Attention Mid-Range System Builders

[Sleepingforest]

Originally Posted by Triglet

Think it's worth upgrading my mobo/cpu/ram to what the guide suggests? What I have is awfully long in the tooth, curious to what you guys think.

Thanks

Nah. The q9550 is "good enough". If you're on DDR3, it could be worthwhile to get to 8GB (at least) or 16GB.

[shadenone]

I noticed this Sapphire for AR $185 and I was curious whether it's a decent switch. The PowerColor just seems like a bit pricey for a budget build. I know you don't really want to skimp on your GPU, but would this be a viable card yet?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102999

[mfenn]

Originally Posted by Triglet

Think it's worth upgrading my mobo/cpu/ram to what the guide suggests? What I have is awfully long in the tooth, curious to what you guys think.

Thanks

Depends on what you're doing. Gaming? Probably not. Anything else CPU intensive? Yes.

[mfenn]

Originally Posted by shadenone

I noticed this Sapphire for AR $185 and I was curious whether it's a decent switch. The PowerColor just seems like a bit pricey for a budget build. I know you don't really want to skimp on your GPU, but would this be a viable card yet?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102999

Depends on your budget and use. For an $800 gaming machine I'd rather drop the SSD and get a 7950 than go all the way down to a 7850.

[mfenn]

New update posted. I included the sweet $51 S12II and the $205 GTX 660 Ti deals.

[Sleepingforest]

Also worth noting is the 120GB Samsung 840 for $100 on Amazon. It costs about the same as the Sandisk Ultra Plus, but offers a a tiny bit more performance in pretty much every metric. It's a pretty good deal if you don't mind shopping from two places.

[mfenn]

Originally Posted by Sleepingforest

Also worth noting is the 120GB Samsung 840 for $100 on Amazon. It costs about the same as the Sandisk Ultra Plus, but offers a a tiny bit more performance in pretty much every metric. It's a pretty good deal if you don't mind shopping from two places.

Thanks for checking, I'll put that in as an alternate.

[krnmastersgt]

Would like to note a slight pricing change, that the 7970 in the listed build is actually now 380 base, 360 AR!

[mfenn]

Two free DIMMs this week! There is 16GB of RAM total, but you'll have to manually set the timings to match the slower Corsair DIMM. Alternatively, you could sell the Corsair DIMM (it's literally free in the combo, so no reason not to get it).