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Upgrade parts for around $350-400?

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January 18, 2011 6:56:33 PM

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.

More about : upgrade parts 350 400

January 18, 2011 10:03:48 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... 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=N82E168... $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=N82E168... $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
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January 18, 2011 10:23:22 PM

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
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January 19, 2011 3:32:14 AM

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.
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Best solution

January 19, 2011 4:53:52 AM

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.
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January 19, 2011 5:47:59 AM

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.
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January 19, 2011 1:42:20 PM

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 
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January 19, 2011 9:58:39 PM

Best answer selected by nosferatu_victus.
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