hell am not buying my memory there, I'll take the 2gb base they force you to get and get the rest elsewhere) I think thats where they get you. anyway I put this DDR3 system together at IBUYPOWER (was cheaper than cyberpower).
Case ( Nzxt Tempest Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )
Power Supply ( 650 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-650TX Power Supply SLI Ready )
Processor ( [=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 (4x 2.83GHz/12MB L2 Cache/1333FSB) )
Motherboard ( eVGA Nvidia nForce 790i Ultra SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 2 GB [1 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module OCZ-Gold or Major Brand )
Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT 512MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
(evga)
Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card ( Onboard)
$824 (slap on about 142 bucks for 8gb gskill ddr3 1333mhz(price from newegg)as I would prefer not to mix brands in ram as im forced to get 2gb there, for a total of $968. Note they also force a video card on you too (If i go this route thinking about swapping that 9400gt into the old pc for the gf and just keeping the 9800GTX)
now, I price checked the same exact parts on newegg:
279.99 proc
209.99 mb
142.00 memory
99.99 psu
109.99 case
64.99 hdd (seagate, same specs)
total: $907
I dont know about you but a 50 sumthin dollar difference, to not have to deal with my pc building anxiety seems worth it.
Now of course with my strategy there will still be some assembly required on my part (Its mainly the whole cpu installation that has me on edge) ram video cards psu, switching cases, etc doesnt bother me. Further more its backed by a warranty where if one or more parts did go bad, i dont have more than one company to deal with for an rma process.
Makes me wish there was a halfway decent bare bones place (I perused a few either crappy part selections or Id wind up spending more for less than IBUYPOWER, one place I configured all of the above minus the HDD, minus a video card minus the ram antec 900 case and it came out to 1100 dollars). where i could just get a Case PSU CPU RAM (and a wide selection of parts to choose from) Could probably get the price to line down even further then.
Those 2 places by far get you the best bang for the buck on pre built systems as long as you can identify where they make their money (i.e. RAM and accessories).
Anyway, my main query is whether I should go the upgrade route, or if investing in a quad core is a good idea these days.
Also I have about a 1500 dollar budget ( pondering getting a new monitor also)
Current system
E6750 (2.66ghz)
2gb Corsair DDR2 (800mhz)
650w corsair psu
Xion (cant remember model offhand) case, its small, but was cheap and has great airflow (wanting something bigger)
SB audigy
MSI p6-N SLI-FI Mb (again was cheap and had decent reviews, and its lasted over a year with no issues)
MSI 9800GTX + video (this thing barely and I mean barely fits in my case, which is why I think a VC upgrade is out of the question on this thing at least with the current case)
couple of 320gb seagate 7200rpm 16mb hdd's
anything else im in there if im forgetting anything is irrelevant and recyclable into anything new I get.
so Question 1 is upgrade? or new? (my GF is using an old aging p4 system of mine I gave to her when i built the above, so if I get a new one its also a win for her) if upgrade, please post reccomendations.
Now on to question 2 now every time I build a PC its like a 3 hour anxiety attack until it boots and a wave of relief hits me.
So i visited IBUYPOWER and CYBERPOWERPC and put together some builds (I sure as hell am not buying my memory there, I'll take the 2gb base they force you to get and get the rest elsewhere) I think thats where they get you. anyway I put this DDR3 system together at IBUYPOWER (was cheaper than cyberpower).
Case ( Nzxt Tempest Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )
Power Supply ( 650 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-650TX Power Supply SLI Ready )
Processor ( [=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 (4x 2.83GHz/12MB L2 Cache/1333FSB) )
Motherboard ( eVGA Nvidia nForce 790i Ultra SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 2 GB [1 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module OCZ-Gold or Major Brand )
Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT 512MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
(evga)
Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card ( Onboard)
$824 (slap on about 142 bucks for 8gb gskill ddr3 1333mhz(price from newegg)as I would prefer not to mix brands in ram as im forced to get 2gb there, for a total of $968. Note they also force a video card on you too (If i go this route thinking about swapping that 9400gt into the old pc for the gf and just keeping the 9800GTX)
now, I price checked the same exact parts on newegg:
279.99 proc
209.99 mb
142.00 memory
99.99 psu
109.99 case
64.99 hdd (seagate, same specs)
total: $907
I dont know about you but a 50 sumthin dollar difference, to not have to deal with my pc building anxiety seems worth it.
Now of course with my strategy there will still be some assembly required on my part (Its mainly the whole cpu installation that has me on edge) ram video cards psu, switching cases, etc doesnt bother me. Further more its backed by a warranty where if one or more parts did go bad, i dont have more than one company to deal with for an rma process.
Makes me wish there was a halfway decent bare bones place (I perused a few either crappy part selections or Id wind up spending more for less than IBUYPOWER, one place I configured all of the above minus the HDD, minus a video card minus the ram antec 900 case and it came out to 1100 dollars). where i could just get a Case PSU CPU RAM (and a wide selection of parts to choose from) Could probably get the price to line down even further then.
Those 2 places by far get you the best bang for the buck on pre built systems as long as you can identify where they make their money (i.e. RAM and accessories).
Anyway, my main query is whether I should go the upgrade route, or if investing in a quad core is a good idea these days.
Also I have about a 1500 dollar budget ( pondering getting a new monitor also)
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