Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > $1000 System Upgrade Gaming/Animation/Modeling

$1000 System Upgrade Gaming/Animation/Modeling

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - $1000 System Upgrade Gaming/Animation/Modeling

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!

Ask the community Add a reply

Bottom Search this thread

Hi, I am planning on upgrading my system so that I can play better games and so that I can use it for some animation and modeling classes that are going to be coming up in the next year or so. Here is the list of parts tht I am planning on buying right now:

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7" Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371015

79.99

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115130

319.99

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128358

134.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail (two sets of these)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231166

119.98

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129043

169.99

Total With Tax:

895(give or take)

I also already have a 160 GB Hard drive with my OS (Vista 32 bit,upgrading to Windows 7 64 when it comes out) And a 1.5 Terabyte hard drive and a 22" LCD Moniter so those parts are taken care of.

What I am wondering is are these good parts and will they let me do what I am wanting? I am open to suggestions but I want to keep the price around 1000 bucks if I can, beauty of living on Fin Aid. XD
I don't want to fork out all this money if any of these have a good chance of c@$*ing out on me in a year and a half. If you guys have any ideas on what would be better then please post them. I need all the advice I can get since this is my first upgrade of this size.

Thank you for your time.

Add a reply

You might want to get a video card.

That is a really good case but you could save some money and get this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042
(unless you picked that case out because you like how it looks, then that's all your personal preference )

I would only recommend one of those sets of RAM. You don't need 8 gigs...

That seems like too much to pay for a CPU and not get an i7 to me. Here's a combo that I think would work well for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.237639

Reply to FallenSniper

^beat me t it. And yes, OP you need a GPU.

1. LGA775 is dead.

2. Wait till year end (September/November is release date?) for Core i5. You can get 2-2.5x more performance (esp. if OCing) for the same money.

3. Wait for release of ATI 5xxx cards.

4. As far as quality goes, the ones you chose are high quality.

------------
If you want to build now:
i7 920

ASUS P6T (any, SE,WS,etc)

Antec EA650 or Corsair 550VX assuming only single GPU.

3*2GB DDR3 1600

4850

HAF 932 (cheaper than 1200 and ~ the same) (Note: the 1200 has free shipping so figure out the difference to see if it's actually cheaper to go HAF)

Total, ~900-950.

Message edited by Shadow703793 on 08-30-2009 at 09:30:02 PM

------------------------------

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2617/3815217176_0a5be7955d_o.gif

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3553/3818083596_1a772f7162_o.gif

Reply to Shadow703793

*facepalm* I can't believe I forgot the GPU. >_< I have an Nvidia 9800 GT 1GB. As for the case, I don't really care how it looks, I just want it to be decent quality. The reason I chose the case was for the size, I wanted to have as much chance for future upgrades as I can. The reason I chose the Q9560 was because it was 3.0GHz, IDK if the speed is that big a difference or not. As far as I know a 3.0GHz is faster and better than a 2.6Ghz, Though I could be wrong. As for time frame, I don't NEED it for another year or so, but I want to get it before Dragon Age comes out. I need the RAM because I am going to be doing a lot of photoshop, Maya, 3DS Max etc. Thank you for the quick responses.

Reply to saphirekosmos

Nope, you just compared across architectures, the i7 gets far more instructions done per clock due to the architecture and hyper threading giving it 8 logical cores, you can also easily OC it and blow the 9650 away for less money.

I would suggest this

920/antec 1200 $425
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.233336

6GB Mushkin RAM $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820226036

P6T $250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131359

750TX $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] &Tpk=750tx

Comes out to 925 assuming you continue using your 9800GT and hard drive.

Reply to hunter315

^Agreed. +1.

------------------------------

Reply to Shadow703793

Ask the community Add a reply

Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > $1000 System Upgrade Gaming/Animation/Modeling

Go to:

Help |
Forum rules

There are 1313 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Page generated in 0.393 seconds

Focus On

$1000 System Upgrade Gaming/Animation/Modeling

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - $1000 System Upgrade Gaming/Animation/Modeling