It's that time of the decade! Upgrade advice please!

[TheMagnificentCheese]

Last time I upgraded my PC was in summer 2003. Seeing as it is very, very shaky in a lot of games lately, I've decided to invest in my PC gaming enjoyment. And since everyone here knows 100x more than me, I could use a bit of educated advice.

Having read the sticky above:

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
GAMES (not Crysis) and the everyday web browsing etc.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Well, if I were patient and willing to save a lot of dough, I could spend 600-800 dollars. But ideally, 400-500.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
The US of A

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, etc, etc, you get the picture.
I am partial to AMD just because of cost-to-performance ratio. Video, no preference.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
My Antec ATX full tower. Also I have a PATA DVD-ROM and a 160gb ATA100 hard drive that I want to use at least for now. I can always get an SATA drive for ~50 bucks locally.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I have read some threads here and there. Below I've constructed a system I see as affordable and possibly effective.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I won't be pushing any records, but if I can pull off a 10-20% overclock on mild air cooling I'd be ecstatic.

Here is the system I have in a Newegg shopping cart currently:
I hope this image works...

Any fine-tuning that you guys can offer?

Also, will that PSU power my system well for games/light o/c'ing?

Thanks y'all.

 

[biostud]

Intel has the edge on performance/price if you're into overclocking, even with mild o/c.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: TheMagnificentCheese
I am partial to AMD just because of cost-to-performance ratio. Video, no preference.

Indeed, "that time of the decade" seems accurate . Intel is very much more on top in terms of price/performance.

And 10-20% on air cooling is nothing for a decent C2D. Mine is air-cooled and overclocked from 1.86GHz to 3GHz.

 

[freddypoobles]

If your set on AMD, then that looks like a purrty solid system. I had a very very similar system a few months ago, before I stepped up to a Core2....which like everyone else has mentioned, ROCKS AMD's FACE lately, especially for gaming. Just for the record, I'm a fan of both AMD and Intel. I had that same chip with a X1900GT. The 4800+ was surprisingly peppy. Bone stock, it got 4533 in 3dmark06. Not real awesome but, Battlefield 2 was the heaviest game I played at the time and if I remeber right, it got mid 70's FPS on the non-special forces maps. I'm not much of an overclocker, but I let a buddy of mine (OC FREAK) toy with it for a day, and he got it to 2.8 no problem. So you should be able to oc fairly nicely.

I would recommend spending more on a PSU. That thermaltake has a bajillion reviews on the Egg, but its effeciency isn't real impressive. Take a look at this one linky linky its 80+ effeciency Certified. I'm no PSU expert but that basically means that it uses its power more wisely/effenciently so that its kind of like having the performance of a 600w PSU. Plus it will save you some on your electric bill.:thumbsup: If anyone can explain that better, please do.

I used this motherboard Gigabyte with that build. First Gigabyte board I owned, and I'm a big fan of there boards now. Only con I found was the placement of the floppy header. Excellent board other than that. Just another option for you to consider. And you should go ahead and pick up a SATA HDD, since purtty much any board you get now only has one IDE header.

 

[TheMagnificentCheese]

In saying that the price/performance was higher, I guess I wasn't speaking in literal terms. I meant more along the lines of "I can actually buy a decent AMD CPU for 80-100 bucks instead of dropping 150+ dollars for an Intel chip."

But, just for the sake of my eventual conversion to Intel, anyone have any suggestions on a mobo/cpu combo for an extremely budget-minded individual?

And as for the power supply, are there any units that anyone can recommend for under 50 bucks?

 

[freddypoobles]

Rosewill 51.99-free ship Has switch on the back to control its fan speed...nice feature IMO. Know of one thats been running 2 years straight with no hiccups.

Ultra 49.99 + ship Have had one of these for about a year, no problems.

Both will power your rig no problems, but I still would recommend the Antec Earthwatts over these. I personally would not spend less than 50 bucks on a PSU since it is the 'backbone' of your system and if it breaks, it potentially can paralyze the rest of your sytem...causing you to start from scratch again. Old saying: You get what you pay for and pay for what you get.

Mobo/cpu: I suggest the 4800+ Brisbane and the aforementioned Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3.

Or just save some more loot and do it up all Craaazy.

Just curious (since your 'my rig' linkage no work for me) what are you upgrading from?

 

[TheMagnificentCheese]

Well, since I built it in 2003...

AMD Barton 2500+ (used to OC it to 3200+ (1.83ghz - 2.2ghz) but was losing stability after awhile)
EpoX 8RDA+
1gb 400mhz RAM
GeForce 6600GT AGP (only component I bought separately, before that it was a GF4 4400)
Antec 350w PSU that came with the case.

So yeah. I play at low settings on most games and can barely get by. ANYTHING will be night vs. day compared to my current setup.

 

[JEDIYoda]

If your not going to do any over clocking at all even mildly then the thermaltake TR2 is a descent PSU!
Now on the other hand thet tR2`s had known issues as far as dependability and such!
Several sites i cheked said that even thoughg it`s rated at 430 watts it`s more likely around 380--400 watts.....

Good Luck!!

 

[TheMagnificentCheese]

Well a buddy of mine at work is willing to sell me his E6600 and the motherboard he has with it (He didn't know the model # off hand but knows its Gigabyte brand, which usually to me means a good product) for 200 bucks. I fully intend to check/inspect both parts and test each one before purchasing, but given that the E6600 is going for 210+ dollars at newegg and can easily overclock to 3ghz at stock voltage, should I consider this?

Thanks to all for even reading.

 

[Roguestar]

Consider it indeed. Sounds like a decent deal. Ask if he has overclocked it before, changed voltages etc. If he has only ever used it at stock, I say get in on that.