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Upgrade parts for around $350-400?

Here's my dilemma...

I'm mainly an AMD customer and fanboy, but as of late I've been pondering, and planning on buying something from Intel's line, something I can go SLI or Crossfire with in the next few months as I get more money, I want some that can mutli-tasking along with medium gaming, coz I sometimes have a dozen Mozilla windows open while in full screen gaming, and my current dual core is getting kind of sluggish as of late.

I have $350 that's my spending budget, most I can spend on parts is around $400 if I pull some strings, here are a list of parts I already have, but won't need to upgrade, 2Gb's of Kingston HyperX DDR2 800 (If new mobo is DDR2 supported), Two 160GB Sata2's, SIIG Soundwave 4, Nvidia 8400 GS <-- can upgrade later, and last but not least a 650 Watt SLI/Crossfire-Ready PSU.
7 answers Last reply Best Answer
More about upgrade parts
  1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.547587 Combo Price: $224.98
    XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
    ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146740 $42.99 FREE SHIPPING
    Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996585

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808 $144.99 FREE SHIPPING
    AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
  2. I think you busted his budget, Why Me you're at $412

    however, switch the 955 for an Athlon II X3 450 at $79.99, and the same setup is $347.96
  3. Well Sqrl if I'm going to get an AMD processor, I might as well just save my money, and use the one I already got, it's on my profile info if you didn't know, see that's why I didn't mention it.

    Coz I'm trying for something on the Intel side, but yeah I'll take a look at the links, and come back to say what I think of it.
  4. Best answer
    if you wanna do that, get a i5-2500K ($225) and an H67 board ($110), and 4 GB of DDR3-1333 ($40). (total about $375)

    the Intel 3000 built into the 2500K is much better than the 8400, but only works wuth the H-series motherboard. You can't overclock on the H-series, so that part is wasted. But the Intel 2000 on then non-K-series chips stinks.
  5. Well a Phenom II X3 is not the same as an Athlon X2. The Phenom's beat Athlons and a Phenom II beats a Phenom.

    If you have a Microcenter nearby (check their website), you should go with the Phenom II x2 560BE with free MSI 785GM-P45 mobo. I just built two computers with this. One unlocked to an x4 and OC'd to 3.7GHz. The other didn't unlock, but OC'd to 4.0GHz no problem.

    So:
    $99-Phenom II x2 w/mobo
    $50-4GB DDR3 (2x2GB) on Newegg (get the Corsair Vengeance)
    $65-Brand Name 650W PSU (Corsair, Antec, Seasonic to name a few--check guides online & johnnyguru).
    $150-Radeon HD 5850

    Use your old case and DVD burner. Get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 when you can afford it.
  6. If I get a 3rd drive, I'd have to get an external enclosure or else a new case, because the 2 I have now are all that fit in the case, the in case cradle only holds 2 hard drives.

    But I'm good as far as storage goes I only play 8 games, and only half my storage is filled up with software, I don't do video editing or anything, and my 4 pin drives hold all my music and movies.

    But the cpu, ram, psu, and graphics card suggestions I'll follow up on them soon, and let you know what I finally went with, my paycheck comes in 10 days, so not too long now before I buy the parts. :D
  7. Best answer selected by nosferatu_victus.
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