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500$ for an upgrade, so many questions entail

R

rdukeman

Member
I will be needing to get a new video card. To avoid multiple shipping charges I am willing to put up to 500$ towards new parts for upgrades. The video card will be part of the 500$. Here are my current system specs:

PSU: CORSAIR 750TX 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

New PSU I got last week. Had to replace old one that failed. Took video card with it, and not sure what else yet. Still under 30 day replacement / refund so if there is a better choice out there for the same price I would be willing to exchange.

MB: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128059

Been faithful to me so far. Would be willing to upgrade, or perhaps get a better CPU and overclock the life that's left in it. Sucks there is no OB video to test if other parts are okay.

GPU: Going to wait about a month to see if the 5850 prices fall down. Might end up pulling the trigger at 300$ unless there is a better deal for that price. Might get a 5770 or 5750 instead, not sure what the better deal would be.

OLD GPU: EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130318

Fried on me when my PSU died. Really bummed because it was still a decent card. Unfortunately I didn't register it within 30 days so I am ineligible for the lifetime warranty.

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

Hopefully it's still good. Computer boots up fine except for the lack of a screen connection. No beeps or errors from the machine so I am assuming that means all the other parts are okay? Working on getting a spare cheap pci-e video card to test.

CPU: E8400

running at 3.0 ghz. Will OC it higher since I think it can go 3.4 ghz under stock?

MONITOR: SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001096

Solid screen for a while now. No need to upgrade here.

CASE: Antec Sonata v1, haha. Very old case. Never had the need to upgrade..

OS: Win xp. If there is money to spare may go with win 7. I can go with the 120$ upgrade from XP, right? Even though I should will be doing a fresh install? Very confused on this. Also, with the family pack, I will get to upgrade 3 versions so I could use one for myself, give one to my brother (who lives in another city), and perhaps sell one on CL? Or do they have to all be on the same network, or something..


And finally, answers to the list of questions in the sticky.


I will be using the PC for gaming / school. Not really looking forward to any new games coming out but I want to be able to play them. Budget is 500$. Will be buying parts from the US, to the US. I don't want to buy anything OCZ since their PSU failed on me and took parts with it. I hate them now. I want to play on 1600x1200. I want to build my machine within the new few weeks. Only reason I would be willing to wait is because of the short supply and high prices of the 5850's.
 
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If you can get Win7 through your school, do it.

The Family Pack only includes a single license key, so you cannot easily split and sell the remaining licenses. I'm sure that MS did this on purpose.
 
And as far as the specs are concerned, will there be a problem with running the new video card and win 7 with my current mb, psu, and ram?
 
Just get like a GTX260/4890 and a win7 64b oem (dont pay $120 for an "upgrade" when you can buy a whole new oem license for the same). Nothing else really needs changed. Maybe pick up on one of the $160 Q9550 deals if theres a microcenter nearby


I wouldn't put too much into your current rig right now besides getting a GPU, since theres not that much room to go up in that socket. I'd just save the rest for when you do a total rebuild
 
yh125d said:
Just get like a GTX260/4890 and a win7 64b oem (dont pay $120 for an "upgrade" when you can buy a whole new oem license for the same). Nothing else really needs changed. Maybe pick up on one of the $160 Q9550 deals if theres a microcenter nearby


I wouldn't put too much into your current rig right now besides getting a GPU, since theres not that much room to go up in that socket. I'd just save the rest for when you do a total rebuild
Click to expand...

turns out the mb is fried, going to have to do a complete rebuild. I am taking this as a sign that I don't need a high end machine. I'm going to go with an "econo" build and take your advice and get the 4890. I already bought the 5850 however, I am willing to let it go for 300$ cash if you are in the Los Angeles area. That's -40$ less from newegg with tax and shipping.
 
rdukeman said:
turns out the mb is fried, going to have to do a complete rebuild. I am taking this as a sign that I don't need a high end machine. I'm going to go with an "econo" build and take your advice and get the 4890. I already bought the 5850 however, I am willing to let it go for 300$ cash if you are in the Los Angeles area. That's -40$ less from newegg with tax and shipping.
Click to expand...

Cancel the order? Otherwise, since you already bought it, you might as well just keep it... Or sell it for more, since the 5850 is in somewhat high demand right now.

Seriously, I wouldn't want to buy a 5850 and randomly decide to resell it for a $40 hit.
 
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