First off I'm Canadian so I can't use newegg, or atleast they didn't when I checked them out a few years back, however there is places here that are rather close in terms of their pricing so it's a decent guideline.
Secondly I have not really looked into hardware for quite a while now, and it seems things have changed, I stopped roughly when conroe came out to give you an idea so obviously I missed a lot. However it still seems AMD is quite behind so I guess intel is the way to go?
1. I spend a lot of my free time online and while I occassionally try new games I spend most of my time playing MMO's, Everquest in particular which is not a graphically intensive game I would think.
2. I have a monitor at the moment so that cuts out a good chunk, and some HD's if I had to, but I'd like to keep it around $1000 or less.
3. Canada
4. Intel is fine, I have no idea how the video cards are now I'd go either way, as for HD's I've always preferred Seagate.
5. I just plan to keep the monitor, most of the parts are quite old.
6. I read though some, and the suggestion stickies so I have a few parts picked out, but don't know if it's a good combo or not and am unsure on some things.
7. I'd probably run it at default then OC when I needed it or it was a bit behind the times.
8. Within the next few months, probably 1-2 actually.
Well now that is out of the way onto the parts I guess.
CPU : Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor $100 or so
MOBO : GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard $105
RAM : mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 $150
Case: I don't care too much and was hoping the Antec Sonata 3 was a good call, has a decent psu etc, is this or is this not an acceptable case?
GPU : Again not sure on this, I'd like to keep it under $200 which seems to be a x4850 or so, which is the best card in that range or lower?
HDD : SEAGATE 500GB Barracuda 7200.11 SATA II w/ NCQ, 32MB Cache x 2 $140
OS : I guess I need this, where can you pick up vista for cheap? I've got some copies of xp, but well I may as well get with the times.
Also just to give an idea I'm using an a64 3000+, 1gig ram, x850xt pe, with about 500gig in hd space over 3 drives. So while these may be cheap parts they are incredibly better than what I have, right? So they should be more than adequate I hope.
Adding this up with the sonata case I get it at a little over $800, however I know I am forgetting something other than the obvious dvd drive etc. So does it look like this would make a suitable gaming machine for mostly a 10 year old mmo, which is quite the system hog? I tend to play 2 accounts at once, which is a real strain on my current computer, so this is one reason for the upgrade. And I can upgrade the cpu/ram/video card with this setup for at least a while right?
Anyhow, thanks for any help you can give. I'd really appreciate it.
Secondly I have not really looked into hardware for quite a while now, and it seems things have changed, I stopped roughly when conroe came out to give you an idea so obviously I missed a lot. However it still seems AMD is quite behind so I guess intel is the way to go?
1. I spend a lot of my free time online and while I occassionally try new games I spend most of my time playing MMO's, Everquest in particular which is not a graphically intensive game I would think.
2. I have a monitor at the moment so that cuts out a good chunk, and some HD's if I had to, but I'd like to keep it around $1000 or less.
3. Canada
4. Intel is fine, I have no idea how the video cards are now I'd go either way, as for HD's I've always preferred Seagate.
5. I just plan to keep the monitor, most of the parts are quite old.
6. I read though some, and the suggestion stickies so I have a few parts picked out, but don't know if it's a good combo or not and am unsure on some things.
7. I'd probably run it at default then OC when I needed it or it was a bit behind the times.
8. Within the next few months, probably 1-2 actually.
Well now that is out of the way onto the parts I guess.
CPU : Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor $100 or so
MOBO : GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard $105
RAM : mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 $150
Case: I don't care too much and was hoping the Antec Sonata 3 was a good call, has a decent psu etc, is this or is this not an acceptable case?
GPU : Again not sure on this, I'd like to keep it under $200 which seems to be a x4850 or so, which is the best card in that range or lower?
HDD : SEAGATE 500GB Barracuda 7200.11 SATA II w/ NCQ, 32MB Cache x 2 $140
OS : I guess I need this, where can you pick up vista for cheap? I've got some copies of xp, but well I may as well get with the times.
Also just to give an idea I'm using an a64 3000+, 1gig ram, x850xt pe, with about 500gig in hd space over 3 drives. So while these may be cheap parts they are incredibly better than what I have, right? So they should be more than adequate I hope.
Adding this up with the sonata case I get it at a little over $800, however I know I am forgetting something other than the obvious dvd drive etc. So does it look like this would make a suitable gaming machine for mostly a 10 year old mmo, which is quite the system hog? I tend to play 2 accounts at once, which is a real strain on my current computer, so this is one reason for the upgrade. And I can upgrade the cpu/ram/video card with this setup for at least a while right?
Anyhow, thanks for any help you can give. I'd really appreciate it.
