New System/Upgrade

[NYNY2244]

I'm looking into finally overhauling my system after having a pretty dated setup for some time now. (Athlon 1.33 GHZ with 512 MB of SDRAM...yep, that old)

Unfortunately, I'm on a bit of a budget and can't redo the entire system yet, so I'll be keeping things from my old computer like the hard drive and dvd-writer until I can get extra money to replace those too. Right now, I'm trying to keep this upgrade under $500 with shipping. I might be willing to go a bit over if I can find something really worth the expense.

At the moment, I am definitely going to be getting a new CPU, motherboard, RAM, case, and video card. I pretty much can't upgrade one without upgrading the others anyway so I might as well get them all at once. Mainly, I'm looking to play some newer games at acceptable settings with acceptable performance. I'm not too concerned with playing at ultra high settings since I know that won't be possible with only 500 to spend, but as long as it looks somewhat nice and runs at a good fps, I'll be fine. Half Life 2 and its various add ons (CS Source, DoD Source, etc.) will be one of the main games I'll be playing with this upgrade as well as a few other games I haven't gotten the opportunity to try yet due to my dated system (Quake 4, Battlefield 2, etc.).

Right now, I'm looking at going with a AMD 64 Socket 939 setup although I hear that the new Socket AM2 might be a better choice. How much performance difference is there and would it be feasible to get an upgrade based around an AM2 setup with my budget?

As for video card, that's pretty much where I have no idea what I should get. I haven't been really keeping up with what the best cards are lately so I can't really pinpoint what a good value card would be for me to get.

This is what I've priced out going through newegg.com so far...

CPU - Athlon 64 3000+ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103537

RAM - Corsair 1 GB PC3200 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145440

Case - Antec Sonata II w/ 450 Watt PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811129155 (I'm willing to spend this much on a case because I've learned in the past that buying cheap cases just isn't worth it in the long run although I'm open to suggestions on better cases in this price range as long as they come with a PSU as well)

Motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4-F - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130491

Video Card - No Idea

With shipping, this comes to $380 leaving about $100 for a video card. Of course, I'm open to suggestions regarding the entire setup.

Thanks to anyone who can help me figure this out.

 

[Slammy1]

Welcome to the forums!

There are lots of gurus here that can give you some specific advice, but I would recommend the following. First (and foremost), what is your intended use? If all you do is net and Word, that's enough computer; but if you're looking for a gaming or multimedia rig the suggestions will be changed. At that price point, you're seriously looking at a pre-built. Not suggesting you get a prebuilt, but instead that you save up money. Hope that helps.

 

[NYNY2244]

The main point of this upgrade would be to run some of the newer games out there at acceptable performance. I'm not looking to run them at top notch settings obviously. CS Source runs on my current machine and while it's not unplayable, it does suffer from a lot of frame rate dropping.

I wouldn't say I'm an avid PC gamer these days, but I'd still like to be able to try out the newest stuff without issue when possible.

What would be your recommended price range for a gaming upgrade of just the components I mentioned? (CPU,RAM,Mobo, Case, Video)

I figure there's no way I'm going to get something that'll perform as well from say Dell with only 500 dollars. I'm not looking for an entirely new system yet either, this is mainly just the main components I'm upgrading here which leaves out stuff like drives, monitor, etc.

 

[Maximilian]

Well personally i think you should wait for conroe (the new Intel chip) to come before you decide on a CPU/MOBO as conroe will probably drive prices down, and if not, conroe itsself is supposed to be pretty cheap, and its gonna mop the floor with current A64's. In addtion to that, you will be buying DDR2 for it instead of DDR1 which isnt as futureproof.

Conroe should be out in 2 months time. This is one piece of tech that probably is worth waiting for.

