Long awaited upgrade (System built 8/1)

caligo · Rated R Joined: 20 Jun 2010 Posts: 91 Location: East Coast

Finally getting around to upgrading my 8/9 year old computer. It is a 2GHz P4, so any upgrade will surely show. A friend gave me a sniper case and a CMPSU-400CX power supply as a starting point. Below is what I am considering buying towards the end of next month. Are these parts okay, or could I get more bang for my buck? Not a fan boy, so have no problem with buying amd/ati. Would like to get back into some gaming (monitor limits res to 1280x1024) and use the extra horsepower for folding. Budget limit is $600

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 $140
Core i3-530 $115
Kingston 4GB KVR1333D3K2/4GR $105
WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB $75
~$20 DVD drive
XFX GeForce 9800 GT $87

These put me at $542, which leave some room to buy windows 7.
(*prices from newegg)
----------------------------------------
----------- Updated 8/2 ------------

New System specs:

Core i3-530 w/ Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
MSI P55-GD65
Kingston HyperX 8GB (4x2GB) 1600
Lite-On/MSI Dvd Burners
WD Caviar Black 640GB
BFG GTS 250 1GB

Still have to do a bit of cable management on the system, but over all really enjoying the speed. For those curious, I came way under my budget. After rebates, cash-back, and a little buying and reselling of parts, the total came to $350 and some change (no OS yet - running a trial of windows 7). Even with buying windows 7, the total will be under $400, which will allow for some future upgrades.. or maybe a nice monitor. I also wanted to say thank you for the advice.

Optix · Posted: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:18:30 Post Subject:

Looks like a great build but I a suggestion.

If you don't care about RAID or running a dual video card setup you could save some cash on the motherboard and go with a H55 chipset like I have and put the extra money towards picking up an ATI 5750. You get better performance, lower power requirements and DX11 support.

Folding performance from what I hear leaves a bit to be desired but if it's gaming performance you are after the 5750 is a great card.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:49:38 Post Subject:

Good advice from Optix... Another point on the video card is that the 9800 series is really pretty old and still priced close to more modern cards.

I like the 5750 recommendation, but if you wanted the modern equivalent of a 9800, you could get a GTS 250 for about the same cash...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134095

caligo · Rated R Joined: 20 Jun 2010 Posts: 91 Location: East Coast

Is a 5750 worth the extra $30 over the GTS 250? ($110 vs $80) Some places said the 250 required a 450watt power supply. Would the CMPSU-400CX cut it for either of these?

Most likely not going to setup a RAID or use a dual card setup, but there were two things making me lean towards the P55A was the added memory slots and pci slot locations. I would like to put in another 4 GB at some point and I was planning on using the pci slot for an ethernet card, which is used for a virtual machine. These are two things that make me lean away from the H55. Since most of the video cards I have been looking at take two slots, I didn't want to restrict airflow by putting a network card right up against the video card.

Thank you for the advice, I do appreciate it.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:31:01 Post Subject:

The GTS 250 should draw less power than a 9800 GT... That 400W PSU may be cutting it close on most systems, but unless you really cut the graphics card quality down super low, I don't know if you will gain much breathing room with any semi-modern, decent card.

Optix · Posted: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:07:15 Post Subject:

Good call on the slot location and it really will all come down to what works for you. Sometimes price tag just goes out the window because you need something that is practical.

The 5750 cards are about as close to single slot cards as you can get. All but one of the Asus cards are single slot. You just need to check around with the various manufacturers but for the most part you will lost some real estate on a mATX board.

You could always go for a lower end, entry P55 board unless you're really stuck on USB3/SATA 6.0Gb/s, which is the main selling feature of the P55A in my opinion.

oasis789 · Rated PG Joined: 21 Jun 2010 Posts: 14

You might want to budget in some non-stock cooling, esp. if you intend to overclock (and why wouldn't you!). Something for the CPU and maybe something for the GPU

x.clay · Posted: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:18:09 Post Subject:

here is my Two Cents

Overall you have a pretty solid setup. Your current monitor resolution isn't that high so you won't need a really high end card to have a good gaming experience. The GTS 250 recommends a 450w with 24 amps on the 12v rail. Your power supply has 30 amps on the 12v rail so you should be good. If you want to fold I would stick with an Nvidia card like the GTS 250. The HD 5750 is very similar to the GTS 250 in performance and price. This card will give you the ability to play around with DX 11 in upcoming games but probably doesn't have the power to push heavy DX-11 features so it is really a trade off and I think either would be a good option. If you want to fold go with the GTS 250. If you want to play around with a little more eye candy in games I would look at the 5750.

Do you plan to eventually upgrade your monitor or are you planning to stick with what you have for a while? If you are going to upgrade you may want to try to save for a slightly better video card.

Since you are on a tight budget I would not worry about aftermarket heatsinks for your CPU and GPU. Heatsinks will cost you $25-$50+ for each and I think you would do better investing that money in your hardware. You can always pick up heatsinks in the future if you want to play around with overclocking.

Optix · Posted: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:09:19 Post Subject:

I would also shop around. $75 for a 640GB Caviar Black sounds suspect unless it's the retail version and not OEM.

You could likely go OEM and then buy a SATA cable for less and have the same thing.

caligo · Rated R Joined: 20 Jun 2010 Posts: 91 Location: East Coast

After doing a bit of research, I ended up going with Jason's suggestion for the GTS 250. The lower power requirement, lower noise level, and slightly more fps were all major pluses. I also came across a last minute deal and got a factory sealed BFG GTS 250 OC for under $60 and I couldn't pass it up. Even new 9800s from a decent brand were a bit more. Hopefully BFG will come back around to doing video cards again in a year or so.

Still looking at different motherboards trying to decide which will meet my needs. The USB3/SATA 6.0Gb/s are nice features, but not required.

Sadly, I think I will stay with the monitor for a while. It died on me at the begining of the year, but after opening it there seemed that some of the capacitors barely cracked open. After a replacing all them, it was working just like new. Replacing the monitor right now would cut into the budget for other parts, which would really limit the remaining budget. I can put up with the lower resolution for now.

The cpu will definitely get an after market cooler. Just haven't picked one out.

Almost everyone seems to have the 640GB Caviar Black for around 75, but I did find it for 57 shipped (oem).

Once again thanks for the input.