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Need Help with new Gameing Machine

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OK – I admit it, I’m a cheapskate. Four years ago when I was flush I and a friend built what I thought was a good gaming machine around an ASUS P5E3 motherboard and a Yorkfield 2.83 Ghz quad processor (LGA 775). Just recently I had heat problem when the CPU fan (Freezer Pro 7) seized and now have either a motherboard failure or CPU (potentially both). So I’m in the market for a new build. I have about $1,000 to spend so am looking to re-use the case, WD Veloci Raptor drives, Blue Ray and DVD optical drives, GForce GTX 280 Zotac graphics cards, ANTEC power supply, monitor, mouse, keyboard from the existing machine. In essence, I believe I just need an up-to-date motherboard, high-end, CPU and compatible ram (minimum 8 gb). Below is a list of the existing components I plan on re-using and my thinking on mother board and CPU.
My aim with this new set up is as follows is to stay within my $1,000 budget and:
1. Produce an upgradable machine where over the next 3-5 years (my lifespan target for the hardware) I can upgrade components to keep the machine fast enough to continue to run games like Skyrim, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Old Republic and whatever new high-end games may come out. I expect to replace the graphic card with something faster in the near term but not reduce my flexibility with this build by trying to fit a new card (s) within the budget.
2. Usage – heavy gaming, moderate business (Lotus Notes over the net, MS Office Applications - only heavy app would be MS Project with very complex and large plans), internet surfing, moderate music w/ some Netflix video streaming).
3. Running 100 gigabit home network on a higher end FIOS Network….
4. Don’t care a whit about how slow the boot up will be
5. Will be Running Windows 7 Ultimate if that matters.
6. No prejudice on CPU Graphics et.al. – also willing to scrap existing components – budget is the issue
Current Cpu/processor
Intel Core 2 Yorkfield 2.83 GHz LGA Quad-Core Desktop Processor (LGA 775/95w) assume nothing newer useful for going forward if I just replaced the CPU?
Motherboard
ASUS P5E3 Premium w/ WFI (never used) – these are no longer in stock and existing replacements have less capability / compatibility with the existing ram. BTW sound is coming off the motherboard…
Memory
Corsair DDR3 CMX4GX3M2A 1600C9 – 4 2 gb sticks (max the mother board would hold)
Hard Drives
2 Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Case
Antec 900
Power Supply
Antec 1000 Watt True Power Quattro (TPQ 1000) – had to upgrade from a Corsair 750 CPMSU-750-TX
Video Card
ZOTAX GForce GTX 280 - a honker when it first came out now a real BTU generator
Optical Drives
1 LG HD DVD Blue Ray and 1 generic DVD

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Homebuilt system Master

If you can, wait for Ivy bridge, which is coming out soon. Or look for a leftover 1155 system. They're starting to appear used, some only a few months old. Should be able to pick up a bargain.

Have to agree with o1die on the waiting if you can, but if you can not.

$1000 budget, looking at ram, cpu, vid card and mobo... should be easy.

Cpu 2500k maybe 2600k.

Ram 8 gigs is the standard now for new builds. W/e tickles your fancy.

Mobo, people seem to like the asrock gen 3 something a rather, z68 board... so that one. You can't miss it, all over the forums.

Vid card, depends on your resolution of the monitor. 1920 x 1200/1080 anything card around $150 and north should be fine. If you could, i would wait for the 7850 coming from amd, expected retail about $230 with a launch in mid Feb. I heard it is very near the performance of a 6950... though i don't beilieve that yet.

SSD for you mention WoW, it' helps load all those textures a bit faster. Might not give you many more frames per second, but if you raid.. should help with boss fights and lots of glowies on screen. I think a 64gb to store WoW and Star Wars, cost around $100.

Oh, and a cpu cooler wouldn't be bad either, hyper 212+ works great and i know it'll fit in the antec 900. Installed on for a friend on amd 720.