 

[Slammy1]

You'd be surprised at the deals you can get. I got my mom an HP for $500 at the beginning of the year... But if you want a gaming machine with fair performance your primary concern becomes the video card. I apologize for my lack of specific recommendations. There are so many people here that can help you out more... though it's Friday AM in the states so you'll probably need to wait a bit for a good response. I go by the rule of 3 in a MoBo upgrade, so I'm waiting out a 9GHz processor board. I'd build for friends but they're more in the pre-built price range as well. I also include the price of sellling my old machine in the upgrade, something to consider given you're going to have a husk w/o a HDD that you could easily sell for the price of a great HDD.


EDIT: Agreed about Conroe. You've waited this long, wait just a bit longer. It'll certainly drive older tech down in price at the very least.

 

[NYNY2244]

Hmm, well waiting on this new Intel chip might be a good idea considered my budget, but in the meantime, what would be a good budget video card to get at say 100 to 150 dollars?

Edit: ATI or Nvidia is fine by me if you're wondering.

 

[Howard]

http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4769769

 

[NYNY2244]

That looks like a pretty good deal considering that CPU goes for about 130 by itself. How good is that board though?

 

[Howard]

No idea, but it's cheap.

 

[bamacre]

If you really want to game, a 7600 GT is really what you want. I've changed a few things, and went a few over your budget, but just an option...

Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case ATX12V with 380W PSU
$86.00
http://www.provantage.com/antec-nsk4400~7ANTG03V.htm

MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Athlon 64 Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail
$79.49
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241163

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail
$104.99
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80699-5

Corsair VS1GB400C3 1GB DDR400 PC3200 CAS3 Value Select Memory Retail
$81.40
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80098-34

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/Dual-DVI & HDTV-Out Retail
$164.99
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=326038

Total Price Shipped:
$516.87


I've used that case for a few builds, it's actually pretty nice. The PSU is plenty to run that video card.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

^^ good build, i'd look into the asus a8n5x motherboard instead. there are more users on this forum that would be able to help you with the asus mb since its more popular. asus is also the only motherboard company that stand out above the others in reliability and least amount of doa's or users with problems

 

[NYNY2244]

That looks pretty good although I'd probably go with the case I had picked out already just because I think a mini-ATX might be a pain to work inside of.

I just noticed that I can save a good 40 dollars by getting an OEM version of the MSI board you listed on newegg. I figure all I'm missing out on is some documentation, a box and cables so I might as well for that big of a price difference.

Anyway, going off of what you recommended, I put this together through newegg and got a total of $520 which actually works out nice since the card I picked out has a 20 dollar rebate.

Case - Antec Sonata II - 95 dollars - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811129155

Mobo - MSI K8N Neo4-F OEM - 40 dollars - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130491R

Video - PNY Gefoce 7600GT - 170 (150 after rebate) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814133150

RAM - Corsair 1 Gig PC3200 - 80 dollars - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145505

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3000+ - 106 dollars - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103537

Would I be better off going for a higher range CPU or would the 3000+ suffice? Also, for RAM should I get 1 1 GB stick or 2 512 MB sticks?

I haven't ordered this yet and probably won't be for a few weeks (and might just end up waiting for the new Intel chip as others suggested) but I want to see what kind of performance I can get with my available income.

Also, to the person who suggested selling my old system, I'll probably be giving it to one of my brothers and I've got plenty of old optical and hard disk drives available that I can put it in to replace the ones I take out.

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
^^ good build, i'd look into the asus a8n5x motherboard instead. there are more users on this forum that would be able to help you with the asus mb since its more popular. asus is also the only motherboard company that stand out above the others in reliability and least amount of doa's or users with problems

I'm currently using a MSI board which has been running with no problems for the past 3 years so I don't mind going with another MSI board, but I'll definitely look into ASUS if I can find something I like from them.

 

[bamacre]

Just FYI, that Antec NSK4400 is not a mini ATX case, it fits full sixe atx motherboards. It's not as small as it appears. But yeah, if you can go over $500, the Sonata II is very nice.