Hi guys, appreciate your help on this! I've been putting together my own computers for a while but my current one is about 5 years old and only barely runs modern games. Looking to upgrade on the cheap, but I don't want to be unrealistic about what I'm getting (or compromise so much it's not worth it.
Approximate Purchase Date: next 2-4 weeks
Budget Range: $200-$400, around there
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, encoding media, running linux VMs for random development
Are you buying a monitor: No, have a 24" Dell IPS that I'm happy with - 1980x1200
Parts to Upgrade: CPU, mobo, RAM, Video card, thinking about adding SSD, keeping PSU & HDDs
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com
Location: Bay Area
Overclocking: if it's easy (I'm lazy & busy now)
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200
Games I want to play: Diablo 3, WoW, maybe some other current-gen MMOs or FPSs. Only spend about 2-3 hours / wk gaming; would love to play more but busy w/work & family.
** Current Parts I'm keeping **:
Case: have mid-tower case, I like it fine
HDDs: 2x 1TB Western Digital Caviar Green (one WDC WD10EADS-00M2B0 and one WDC WD10EACS-00D6B0 )
Side note looks like searching for the first one has some failure complaints - should I replace it? Both of them?
PSU: Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Keyboard/Mouse: Old school IBM keyboard, Model M. Need a PS/2 connector in mobo. Some decent mouse, works fine.
** Current Parts I'm looking at buying **:
This is based on the recent $500 gaming super-budget build
PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Celeron G530 2.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.90 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Pareema 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($21.89 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($139.98 @ NCIX US)
Total: $325.75
Thanks very much!!
Approximate Purchase Date: next 2-4 weeks
Budget Range: $200-$400, around there
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, encoding media, running linux VMs for random development
Are you buying a monitor: No, have a 24" Dell IPS that I'm happy with - 1980x1200
Parts to Upgrade: CPU, mobo, RAM, Video card, thinking about adding SSD, keeping PSU & HDDs
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com
Location: Bay Area
Overclocking: if it's easy (I'm lazy & busy now)
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200
Games I want to play: Diablo 3, WoW, maybe some other current-gen MMOs or FPSs. Only spend about 2-3 hours / wk gaming; would love to play more but busy w/work & family.
** Current Parts I'm keeping **:
Case: have mid-tower case, I like it fine
HDDs: 2x 1TB Western Digital Caviar Green (one WDC WD10EADS-00M2B0 and one WDC WD10EACS-00D6B0 )
Side note looks like searching for the first one has some failure complaints - should I replace it? Both of them?
PSU: Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Keyboard/Mouse: Old school IBM keyboard, Model M. Need a PS/2 connector in mobo. Some decent mouse, works fine.
** Current Parts I'm looking at buying **:
This is based on the recent $500 gaming super-budget build
PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel Celeron G530 2.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.90 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Pareema 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($21.89 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($139.98 @ NCIX US)
Total: $325.75
Thanks very much!!