- Jan 4, 2005
- 27,539
- 212
- 106
1. Gaming, general usage, email, web, normal stuff, and some video and audio encoding
2. $500-550 not counting the video card, though I'd much prefer it to be 500, or less if possible
3. USA, Newegg
4. I'm leaning towards Intel and ATI right now because I perceive them as more bang for my buck, but you're free to convince me otherwise
5. I'll reuse everything except motherboard, processor, RAM, case and GPU
6. Yup, I've been lurking these forums, newegg and other sites for a couple of weeks now
7. I might do a mild OC in 6 months or so if I deem it necessary. nothing extreme though
8. Hopefully I'll order the parts within 3 weeks
9. Upgrading from a P4 3.2 GHZ, 2GB RAM, Geforce 7900 GT, hoping to see some awesome performance improvements
Ok so these are the parts I've come up with, I'd appreciate feedback on compatibility or better deals:
Processor: E8400 I think this is the best choice right now, good performance, ok price and overclockable. $164.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 This is a great deal but I don't know if I'll be able to OC to 3.6 GHZ with this, thoughts? edit: RAM's fine, thanks smithrwon $49.99
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L I really don't know much about motherboards, but this has a good price and is recommended in one of the stickies, if it lets me attach all the normal stuff and 4 HDs and is durable I'm happy, I've also seen the Asus P5Q mentioned a lot, but that one's pricier, any advantages in choosing it over the Gigabyte? $84.99
Case and PSU: Coolermaster Case + 550W PSU combo don't know much about cases and PSUs either, will this let me house my 4 HDs and HD 4850 ? same for the PSU, I assume it's enough for what I want to run, I plan to update the GPU with another midrange card with similar power requirements, maybe drop a quad if they get cheap. edit: it appears PSU is a Cooler Master Real Power Pro 550w, SLI certified, so I should be safe with it right? $99.99
GPU: Radeon HD 4850, might be a bit overkill (I game @1280x1024) but it'll probably last me 2+ years, I don't know which one to get, anyone know of a good deal on one?
edit: added prices and PSU info
2. $500-550 not counting the video card, though I'd much prefer it to be 500, or less if possible
3. USA, Newegg
4. I'm leaning towards Intel and ATI right now because I perceive them as more bang for my buck, but you're free to convince me otherwise
5. I'll reuse everything except motherboard, processor, RAM, case and GPU
6. Yup, I've been lurking these forums, newegg and other sites for a couple of weeks now
7. I might do a mild OC in 6 months or so if I deem it necessary. nothing extreme though
8. Hopefully I'll order the parts within 3 weeks
9. Upgrading from a P4 3.2 GHZ, 2GB RAM, Geforce 7900 GT, hoping to see some awesome performance improvements
Ok so these are the parts I've come up with, I'd appreciate feedback on compatibility or better deals:
Processor: E8400 I think this is the best choice right now, good performance, ok price and overclockable. $164.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 This is a great deal but I don't know if I'll be able to OC to 3.6 GHZ with this, thoughts? edit: RAM's fine, thanks smithrwon $49.99
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L I really don't know much about motherboards, but this has a good price and is recommended in one of the stickies, if it lets me attach all the normal stuff and 4 HDs and is durable I'm happy, I've also seen the Asus P5Q mentioned a lot, but that one's pricier, any advantages in choosing it over the Gigabyte? $84.99
Case and PSU: Coolermaster Case + 550W PSU combo don't know much about cases and PSUs either, will this let me house my 4 HDs and HD 4850 ? same for the PSU, I assume it's enough for what I want to run, I plan to update the GPU with another midrange card with similar power requirements, maybe drop a quad if they get cheap. edit: it appears PSU is a Cooler Master Real Power Pro 550w, SLI certified, so I should be safe with it right? $99.99
GPU: Radeon HD 4850, might be a bit overkill (I game @1280x1024) but it'll probably last me 2+ years, I don't know which one to get, anyone know of a good deal on one?
edit: added prices and PSU info