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Seeking advice on ~500$ in upgrades

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Seeking advice on ~500$ in upgrades

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earth-fury   06-25-2009 at 06:58:08 PM

Hi. I hope I am posting this in the correct section. If not, please forgive my noobish-ness and correct me.

Based on the price and quality and power research I have done on different components, this build will be more of an extensive upgrade than a from-scratch build.

This will be my most extensive build/upgrade yet. I have some minor experience in upgrading and doing things inside a case.

I plan to run XP or Vista, and Linux. (Debian/Ubuntu) I've done many OS installs/configurations.

To the point:

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: June 27th/28th (Next weekend) BUDGET RANGE: Around 500$

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Programming, Internet Browsing/Chatting, Gaming, Movies

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:

  • Motherboard
  • CPU (AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+, 2.20GHz)
  • 2 sticks 512MB DDR2 RAM
  • CD/DVD Burner
  • 1 ATA (IDE) HDD
  • 1 SATA HDD
  • Monitor, Speakers, Mouse, Keyboard


Upgrading from an HP Pavilion a1610n. Full specs available on HP's site, including motherboard specs. (This is the closest to a motherboard manual that exists for this, as far as I can find.)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: http://www.newegg.ca and possibly http://www.ncix.com/ and http://www.tigerdirect.ca/

I live in Canada land. Never really bought anything online before, thus my website preference is based entirely on what people have told me.

PARTS PREFERENCES:

Currently considering the following items:

(Total price with shipping and tax: around 500$)

Preference is for nVidia card.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

Will only OC/SLI after I can afford to upgrade my mobo/ram/cpu.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

This all started with wanting a new graphics card, to be able to actually play some games. (Hopefully in high-ish resolutions.) New graphics card means stock PSU likely won't cut it at all. Good PSUs would have lots of trouble fitting in to this case, thus a new case. (Also, good graphics cards would have trouble fitting.) Only 1GB RAM, thus more RAM.

I'm hoping to buy parts that will allow me to eventually upgrade my motherboard/RAM/CPU without having to buy anything else. (Barring possibly a non-stock cooler for the CPU.)

I considered full-tower cases, but could find none in the style/quality I desire for the budget I have. I do have the space for a full tower.

I do understand the PSU is probably a good deal of overkill for the immediate upgrades. However, I do wish to get a PSU that will let me upgrade more in the future.

My questions include:

  • Do you think this type of upgrade (Everything but the mobo and CPU) is a decent upgrade path for allowing future upgrades? If not, please do suggest ways I should go about upgrading.
  • Do you see any possible incompatibilities between components I have tentatively selected? (I worry that the motherboard will have some issues with such an upgrade.)
  • Suggestions for changes to my list of components?
  • Suggestions for a first-time builder?
  • Any other suggestions/ideas/criticisms of my upgrade plan are welcome.


Thank you for reading. Thank you to any who take the time to respond.

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Lavarin   06-26-2009 at 09:12:23 AM
- 0 +

Considering you want to do programming, wouldn't you want to budget some money for a secondary monitor? Doesn't have to be the same size as your current one. But I'm sure you can understand the benefits of keeping your tools on one side and the output on the other.

Reply to Lavarin
Bronze Home Brew badge gkay09   06-26-2009 at 09:54:42 AM
- 0 +

Your CPU would bottleneck that graphics card...But still would be fine...
But change the graphics card to this one...
XFX GTS 250...It is the same 9800GTX+ chip but consumes less power and gives out less heat...Hasa 2 free games...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] 6814150365

And some good RAM with heatsinks for about the same price...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] 6820231018

And that psu is still an overkill for even GTS 250 SLI...A good quality 650W is suffice...
Corsair 650TX
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ [...] 6817139005


Message edited by gkay09 on 06-26-2009 at 09:55:43 AM
Reply to gkay09
IH8U   06-26-2009 at 03:58:22 PM
- 0 +

Honestly I'd go with more RAM than 2GB, especially for coding, and as mentioned above, a good quality 650W will be more than sufficent for 2 9800's SLI'ed. Spend some of the savings on better/more RAM.

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145184
$45 Corsair DDR2 800 2x2GB

Reply to IH8U
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