Hummm - well the old system is Hours de Combat as in it doesn't work at all - so if I choose to wait for Sandybridge, I need to potentailly replace the P5E3 motherboard and or the Intel Core 2 Yorkfield 2.83 GHz LGA Quad-Core CPU. I have a freind coming over with a 775 chip so I should know if it's the motherboard shortly - still won't be sure if the CPU is cooked or not, but it got hot enough to turn the paste between the CPU and coooling heat sinc to a fine white powder. I'm assuing it may be juSt the CPU - any ideas on a good 775 cpu replaement other than buying a new Yorkfield 2.83 GHz LGA Quad-Core? My thinking on a replacement was:

Reusing the following:
GPU - ZOTAX GForce GTX 280
Apps / Storage HDs - 2 Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5
PSU – Antec 1000 Watt True Power Quattro (TPQ 1000)
CASE – Antec 900
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Plan on using the following new components
MB ($205) - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
CPU ($230) - i5-2500k
CPU Cooler ($35) - Hyper 212 EVO
MEM ($50) - Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 8GB CL9 1.5v
OS / Boot HD ($180) - Crucial M4 128GB SSD
OPTICAL ($60 after MIR) - ASUS Black 12x BD-RW

Pretty much inline wiht your thiking except for themother board which I'll look up shortly... Being wiht our my system is giving me sweary palms . wihtdrawl symptoms...

Thank hou boht for hyour thoughts...



bozari said:
Have to agree with o1die on the waiting if you can, but if you can not.

$1000 budget, looking at ram, cpu, vid card and mobo... should be easy.

Cpu 2500k maybe 2600k.

Ram 8 gigs is the standard now for new builds. W/e tickles your fancy.

Mobo, people seem to like the asrock gen 3 something a rather, z68 board... so that one. You can't miss it, all over the forums.

Vid card, depends on your resolution of the monitor. 1920 x 1200/1080 anything card around $150 and north should be fine. If you could, i would wait for the 7850 coming from amd, expected retail about $230 with a launch in mid Feb. I heard it is very near the performance of a 6950... though i don't beilieve that yet.

SSD for you mention WoW, it' helps load all those textures a bit faster. Might not give you many more frames per second, but if you raid.. should help with boss fights and lots of glowies on screen. I think a 64gb to store WoW and Star Wars, cost around $100.

Oh, and a cpu cooler wouldn't be bad either, hyper 212+ works great and i know it'll fit in the antec 900. Installed on for a friend on amd 720.

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That looks really good. I personally use asus boards for i've had lil trouble with them. But another alternativ would be the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.as... .

Would save you about 70 on the mobo.

Beyond that, pretty much what i would build. Oh, which version 900 do you have? I have my 1st gen to a friend when i upgraded to the Corsair 650d. :) 

And, that new build will wow you. Really the difference bewteen 775 and 1155 is pretty insane.

bozari,
Thanks for the comments. My ANTEC 900 looks just like the current 900; says DE21GM on the bottom - It's 4 years old so no telling which version - love the 4 fans but even with them all going, the CPU fan failure apparently spelled the end for the setup - otherwise was planning on waiting another year before making a next generation upgrade. Apparently my habit of leaving the machine running all the time is a bad idea. I only rebooted when something locked up and the build and software combo was very stable - only saw the fan failure when doing a reboot last week.

O1die thanks for the tip on the motherboard, but I suspect my problem is a cooked CPU and likely the MB is OK, will know tomorrow when a friend who scraps computers in his work brings me a used 775 chip so I can see if it boots. Heaven forbid if the thing doesn't boot because I still won't know if it's a just bad MB or if it's both.

Now that I am seriously thinking about a rebuild am wondering if I should go for the i7 higher end chip and socket - however it looks like the AMD socket is more long lived.... But when I think about upgrading CPU's I begin to ask myself if I really will do that going forward (i.e. replace an old CPU with a newer one) or just opt for a new everything refresh - by the time I would want to replace a CPU, I'd think that the MB technology would also have advanced a lot and I'd be short changing my setup by slapping an advanced CPU into an old MB - I can see saving money on the case, HD's PSU and even the memory( assuming compatibility), but am thinking if one is going to spring for a new setup, one ought to refresh both the MB and CPU.....
Thanks again both of you for the discussion

bozari said:
That looks really good. I personally use asus boards for i've had lil trouble with them. But another alternativ would be the ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard, https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.as... .

Would save you about 70 on the mobo.

Beyond that, pretty much what i would build. Oh, which version 900 do you have? I have my 1st gen to a friend when i upgraded to the Corsair 650d. :) 

And, that new build will wow you. Really the difference bewteen 775 and 1155 is pretty insane.

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