Upgrade or new system?

hatpin7 · Rated PG-13 Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 26 Location: canada

Ok its winter and i want a nice little something for myself so i have decided to upgrade almost everything on my current pc, or do a totally new build.

Here is what i have now:

Amd athlon 64 3000+ 1.8ghz overcooked to 2.6 ghz.
ASUS A8N SLI DLEX motherboard.
1 GB corsair xms DRR400 Ram
120GB Maxtor hard drive.
XFX 6800 xt 256 MB *X2 in sli*
600 watt x-finite psu
Extreme sound 5.1 sound card.
Corsair nautilus 500 water cooling unit.

I will be keeping the following Components:

Motherboard
Power supply
Water cooling unit
My cd-rom and dvd-rom
And fan controller.

so i was looking at getting this:

Ram: Ocz EL dual channel 2gb of ram. $170.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1487205&CatId=1352

Case: Thermal take soprano rs101 Black case. $73.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3180430&CatId=32

Hard drives: WD Raptor 74gb HDD. $195.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2368632&CatId=139

* Seagate Baracuda 500 mb 16mb HDD. $119.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2273393&CatId=139

CPU: Amd 64 x2 4200+ 2.2 GHZ. $85.99
(Want to get the best out of my skt 939 while i have it.
This will be overclocked to at least 3.0 GHZ)

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3273995

GPU: XFX 8800 GTS XT 640 MB. $379.99
(Will get another once price drops)

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3296600&Sku=P450-8054

That comes to around $1000 Dollars before shipping.

I want the computer to handle crysis on high settings with at least 35 fps , not all the bells and whistles .
It will be used for alot of storage, hence the half t-Byte of space, the raptor will only have windows and most games and applications on it. I want this to last me for about 2 years till a future re-build.

And suggestions or ideas? thanks.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:21:23 Post Subject:

Hmmm... I think that you could build a more powerful system, for about the same money, if you started mostly from scratch.

Even if you went AMD again, you could get 2GB of DDR2 for well under $100, a new board for about the same, and a super high end AM2 CPU for over $200.

I'd bail on AMD though, and get a good P35 or X38 board and a dual or quad core Intel chip.

Other components would fall into place about the same, and maybe you could keep your PSU...

BeerCheeze · Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:18:38 Post Subject:

I agree with Doc... Ditch Skt 939 and go either AM2 or Intel (but you'll spend more on the Intel setup but not by much).

**Modulok** · Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:30:27 Post Subject:

if you want cheap you could get some more life outta your system with an upgrade to dual core, 2gb ddr, and one new video card. if you look for used opteron 175-185 (approx $85-$150) (my opty 185 is just as fast as my e6600) and 2gb ddr (approx $85-$150), and a new dx10 video card ($250-$600) that would last until the AMD quads are around for awhile. (and the video card most likely can be used at the next upgrade (SLI for example). So doing that you would be around $420 to $900 (if you get an insane video card).

hatpin7 · Rated PG-13 Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 26 Location: canada

The main thing for this upgrade is the hard drives..

so how bout this:

Case: Thermal take soprano rs101 Black case. $73.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3180430&CatId=32

Hard drives: WD Raptor 74gb HDD. $195.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2368632&CatId=139|

* Seagate Baracuda 500 mb 16mb HDD. $119.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2273393&CatId=139

That comes to around $1050 not bad.

i could even throw another 2 gb or ram into it.

GPU: XFX 8800 GTS XT 640 MB. $379.99
(Will get another once price drops)

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3296600&Sku=P450-8054

Mobo: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2907957&sku=A455-2340

CPU: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2912698
This will overclock well hopefully to about 3.2 ghz.

Ram: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2206874&CatId=2368

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Maybe save the $100 and get the 800GT over the 640MB.

Yes the 640 has better benchmarks, but not sure the increase is worth the extra $$. Put that $100 towards a complete rebuild (new MB/CPU).

hatpin7 · Rated PG-13 Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 26 Location: canada

Ok so the gt does look alot better for the money.

i will be getting 2 in the long run so 1 is ok for now.

so:

Case: Thermal take soprano rs101 Black case. $73.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3180430&CatId=32

Hard drives: WD Raptor 74gb HDD. $195.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2368632&CatId=139|

* Seagate Baracuda 500 mb 16mb HDD. $119.99

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2273393&CatId=139

CPU & MOBO Combo:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3044547&CatId=2621

GPU: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3441351&CatId=1826

or the new gts when it comes out.

And the DDR2 Ram for around $100

thats a little over 1100

There are 150gb raptors for 150 on ebay new, so i might do that instead of the 74 gb, and ill hold off on the other 500 for a while, and up the cpu and ram.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:10:52 Post Subject:

I'm not a big fan of Raptors. You can get some bigger Seagate drives with 3Gbps and a 5-year warranty for less.

**Modulok** · Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:14:43 Post Subject:

I gotta agree with Doc with the Raptors. I have 3x36gb in raid-0...they are faster in seeking, but burst speed is still slower, and you have the noise. 3k more RPM IS noticeably different. Plus they are pretty expensive.

hatpin7 · Rated PG-13 Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 26 Location: canada

what hard drives would you guys recomend?

I realy want the hard drives to be top notch. i want very little loading times as possible. but still keeping the budget low.