[Solved] Did I do good on Core2Duo deal?

Ok a frequent topic on Toms is an upgrade worth it (performance vs. price)
So I was wondering how I did on this deal.
First I bought a Dell Optiplex 745 with these specs for $75 USD
plus the seller gave me a complete P4 system which I sold for $50 USD
Specs
Pentium D 945 3.4ghz
80gb Sata II
CD-RW sata
2gb PC2-4200 533mhz
onboard sound
onboard video

So then I bought a HP P4 3.4 tower for $145 USD
and the seller threw in a Liteon DVD-rw 16x sata plus
a C2D E4300 1.8ghz

So I swapped the 80gb for the Seagate 250gb sata II included with HP P4 tower.
put in the sata DVD-rw and the C2D E4300 in the Optiplex 745.
Then I sold the HP P4 to my sister in law for $130 for her ten year olds to use.
So i got the Liteon DVD-rw,E4300 and 250gb for $15

I then bought a Sapphire 1gb HD4650 for $45 shipped
Then I bought a Asus Xonar DG for $35 shipped both from Newegg.

So now I have a Optiplex 745 with these specs
Core2Duo E4300 which I BSEL pinmodded from 1.8ghz/800mhz FSB to 2.4ghz/1066mhz FSB
2gb PC2-4200
250gb Seagate Barracuda Sata
Lite-on DVD-rw 16x sata
Sapphire HD4650
Asus Xonar DG
total cost is $120 USD

My usage is office computer (MS Office),multimedia with two displays,encoding/ripping/burning dvds,recording guitar,vocals,keyboards
casual gaming (bioshock 2,left 4 dead 2,crysys warhead lower settings ok),photoshop cs,recording netflix/xfinity broadcasts and
it does all of this to my satisfaction.

The last upgrade I want to do is get 2 x 2gb PC2-6400 DDR2 800mhz ram hopefully
no more than $70

Even going with a AMD build cheap as possible I dont think I could get anywhere as cheap.
I have the money to buy a better system but I am a CHEAPSKATE and rather save it for vacation fund for family.


So the question is
was the $120 wisesly spent
Was there a better way I could of spent the money?
Remember my old system (dual Xeon P4 3.2) was not reusable for new build.

BTW that is a killer rig you have under your configuration.
Nice choices in parts.
Something like that really overkill for what I do with my computer.
Plus my Wife would KILL me if I bought a system like that.
We are saving up for a house plus family vacation so
Dad's computer budget was low priority
And the funny thing is I work repairing/selling computers for a living
The good thing is in the the next year or two I will be ready for a real build
and by then SandyBridge and Bulldozer will be in full force.

Thank you
Yea the BSEL mod was scary but the chip basically cost me nothing.
Also I have the PentD 3.4 as backup.
I have it running about 3 months now almost 24/7 with no BSODs or glitches
and in a 20c room it idles at 33-34c and loads at about 56-57c after an hour with Prime95.
I was thinking of getting a E4700 and BSEL modding that from 2.66 to 3.5
but that might be pushing it LOL
The sound card was necessary since I record guitar,keyboard and vocals of my nine year old daughters so having the extra line inputs is nice (between onboard and card I have 3 selectable mic/line ins with one of them being 24bit/96khz)
plus it has a headphone amp
It is weird the onboard and sound card both work.
I can select between the both of them from windows.
On my old computer once I installed the sound card it disabled the onboard.
Im not complaining though.
I am old old school and like having a sound card.
Goes back to the old days

This is a cheap temporary solution until I can save up
and probably do a brand new reasonable budget AMD setup in a year or two.

I like the HD 5750 but it draws up to 86watts and that would be probably pushing my
poor Dell 280w supply a little too hard.
I figured on going with a HD 5670.
Best balance between power draw and performance seems to be that card.
I like that it doesnt require a power connector.
So it is limited to 75w draw.
I mostly do office work and mulitmedia with gaming being very light.

If I got a E4600 I could BSEL mod that (my only option for overclocking)
to about 3.2ghz.
I am going to keep my eye out on used parts forums for an E4600
If I can get one cheap enough I will go for it.

Yeah, because that 4200 IGP is really going to drive that 1080 screen. The OP also doesn't have or didn't spend $500. Try about 25% of that number.

bought a viewsonic vx2260wm 22 inch 1080p hdmi/dvi/vga speakers headphone jack 1920x1080 with dvi cable included for 90 bucks on craigslist about a year ago

not a single dead pixel and 2ms response time

Thats actually a pretty nice monitor. I was going to suggest the 21" (?) they have at walmart for around $200 out the door. Not as large as that 23 that diggle suggested, but its still 1080.

I've been burned by CL posts before, so now I stick to the used forums found on various sites. I picked up my current x38 board for $70 shipped. When they first launched I grabbed a 5750 for $100. My used E6600 that I got for $75 probably 3? years ago is still going strong. You can look on those forums and find all kinds of good stuff for $50-$75.

If a person doesnt mind being a generation or two behind bleeding edge technology then there can be some awesome deals out there.
We are at a point now computer tech wise that the technology has gotten farther ahead then what most people need.
Very few people besides serious power users ever utilize all the power of
a maxed out I7 system.
Even advanced users for the most part do not need more than a fast dual core or older quad core for most applications out there.

Yea I am in a "urban lower income residential zone" myself

I hope I can get away with writing this, I'm sorry if I offend.

My pen!$ is large enough, so I don't need to have the highest benchmarks to make me feel better about myself. While its mostly true that we have reached the point where we don't need an i7, there are more and more games coming out that will need bigger and better hardware. My E6600 is fine for me, but I only play source games. My E6600 and 5750 will choke if I try to play Crysis, Metro 2033, GTA4, etc. These games need fast quad cores with beefy video cards, and I have neither. But thats ok with me, as I have no desire to play any of those games with the exception of GTA4. But I'm in no hurry for that as TF2 and L4D2 are keeping me busy.

Hey Dadiggle did you change your system?
That system looks different
Didnt you have a Phenom x 4 965?

I more or less agree with you again King. I don't use 8xAA. Its pointless in my opinion. 2AA or 4AA is fine. Why run 8AA at 1920x1080? You are already at such a high res that jaggies are almost gone. Why run 8AA? I mostly play FPS however so its hard to look for jaggies if you're busy running around shooting rockets at people. As long as I have details on and it looks good, I'm a happy guy.

Alot of your posts lately have been negative on sound cards...
I am retro
I still like analog to computer surround sound system
and I record instruments and vocals.
I like the last freeware version of Reaper Recording Studio
It is fun mixing audio.

I do agree with you alot on those points.
With me doing recording I like having three inputs to select from.
I can keep my guitar,keyboard and mic all hooked up at the same time
which is easier for putting down tracks.
I also think taking the some load off of cpu is a good thing
though not important as it was years ago.
Plus I just like playing with the better audio/effects controls

Definitley a dig input would be better
but working with 1/8 inputs is alot cheaper and easier
This is just playing amatuer recording of a nine year old girl wanna be
popstar
She is in choir,dance and taking guitar lessons so there is alot of video footage and sound
recording.
Later on when she is older I want to use part of the basement and build a small recording booth ( I was a Heating and AC guy by trade years ago and handy with
tools)
I actually like to make Industrial Techno Trance music myself for fun
Did a whole mix using different automated phone operator voices
with kind of a Gothic Techno sound.
Dont think anybody would enjoy but me but it was alot of fun doing LOL

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey