Hey everyone, I won't be buying anything else until next year but just wanted to see if anyone had some knowledge to share or opinions.
Parts are arriving soon, this will be my first build from the ground up. I have replaced everything before except the motherboard and the hard drive. Any advice is welcome for how to build, I have read a few tutorials and plan to use the ones posted on this website.
Short history: I bought this computer about 4 years ago from a local computer shop and they built it as a budget gaming machine. I had some input on the parts and they did the assembly. 2 years ago I decided I could do "stage" upgrades each year and incrementally have a "newer" machine each year. My goal is each year to spend about ~200 bucks on upgrades.
So, I upgraded the power supply two years ago to either a 750 or 900w I am not home right now so the details are lacking there.
Last year I bought the current cpu, heat sink, and some fans for my ram (they were on sale and I am considering oc'ing stuff). This year are the big upgrades, I am changing out the mobo and adding a ssd hard drive, and a "new" gpu.
Details:
Current setup:
750-900W power supply (will update this later)
mobo being replaced -Asus M3N78VM specifications
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDX925WFK4DGM - OEM
Heatsink - ZALMAN CNPS9900MAX-B 135mm Long life bearing CPU Cooler Blue LED
RAM fan - Kingston HyperX KHX-FAN-B Fans
RAM being replaced - 2 x 2 gb sticks of ram ddr2
HDD being replaced but possibly a slave? - Western Digital 500GB 5400RPM 16MB CACHE SATA/300 (best guess, the rpm might be different, but not 7200)
DVD/CD that is good enough for me, can't remember its specs. My needs on this are met as long as it works, lol.
Network card bought it for fun to see if it was better than my mobo connection - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Network Adapter
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB DDR3 256-bit 600 MHz PCI-E 2.0 SLI DirectX 10 Video Card (unsure of manufacture, can update later)
Ok, out with the old and in with the new.
Upcoming build:
I am replacing the mobo and ram, adding a ssd, and a new gpu
New mobo - GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
New RAM - (got it for buying the mobo from newegg) - G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR
New SSD - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
New GPU - EVGA 01G-P3-N988-TR GeForce 9800 GT HDMI 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
I need any advice on whether I can tie the new gpu with the old gpu. I was not sure if having a 1GB would make a difference from the 512mb original, but that original card is old and I have already taken it apart to grease the bearings last year.
I am planning to use my old 500 gb hard drive as extra storage since I have a lot of games...any tips on how to do this? I have found some articles already but if you feel like answering then I will definitely read what you have to say.
Any thoughts on this build? Next year I am buying a new gpu, so it will probably be whatever is popular right now. What would you buy if money were no issue and it would work with this set up. Is the 2.0 pci slot a limiting factor on my mobo?
How would you plan to incrementally upgrade this build, or would you abandon ship and save for 2-3 years and buy all brand new? Feel free to give rough criticism if it is constructive, I tend to buy based on newegg sales with minimal research to just check if the parts are compatible.
--
Jason
"I'm glad I did it, partly because it was worth it, but mostly because I shall never have to do it again." -- Mark Twain
Parts are arriving soon, this will be my first build from the ground up. I have replaced everything before except the motherboard and the hard drive. Any advice is welcome for how to build, I have read a few tutorials and plan to use the ones posted on this website.
Short history: I bought this computer about 4 years ago from a local computer shop and they built it as a budget gaming machine. I had some input on the parts and they did the assembly. 2 years ago I decided I could do "stage" upgrades each year and incrementally have a "newer" machine each year. My goal is each year to spend about ~200 bucks on upgrades.
So, I upgraded the power supply two years ago to either a 750 or 900w I am not home right now so the details are lacking there.
Last year I bought the current cpu, heat sink, and some fans for my ram (they were on sale and I am considering oc'ing stuff). This year are the big upgrades, I am changing out the mobo and adding a ssd hard drive, and a "new" gpu.
Details:
Current setup:
750-900W power supply (will update this later)
mobo being replaced -Asus M3N78VM specifications
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDX925WFK4DGM - OEM
Heatsink - ZALMAN CNPS9900MAX-B 135mm Long life bearing CPU Cooler Blue LED
RAM fan - Kingston HyperX KHX-FAN-B Fans
RAM being replaced - 2 x 2 gb sticks of ram ddr2
HDD being replaced but possibly a slave? - Western Digital 500GB 5400RPM 16MB CACHE SATA/300 (best guess, the rpm might be different, but not 7200)
DVD/CD that is good enough for me, can't remember its specs. My needs on this are met as long as it works, lol.
Network card bought it for fun to see if it was better than my mobo connection - Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Network Adapter
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB DDR3 256-bit 600 MHz PCI-E 2.0 SLI DirectX 10 Video Card (unsure of manufacture, can update later)
Ok, out with the old and in with the new.
Upcoming build:
I am replacing the mobo and ram, adding a ssd, and a new gpu
New mobo - GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
New RAM - (got it for buying the mobo from newegg) - G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR
New SSD - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
New GPU - EVGA 01G-P3-N988-TR GeForce 9800 GT HDMI 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
I need any advice on whether I can tie the new gpu with the old gpu. I was not sure if having a 1GB would make a difference from the 512mb original, but that original card is old and I have already taken it apart to grease the bearings last year.
I am planning to use my old 500 gb hard drive as extra storage since I have a lot of games...any tips on how to do this? I have found some articles already but if you feel like answering then I will definitely read what you have to say.
Any thoughts on this build? Next year I am buying a new gpu, so it will probably be whatever is popular right now. What would you buy if money were no issue and it would work with this set up. Is the 2.0 pci slot a limiting factor on my mobo?
How would you plan to incrementally upgrade this build, or would you abandon ship and save for 2-3 years and buy all brand new? Feel free to give rough criticism if it is constructive, I tend to buy based on newegg sales with minimal research to just check if the parts are compatible.
--
Jason
"I'm glad I did it, partly because it was worth it, but mostly because I shall never have to do it again." -- Mark Twain