EDIT: I thought this post wasn't approved yet and did a repost only to find moments later that the post had indeed been approved. If by any chance this thread isn't deleted, the version with the poll is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4TiiNhehzA. Sorry.
Hi everyone, this is my first post around here. I hope to stick around, and contribute what I can. I've been lurking around for a while and it seems this is a good place to get advice, so, here's the issue I'd like some help with.
First off,
Current computer specs:
I have thought about two things, basically:
Option #2, well... the possiblities are endless...
Except for my budget, which does narrow things a little (bye-bye $599 EVGA Classified SR-2...)
I'm thinking I should upgrade to an i7-930 (just $30 higher than the E8600), get a good motherboard, memory and GPU, and upgrade other components as/if necessary.
So, in either case, this is where you, the reader, hopefully can help me with my choices.
My budget at the moment is around $700, without taking into account a gift card from Amazon and the EVGA bucks I mentioned earlier (total would be $800 or so). I do, however, have to take shipping into account since I live in Venezuela and all the packages will be sent by courier (approx. $50 per box, minimum). I'm trying to use the EVGA bucks because, as you may or may not be aware, Venezuela has a strict currency control, and we're only allowed to spend $400 per year on internet purchases (it sucks, I know). The other $300 or so come from a sort of black market, which is a good option (considering there's no other), but rather expensive as well (normal exchange rate: $1 = 4.30 VEF. Black market exchange rate: $1 = 7.15 VEF.) Anyway, moving on...
Things I do usually:
Gaming: FSX + Acceleration, Call of Duty Modern Warfare / World at War / Modern Warfare 2, Sims 3, Need for Speed: Shift, those types of games (in playing order, being FSX the one that I use almost daily).
Working: I use dual booting with Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 Ultimate (both x64). Windows is mostly for games and ArcGIS (I study Systems Engineering and this program is required for a course), and Ubuntu is for everything else. I do programming work in PHP / C++ and other stuff, but that is OS independent. And I fold for the EVGA folding@home team both on Linux and Windows.
Buying/Building Time Frame:
I'm going to be buying all parts as soon as I can, so building will hopefully be around mid-April.
Just for reference, I chose some parts and checked the price on Amazon and evga.com:
So, any thoughts, suggestions? Sorry for the extremely long read, and thanks in advance.
Hi everyone, this is my first post around here. I hope to stick around, and contribute what I can. I've been lurking around for a while and it seems this is a good place to get advice, so, here's the issue I'd like some help with.
First off,
Current computer specs:
- Case: Thermaltake Bach VX
- PSU: BFG Tech 800-Watt ES-800 Power Supply
- Motherboard: eVGA nForce 680i SLI [122-CK-NF68-A1]
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (stock 2.66 -- OC'd to 3.3 GHz)
- Heatsink: Zalman CNPS9700
- GPU: eVGA e-GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB PCI-Express [256-P2-N761-AR]
- Memory: 4 x OCZ 1 GB DDR2 PC2-6400 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel [OCZ2N800SR2GK]
- Hard Drives:
- Maxtor STM35000320AS (500 GB) - Storage [SATA]
- Seagate ST350410AS (250 GB) - OS [SATA]
- Excelstor Technology J880 ( 80 GB) - Downloads [IDE] (old one; couple of sectors damaged but works)
- Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW (21.6'' LCD -- native resolution: 1680 x 1050)
I have thought about two things, basically:
- Upgrade GPU and CPU to the highest my MB -and budget- will allow (that means, no 45nm Quad Core CPUs -- MB doesn't support them officialy), and keep this PC for a couple more years (at best): Thinking about a C2D E8500-8600 and whichever GPU I can find.
- Build a new PC (and, as said before, give this one to my mom, sans case).
Option #2, well... the possiblities are endless...
Except for my budget, which does narrow things a little (bye-bye $599 EVGA Classified SR-2...)
I'm thinking I should upgrade to an i7-930 (just $30 higher than the E8600), get a good motherboard, memory and GPU, and upgrade other components as/if necessary.
So, in either case, this is where you, the reader, hopefully can help me with my choices.
My budget at the moment is around $700, without taking into account a gift card from Amazon and the EVGA bucks I mentioned earlier (total would be $800 or so). I do, however, have to take shipping into account since I live in Venezuela and all the packages will be sent by courier (approx. $50 per box, minimum). I'm trying to use the EVGA bucks because, as you may or may not be aware, Venezuela has a strict currency control, and we're only allowed to spend $400 per year on internet purchases (it sucks, I know). The other $300 or so come from a sort of black market, which is a good option (considering there's no other), but rather expensive as well (normal exchange rate: $1 = 4.30 VEF. Black market exchange rate: $1 = 7.15 VEF.) Anyway, moving on...
Things I do usually:
Gaming: FSX + Acceleration, Call of Duty Modern Warfare / World at War / Modern Warfare 2, Sims 3, Need for Speed: Shift, those types of games (in playing order, being FSX the one that I use almost daily).
Working: I use dual booting with Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 Ultimate (both x64). Windows is mostly for games and ArcGIS (I study Systems Engineering and this program is required for a course), and Ubuntu is for everything else. I do programming work in PHP / C++ and other stuff, but that is OS independent. And I fold for the EVGA folding@home team both on Linux and Windows.
Buying/Building Time Frame:
I'm going to be buying all parts as soon as I can, so building will hopefully be around mid-April.
Just for reference, I chose some parts and checked the price on Amazon and evga.com:
- Motherboard: eVGA X58 SLI [132-BL-E758-A1] $299.99 (most people I've seen like the ASUS P6T board though)
- CPU: Intel Core i7 930 $294.99 (Ouch, $600 just on those 2 things...)
- Memory: OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) [OCZ3P1600LV6GK] $189.99
So, any thoughts, suggestions? Sorry for the extremely long read, and thanks in advance.
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