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First off, I know there's many blogs/threads related to this, but everyone's situation is different, including mine.
I've owned my current desktop computer for about two years but want to give it a bit of an overhaul. I built the last one myself buying the parts individually on NewEgg. The total with case, 500GB SATA HD, and a couple other necessary parts came to $430. I'm shooting for an upgrade budget somewhere around that range and will be keeping any parts not mentioned below (HD, DVD-RW, etc that I'll just install in the new PC).
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My current PC (parts I'm considering upgrading):
OS: 32-bit Windows XP Pro
CPU: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2100 MHz (10.5 x 200) 4000+
Mobo Asus M2A-VM (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN)
RAM 3 GB DDR2 G-Skill RAM (1x 2GB, 1x 1 GB)
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (256 MB)
Power Supply Rosewill 400W
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Typical computer usage:
I don't play many modern games on my PC. I play a bunch of emulator games (latest being PS1 and N64 games) though. I don't do anything crazy with audio/visual production outside of occasionally doing minor edits to videos, pictures, and music. I generally just surf the net, watch videos, listen to music, do school-related work,and other casual stuff on my PC.
What I'm thinking of changing:
I'd like to use my university's MSNDAA to get the Windows 7 Pro for free.
I don't know how much of a difference a change in processor will make. My computer works smoothly for the most part, and I maintain it regularly, just it often takes a few seconds for programs like iTunes, Firefox, and a few games like Audiosurf to open (or become usable at least). But I'm considering either going for an AMD Phenom, or switching to a mid-upper level Intel CPU. Within the same specs, AMD is roughly 30-45% cheaper than the equivalent Intel. But according to the benchmarks, Intel outperforms AMD in many categories. I don't know how realistic or applicable those benchmarks are for what I do though.
My motherboard has a couple issues that have creeped up which I've simply been working around rather than replacing. I want a mobo that supports up to at least 8 GB of RAM and I'm not really picky otherwise.
After getting 64-bit Windows 7, I'm thinking of putting in at least 4 GB of RAM. I can just get another of the G-Skill 2 GB one I have for that price.
Video cards... I don't know enough. I look up a bunch of stuff here for comparisons:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php
But don't know what I really require for my needs. I want something a little better than my current one at least. But I don't need two video cards and best of the market or anything.
I imagine with these upgrades, I'm going to want a more powerful power supply. 600-650W should be fine I imagine?
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Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Also, a couple questions regarding VMWare... say I want to run Ubuntu through VMWare sometimes for getting myself acquainted with using Linux, fooling around, etc - does VMWare basically work by running the guest OS using the hardware information from the host OS (which will be Windows 7 Pro)? Or to be more specific: will I run into driver or software issues with VMWare? Finally, after powering down a VMWare session, does it kill anything "stored" during the session? Like if I download a few linux apps, will I have to download them everytime I run a VMWare instance?
Thanks for your time!
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Get an ATI 5770 or 4870. Both should run you ~$150 and will comfortably play starcraft 2 when it comes out.
If you prefer Nvidia, go for a GTX 260 if you can find a cheap one, it should give about the same level of performance depending on the game as the ati cards above.
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5770/4870 yea
Athlon II x4 620 / phe II 955 x4 / i5 depending of your budget.
Take a Corsair PSU 520/550 should be enough.
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based on your budget, if you want quality, go for core i5 and ATI 5850, sadly there is a shortage of video cards from ATI, at least here, you have to wait even 2 months to get 5850
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On December 12 2009 03:22 stormtemplar wrote:
Well in terms of graphics the 9800 GTX won't let you down and costs about 150-170 dollars at best buy.
Can people stop to give terrible advices ?
The 4870 / 5770 are way better choices.
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I would second the i5 / ati 4870 set-up. Unfortunately for AMD, they no longer have a price advantage over the i5, which is a better processor.
If you can wait a few more months, intel should have more i-core processors out, and the i7 may come down in price once i9 is released. But that's just speculation :-)
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Seconding the i5, great processor at a reasonable price. I'd definitely go for the 5770 over the 4870 and 4890 though because of price and thermal/power characteristics. As for your power supply, if you have a GOOD, and I emphasize GOOD, power supply in the 500 watt range that should be more than enough unless you plan on xfire, overclocking, or running 10 hard drives in RAID5 or any such shenanigans.
