What would you do? Old FX-53 System, $1k budget

Edit: This build has changed a lot, please scroll down to see more.

First, let me give you the background on my old PC from Dec 2004 (I actually haven't used it for about 3 years since I've been out of the country):

AMD Athlon FX-53
Corsair DDR 400 1 gb (1 X 512)
MSI K8N Neo Platinum 2 (Nforce 4, Socket 939, AGP, NO PCI-E!!!, Sata 1.5 I believe)
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra AGP
Western Digital 500 GB 16 MB Buffer SATA 3.0
Western Digital 250 GB 8 MB Buffer SATA 1.5
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Antec True Blue 480 W Power Supply (NOT ATX 2.0, so I've only got a 20 pin, 1 4pin, 5 molex, and 2 sata)
Some DVD burner combo I can't remember, it might even be SATA... most likely IDE.

The case got busted up when it was shipped cross country 3 years ago so my parents put it into an antec 300. I believe at the moment that it's also running Windows 7 RC 64 bit but I have no idea how well it runs it. Worst case scenario I can go to 32-bit W7RC or back down to Win Xp (shudders).

Anyways...

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: The end of June

BUDGET RANGE: $1000 Max (but please see my options below)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming (left 4 dead, bioshock, mass effect, fallout 3), movies, surfing the internet, video editing, office applications, photoshop

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, headphones (and anything else you would re-use from above)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: New egg

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel and Nvidia, but I can be persuaded otherwise

OVERCLOCKING: Yes, on air, but nothing extreme

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 22" 1680 x 1050 or 21.5" 1900 x 1080 (help me decide)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Need to leave room to buy an additional 2-3 120mm case fans for the antec 300


Anyways... my options as I view them:

1) Buy a good monitor and just wait until next year or later this year for windows 7, office 2010, core i5, gtx 300, whatever heck else comes out.
2) Do a cheap upgrade ($500 or less with monitor)
3) Do the $1000 upgrade (with monitor).

So which option would you choose, which parts would you replace (and ebay) and which parts would you buy?

O/T

I help upgrade and repair rigs and some are slightly dated and what some peeps on 939 do:
try to get a cheap 2nd hand mobo with PCIe and maybe slot in something like a HD3450/4350 HDMI and u have a HTPC there ..or just sell it off to recover some dough i guess ^^

That's a good board for the e5200, but a bit low end for the e8xx cpu.

Also I think the 4850 and the 9800 gtx is a bit low end to support the resolution of a 32" monitor.

See... my thing is, I have this nasty feeling that by the end of this year or early next year some really good tech is gonna come out...

Yeah. I used to always get the most expensive stuff. Hell that athlon fx-53 was like $700 when I bought it.

Now I don't feel like taking the hit. Everyone talks about future-proofing too... but by the time I get to the point where I want to update, the socket I have is already out of production and they've got some new video card slot specification.

That's why I was leaning towards even a $500 upgrade. I mean if a $2k system lasts me at most 4 years... then $500 every year would net me a better system at the end.

Ok... so now I'm leaning heavily towards the upgrade. But I have a new question... is a core i7 build worth the $200 premium over a core 2 duo build?

Imo, I would wait till mid July. The i5 CPUs should (supposedly) be out then.

It's not dying. There's newer sockets out now, big deal.

The best cpu has to be based on the tasks the user performs.

As long as the CPU's for LGA 775 get the job done, the socket will keep going, which will be for some time to come as the Core 2 CPU's are still quite potent. The best Phenom II processor still cannot match the best Core 2.

Core 2 will be around for a while yet, it will most likely be occupying the budget/mainstream market in the next year or two, as Core i7 and core i5 take the midrange to high-end market.

Again, why would yo spend $190 for a dual core 3ghz processor when you can get a quad core 3ghz Phenom 2 for the same price? Makes no sense.

Not to mention the Phenom 2 system would be upgradeable to newer processors where the s775 would only be upgradeable to currently available quads.

