Help me choose some parts - time for a 64bit upgrade

[Liquidity]

Hi all,

I'm giving my current rig to my wife (minus a few parts) and building a new one for myself. I'm on 32bit now (Core 2 Duo E8400) and want to move to 64bit. Details of what I have and what I need are below, as well as answers to the 10 questions. Thanks much in advance!

Parts I have and want to keep:
Asus GTX 460
Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™ 2405FPW (1920x1200)
Optical drive

Parts I need:
Case (I have a Lian Li PC-K7B and I love it, but that's going to my wife)
Memory (8gb)
LGA 1155 Processor - I'm thinking an i3 for price reasons.
LGA 1155 motherboard - so I can upgrade to Ivy Bridge later if I want to.
Power supply


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
95% of my usage is web browsing/MS Office, but I want to be able to play games if I ever find one that interests me again. I do like my applications snappy, too.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
I don't have a definitive budget but I would love to keep it around $300-350 if possible.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
California, USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Intel please

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Asus GTX 460
Dell 24 inch UltraSharp™ 2405FPW (1920x1200)
Optical drive

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Lots Didn't find exactly what I was looking for, though.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default speeds only.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1920x1200

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Now

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.
I'm not – bring it!

 

[Liquidity]

Ok I see there's no way I can build this for $350, lol. Here's what I'm thinking at the moment; where can I save money?

LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B (I know I could save money by going with a plastic case but I'd really rather not. I love this case.)
Celeron G530 (i don't know if this is fast enough)
GIGABYTE GA-Z68P-DS3
Antec NEO ECO 620C
GeIL Pristine 8GB (would 4gb be ok?)
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212

Thanks!

 

[oynaz]

Why not simply keep your current CPU? The E8400 are 64 bit. You are spending your money on a very small perfonrmance upgrade.

Or am I misunderstanding your post?

 

[Liquidity]

Um. Wow. I've had this proc for 2 years and I thought it was 32 bit. How embarrassing.

Well, I'm giving this system to my wife and building a new one, so I still need to pick out some new parts.

 

[mfenn]

What you have picked out above looks OK to me. You can save some money in the following areas:
- Case: you know that though
- Mobo: The Z68 isn't really doing much for you that a $70 ASRock H61M/U3S3 won't do
- PSU: Your GTX 460 will be perfectly happy with a $50 AR 500CX
- RAM: 4GB would be fine, but you are only paying like $15 to go to 8GB.
- HSF: Don't need it at all, the stock cooler is fine for stock speeds.

 

[Liquidity]

mfenn - thank you! And thanks to everyone else that replied. I'm close enough to my price range, and wife will be happy. What's not to like?!

 

[fastamdman]

If you up your budget just a tad you can get an amazing system.

mobo and cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.764352

psu and ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.761045

Total price 439.96 after rebates

 

[mfenn]

If you up your budget just a tad you can get an amazing system.

mobo and cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.764352

psu and ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.761045

Total price 439.96 after rebates

Did you miss this part: "95% of my usage is web browsing/MS Office"? Sure, an i5 2500K is a nice CPU, but that doesn't mean that it is the answer to every question.

 

[Liquidity]

The PSU/RAM combo is a good one though; I'll go with that. Thanks fastamdman and mfenn!

 

[fastamdman]

Did you miss this part: "95% of my usage is web browsing/MS Office"? Sure, an i5 2500K is a nice CPU, but that doesn't mean that it is the answer to every question.

He also said and I quote "but I want to be able to play games if I ever find one that interests me again. I do like my applications snappy, too.".

In my opinion its better to have something great now then to have something sub par, and then in 2 years not be able to play that game he wants to play well and then have to reupgrade everything.

IMO if it's in your budget EVERYONE should go with a 2500k over there little cheaper h61 rigs.

 

[mfenn]

He also said and I quote "but I want to be able to play games if I ever find one that interests me again. I do like my applications snappy, too.".

In my opinion its better to have something great now then to have something sub par, and then in 2 years not be able to play that game he wants to play well and then have to reupgrade everything.

IMO if it's in your budget EVERYONE should go with a 2500k over there little cheaper h61 rigs.

His budget is ~$350 though. I can't see spending 2/3rds of that on the CPU.