Power draw for an i7 965 + 5770: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/10/13/amd-ati-radeon-hd-5770-review/10
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United States3824 Posts
My school gets MSNDAA but they hate Microsoft so much they won't give us access codes for it.
"Wouldn't you rather have Arch Linux?"
Lolz
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get a radeon 5970 and laugh at everyone with nvidia cards. Seriously, that card owns your face. It also costs 600 bucks, but its totally worth it. It's got display port, hdmi, dvi, vga outputs, can run any game ever made and some more in the future, and is so huge itll take up half your case, what more could you want?
In all seriousness though, the 5770 owns as well. The i5 is NOT worth it. It is the best mid-range cpu available at the time, however, the socket is completely unique and will likely never be upgradeable, they fucked around with the architecture, yet again. Better to get an i7 board and the cheapo i7 proc, wait for the i9 and then BAM, get on that hexacore train, because that will run on the same socket as the i7. It's really not that much more money (maybe 150$ more), and if you ever decide to upgrade again you don't have to redo your entire system. If you go the intel route get at least 6gbs of ram (ddr3 is mega cheap right now on newegg), if you stick with amd and get a phenom x4 (recommended if you don't intend to upgrade in the future) either get another 2gig stick OR get 2 sets of 2gig for 4gig overall. It's less overall ram, but the latency is much better, and it will run faster over all.
In all honesty though, unless you have a drastic reason to upgrade NOW, just wait for more money and do a complete rebuild. Put windows 7 on your computer, it will help a lot, and then just hold out for all kinds of goodies, like hexacore procs and 6-head video cards, plus everything else will get a LOT cheaper when the badass stuff arrives if you don't want to go the awesome route.
wow, that was long.
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So you are betting on the fact that your old mobo will be able to support something 2 years down the roadmap? lol okay
Seriously, screw all future proofing bullshits. Just get the best bang for buck for what you need NOW and upgrade again when you need to.
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First order of business.
On December 12 2009 02:51 Boblion wrote:
5770/4870 yea
Athlon II x4 620 / phe II 955 x4 / i5 depending of your budget.
Take a Corsair PSU 520/550 should be enough.
Do this. Keep your mobo and stick a phenom II in it (make sure your mobo supports it). i5/i7 is probably out of your budget at this level.
On December 12 2009 02:36 EscPlan9 wrote:
Also, a couple questions regarding VMWare... say I want to run Ubuntu through VMWare sometimes for getting myself acquainted with using Linux, fooling around, etc - does VMWare basically work by running the guest OS using the hardware information from the host OS (which will be Windows 7 Pro)? Or to be more specific: will I run into driver or software issues with VMWare? Finally, after powering down a VMWare session, does it kill anything "stored" during the session? Like if I download a few linux apps, will I have to download them everytime I run a VMWare instance.
You probably won't run into any issues.
You allocate the amount of hard drive space you want the vm to be able to access, how many cores, how much ram, etc. Everything is saved to your hard drive as a giant vmware file for that particular vm you create. vmware also freezes the state of the vm that is open when you close it, so each time you open it, it will be exactly like how you had it when you turned it off. (This isn't the case for powering down the vm, which is akin to shutting down the computer for your main os)
Edit: oh, and I wouldn't recommend keeping a vm up all the time, it kills your available ram unless you buy some more.
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Thanks for the input everyone. And thanks for clarifying on VMWare, xmShake. I've started creating my wishlist on NewEgg with the different suggestions and will be taking more time to compare them. I probably won't be upgrading this system for a little while, but when I do, I'm sure the prices will drop even more by then (hopefully at least for DDR3, which is quite expensive unlike what someone here said - it's like $90 for 4 GB (2x 2gb) of DDR3).
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On December 12 2009 08:18 EscPlan9 wrote:
Thanks for the input everyone. And thanks for clarifying on VMWare, xmShake. I've started creating my wishlist on NewEgg with the different suggestions and will be taking more time to compare them. I probably won't be upgrading this system for a little while, but when I do, I'm sure the prices will drop even more by then (hopefully at least for DDR3, which is quite expensive unlike what someone here said - it's like $90 for 4 GB (2x 2gb) of DDR3).
RAM prices took a large price increase the past couple of months. Wait a couple months until the shortage is over and they will come back down to normal.
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well yea you can always wait a little longer for this price to come down, or that new component to come out driving market prices down, but at some point you just need to suck it up and buy it ><
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EPT