Also the memory I linked has the same specs and is over $30 cheaper than what you selected....also dont forget, Athlon 2 and Core i5 will be released in a few months.

I recommend the cpu that fits the people's needs. It doesn't need to make sense to you.

If it's a budget build for general use, AMD is probably the way to go.
If it's a gaming machine, dual core is the way to go.
If it's a higher end, all purpose PC, i7 is the way to go.

Why do you think they are overpriced? I think they are priced well, considering how fast the architecture is and the tremendous gains you can get out of the by overclocking. Just cuz they are older doesn't mean they are outdated, they are still faster than anything that AMD has come up with. The Phenom II 940 is a good deal, but you can't compare a 3.0ghz Phenom II to a 3.0ghz Core 2. The Intel chip stomps the AMD chip all over the board.

Just because Phenom II has more processors that will come out for that socket means he will take advantage of that either, that argument is only valid for those people who upgrade their CPU's on a yearly basis. Most people will get one CPU and use it for 4-5 years and then just build a new PC. If you don't upgrade the CPU every year, by the time you are looking to upgrade the CPU, the new processors that are out will be running on a new socket, AM4 perhaps and would be bottlenecked by an old AM2+ motherboard. Sockets have about a 2 year life-span usually.

Yeah, I usually upgrade after 3-4 years (I guess in this case almost 5) so I end up being unable to re-use most of the old parts (like this situation now). The ONLY thing I could possibly see myself upgrading is the gpu in a year or two.

So I don't care if it's AM2 or 775 unless it'll bottleneck the processor I plan to buy today. The only thing I care about now is how well this computer will handle today's applications. By the time tomorrow's applications are optimized for quad cores and I start noticing a slow down, it'll be at least 3 years down the road... so future-proofing for me doesn't do much.

I mean I got a 64-bit cpu pretty much right after they were first released... and almost 5 years later, I still haven't had a chance to use it in a 64 bit environment. I bought a few $500 graphics cards in my day and while the first time I did it, I saw a HUGE jump in performance, my biggest shock came when I upgrade from a ti4600 to a 6800 ultra and saw that 3dmark 05 still kicked the ultra's ass. To make things worse, since I used v-sync, I didn't see an improvement in any of the games I played. To add more insult to injury, 3-6 months after I bought those video cards, a bigger and better card would come out and my video card's price would be cut in half. I guess all of that is the reason I set my budget down to $1000. Could I afford a $4000 core i7 965 with a gtx 295 system... probably. Would it be a good purchase? No.

Err... yeah, I guess I should get off my soap box. LOL. I guess you can see how bitter I am about spending $2500-$3500 for systems (just the towers!) in the past. Add in the monitors and I guess I was paying $3k-$4k. Ugh.

So... basically, I'm really hesitant to pay a premium for a piece of hardware with functions i won't use. Do I need a dual core? Yeah, that's pretty much a given. Do I need a quad-core? More than likely, probably not... especially since the C2D is so damn fast. So after I do more research on the phenom, if the C2D really outshines the p2 in the apps I use, I'll go C2D. If the difference is small, I'll go p2... since quad core apps ARE coming within the next year or two.

I'm not sure about that. The difference between a quad-core and a dual-core will get alot more evident a few years from now. Right now, the e8X00 is better in dual-threaded games well OC'd. Right now, even the old Phenom II 9950 outperforms the e8400 in quad-threaded games.
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid [...] ws/?page=2
Bottom line is, I'm alot more sure a 940 won't bottleneck you in three years than I am about an e8X00, 4gHz or no.

Ok... so I've decided to go for the Phenom II 940 but with a GTX 260 core 216 instead.

Any ideas on what I should do for the hard drive? Splurge on a velociraptor? Get a caviar black? Or just stay with the 500 gb WD I've got now (it's 16 mb and SATA 3.0 anyway).

