Tom's Hardware: Topic Worth the upgrade? Opinions?
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I have an old Athlon fx-53, geforce 6800 ultra (AGP) system with only 1 gb of ram from 2004. It's gotten to the point where the old beast needs to retire.
Initially I wanted to do a completely new build for $2k with a corei7 and GTXs in SLI, but seeing as windows 7 is just around the corner as well as dx11, SSD price drops, etc.... I figure I'm better off just waiting a year or two for that. I just need to make it until then, and I don't mind spending $500 in the meantime.
FYI, I use my computer for gaming and some minor video editing. Also, I don't care about crysis or far cry 2, I just want bioshock, l4d, fallout 3, COD 4, and mass effect to play decently.
I can salvage:
Antec 300 case (don't ask why this old machine has a brand new case... it just does 
)
Antec trueblue 480w PSU (meaning GTX's are out of the picture unless I want to spend another $100 for a decent psu)
7200 RPM 500 GB Western Digital 16mb Buffer hard drive
IDE DVD Burner
Windows XP 32-bit (I plan to skip vista altogether provided windows 7 isn't a massive failure)
Now for the upgrade, I'm thinking of:
Asus P5QL Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131329
Core 2 Duo E8500 (the $8400 was only $20 cheaper... 
)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115036
GTS 250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814187070
4 gbs of RAM of Corsair XMS (was gonna go for 2gbs because of xp 32-bit, but for a $20 difference... lol)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145184
Zalman CNPS 9500 cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118003
With tax and shipping, it should be about $500 on new egg.
I'm open to any opinions on how to improve the build cost-wise or performance wise as long as it doesn't blow the $500 budget.
My suggestions...just trying to lend a choice to ya that choice being amd
I recommend the phenom 720 as you can overclock it quite high and compete/beat the e8500...not to mention you have a whole core over it for mutlicore support etc
But you can get the damn 4 CORE phenom for the same price as the intel!!!!!....no contest if you ask me...you can a load a motherboard and phenom and have a very nice secondary rig by the time you build your new i7 pc as well 
Dual cores can only lose this "lead" they have had at this point...with games using more cores etc
But this is all pointless if you want to save the few bucks for the 720 as it will run all of your titles just as well as the 940 albeit the 940 will last longer and you will get better performance in multicore games...in fact by saving on the 720 you could improve the gpu and play those titles you don't care about 
If i was in your position i would go with the 940...you can always upgrade that gpu and run this build well into that year or two mark with great power
I'm not going to recommend specific mobos or coolers etc as im not iv not done alot of research on em
Iv kinda rambled a bit but im sure you get the gist of my incentive...you should be looking for an amd build if you ask me...overclock a 940 or 720 and run with/surpass that 8500...
Message edited by rewindlabs on 04-27-2009 at 08:07:19 AM
Reply to rewindlabs
| SDSUMarcus01 wrote : I have an old Athlon fx-53, geforce 6800 ultra (AGP) system with only 1 gb of ram from 2004. It's gotten to the point where the old beast needs to retire.
|
I would save even more money and go this route.....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128380 <--- more pics, specs, and customer reviews of the motherboard used in this build.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115206 <--- more pics, specs, and customer reviews of the cpu used in this build.
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-43-UD3L $69.99 after rebate Free Ground Shipping
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L Core 2 Quad/ Intel P43/ DDR2/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=E7400 $105.75
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz 1066MHz 3M LGA775 CPU, OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835207006 $29.99 ($19.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
Sunbeam CR-CCTF92-4 92mm Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler W/TX-2 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231219 $44.99
G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130468 $129.99 Free Shipping*
EVGA 512-P3-1150-TR GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Then I would seriously consider ditching that EIDE burner...ebay it, donate it to the gods...whatever...and spend $25 on a decent SATA burner....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136152 $24.99 Free Shipping*
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
Total: $415.70 | $395.70 w/rebates
| gkay09 wrote : Well as far as gaming goes, both the Phenom and the Core2 will be very similar...
|
......how ever long it may take weather that be a few months or a few years games will take advantage of quads...why in the hell would you get the e8500 even if its a temporary build? i mean that 940 will obviously outlast it 
Reply to rewindlabs
Yeahp, now if it was a 100 or more than the E8 would be a no brainer...guess what its not...
Although i think you can build a comparable(price wise) system to the E7 with a 720...am i wrong? if so do i need to explain the performance difference here as well 
Message edited by rewindlabs on 04-27-2009 at 10:39:58 AM
Reply to rewindlabs
Please mind
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If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.
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