View Single Post - X-Mas Upgrade Questions

acruxksa · Rated XXX

Any QUALITY 500w psu will be able to run an 8800gts and c2d (or AMD X2 for that matter). If you are going to go quad you might want to think about moving up to a good 600w+ psu, but I've read of people running quad core cpu's and 8800gts's on 500w psu's without any trouble. I personally have run an OC'd quad with two radeon x1950pro's in crossfire on a 600w psu without any issues. the x1950p crossfire draws a lot more juice than an 8800gts so that should give you an idea of what you would actually need.

There are several 500w+ psu's that will work fine with your system, but as with many things, not all psu's are created equal so you need to do some research.

I also agree that you would be paying a premium for a 24" lcd and could get a nice 22" lcd for nearly half the price. I recently upgraded from a 20" wide screen lcd to a 22" wide screen lcd and can tell you that there is quite a bit of difference in size. I had to move my monitor back about 6" because it felt too close. Since you have set a budget, this is an area where you need to lower your expectations, 22" instead of 24" will give you a lot of extra cash for the other upgrades.

My recommendations:
your current psu (upgrade at a later date)
Mobo - asus p5k or abit ip35 (or their cheaper variants p5k-se and ip35-e) ($115 - $135)
Memory - are you overclocking? $105 - $180 depending.
cpu - e6750 ($200)
video - evga 8800gts ($375)
video - 22" lcd ($300) (possibly upgrade at a later date when 24" prices drop)

These are current prices and should come down a bit over the next couple months, so by X-Mas you would hopefully be under your budget. Especially considering the up coming release of intel's x38 chipset and the possible release of some wolfdale (penryn) cpu's around Christmas.
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