I'm not a big fan of dual graphics cards solutions to be honest. I mean, the graphics performance increase isn't linear and they suck way more juice so I'd need a better PSU... not to mention they would increase the ambient temps and I'd have to deal with squeezing them into my antec 300.

I'm only gaming at 1680 x 1050 anyway.

I'd much rather just get a better video card in a year or two than deal with sli.

The only thing they benchmark "almost exactly the same" is in gaming, which as everyone knows is GPU bound, not CPU. In games where the CPU matters a lot such as FSX, the Q9550 widens the gap. And despite being slower in clock speed, the Q9550 still is faster than the Phenom II 940 in gaming. Look at tasks that are dependant on the CPU like video editing or 3d rendering. The Phenom II 940 gets trounced by the Q9550, and barely hangs with the Q9400.

Benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipse [...] =3492&p=13

Only an idiot would assume that the Q9550 was priced at $80 more for no reason. Who cares if you can't upgrade it to a different processor? By the time you need to upgrade it AM3 will be EOL and AM4 or LGA 1455 or w/e will be the new thing.

To the OP, go ahead and get a GTX 260 Core 216 and a Phenom II 940. To the rest...
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2114.html

Argue benchmarks to your hearts' content! Bear in mind the C2 series is paired with DDR3...

You will all probably all laugh at me for this but I've decided to go with a core i7. It puts me up to $1,200 total... but honestly, I think it's worth it. I won't have any regrets. I just hope I get a d0 stepping. Hopefully one month will be enough to thin out the c0's or bring in even more price savings.

When Windows 7 comes out, either at the end of the year or early next year, I'll pick that up along with a new hard drive and a new dvd drive. If I need one, I'll grab a new sound card too.

Then in two years I'll upgrade the gtx 260 to something better and 4 years down the line I'll worry about a whole new build.

OMG. Well first you wanted to stay under $1000, then you just wanted a $500 upgrade including monitor. You kind of defeated the entire purpose of this post.

If you had just said you definately wanted to build new and you wanted to spend $1200, everyone would have recommended i7 anyways. Instead you wasted everyones time.

You will enjoy an i7 build.

Post your final build list so we can critique and refine it.

Ok... here's what I'm shooting for:

Intel Core i7 920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115202

ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131386

(I was considering the SLI gigabyte board for the same price but I read some reviews that said it didn't handle memory as well, it's too cramped, and it doesn't have an esata port... on the other hand, it apparently overclocks like a beast)

EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130434

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139005

OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (7-7-7-24 @ 1.6V)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227381

Noctua NH Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835608007

Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009145

(I was going to go for the 2ms Asus model but the price jumped up $20 bucks... and I doubt I'll see a difference between 5ms and 2 ms. On a side note, I just noticed a 23" Asus 2ms 1980 X 1050 for $187.99...)

Antec 761345-75120-9 120mm Case Fan - Retail (3 of these)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835209005

(I know a lot of people go Scythe but I read some reviews about some weird high-pitched sounds coming from them. Can anybody comment?)

Other things that I didn't really mention that I needed and didn't include in the budget:

ENCORE ENLWI-N PCI 2.3 Wireless Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833180052

PLANTRONICS GameCom 367 Closed-ear 3.5mm Circumaural Stereo Headset
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826265064

XTRAC PADS Ripper Optical Mouse pad
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817114174

Link Depot 10 ft. 1394 Cable, 6 Pin to 4 Pin Model
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6812189113

The motherboard might be a problem for you. You can't SLI on that motherboard, only crossfire and you have an Nvidia GPU. If you want to add another GPU later, then Go with the Asus P6T or switch the GPU to a 4870 1gb, like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127413

You wouldn't need a 1000w PSU, a 750w PSU would be enough for two 260's.

So if I change the board and the PSU it goes frrom $1265 to $1340 total... which is spitting distance to $1450 which would get me 2 gts 250 1gbs in SLI.

Costs creep up too damn easily, lol.