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Sorting out a PC plan

C

Craig234

Lifer
What I have:

A room for PC gaming with a monitor; another room with a 42" LCD and a Panny AE900U front projector, either of which I'm wanting to use for gaming as well.

2004 generic case/cheap PS, K7S5A Pro/AMD Athlon 2200+, 1GB DDR, 7600 GS AGP - Audigy2 ZS Platinum, which works surprisingy well as a gaming system, but it pretty loud.

Unassembled Components: AMD FX-55 OEM, Sonata case w/380W PS, Corsair 2GB DDR2 CM2X1024-6400, VA8000BWS case, Seagate 320GB 7200.10 SATA, Antec 2.0 500w.

I need to somehow assemble this into a good PC setup.

Plan:

- Buy a motherboard and Arctic Freezer 64 Pro for the FX-55, move those and the other components from old system into the Sonata case to reduce noise.

- For the tv room, use the case, drive, ram, buy a C2D E6400 or E6600 and MB, either a 7900GTO or wait for 8000 series graphics, get a nice sound card, wireless KB/G7 mouse.

I'll need to get a second cable modem outlet in the tv room.

Background: I haven't decided whether to hire someone to assemble the PC(s) or try to do it myself (I hate the tedious hassles like figuring out what I don't have and buying it because of the OEM CPU and drive, etc.) I might do easy overclocking, but not going to get into risky things.

I'm asking for input on anything from the basic approach to specific components.
open to suggestions on everything from the basic plan to specific components.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Makes sense. I'd trash your old case (maybe sell the cheap PS on eBay?), and get a quiet, but expandable case for your TV room. If you can't swing it, swap the old PSU with the Sonata's, and put that into your C2D case, and upgrade later on. If you're going C2D, it'd be a shame to give it a home less than decent. 😀

Other than that - looks like a very cost effective upgrade (I'm assuming you're trying to keep as much as you can for $$$ saving).

Second modem? Are you meaning a router and ethernet drop?

PM
 
I edited the post to add the PS I forgot, Antec Smartpower 2.0 500w. I was planing that for the VA8000BWS case.

To your questions - I'm re-using components where it makes sense, but not trying to scrimp where it doesn't. I hope the VA8000BWS case is quiet as the tv room case.

Second cable modem refers to Comcast installing a second cable modem plugin in the tv room ($20-something install and $5/month extra charge IIRC).

This leaves me still needing to buy, off the top of my head:

- Whatever is needed if anything that I didn't get by getting an OEM FX-55 and Seagate drive instead of retail
- AM2 M/B and graphics card for the C2D system
- 939 M/B for the FX-55
- Wireless keyboard (assuming I get the G7 mouse); just seems more usable when sitting at the distances from a big screen
- Furniture for comfortable living room big screen use (something more comfortable than a desk for keyboard and mouse)
 
You'll definitely need (for the old system):
-Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro for the FX-55
-Asrock 939Dual-VSTA (same as the 939dual-SATA2, has fully working PCI-E and AGP slots) for the FX-55 if you're using the old video card for this system(if not, there are better choices).
With all the other parts salvaged from your current system, in the Antec case.
For the TV system, I'd buy a Conroe e6300, Gigabyte DS3 motherboard, 2 gigs of DDR2-667 (expensive, but there are no good Conroe boards with DDR support), and maybe a 7900gs and then I'd move the video card to the other system when the DX10's come out. As for controlling the TV room machine from the couch, you can get a PC adapter for the wireless XBOX 360 controllers, and Microsoft sells some decent wireless media PC keyboards. Just make sure to get something with a 10-foot range and make sure there's a clear line of sight to the wireless reciever.



 
Tell me more on the graphics card issue - unfortunately, I got the 7600 GS AGP just a couple weeks ago before I know I was going to get the FX-55 - with $105 in it, I don't really want to replace it, but am unclear on what problem it poses other than being AGP.

(Tempting to see if I can return it for a restocking fee, I guess, but probably not; the PCI-E 7600 GS is $45 cheaper than the AGP card I got, sheesh).

That motherboard says the AGP slot is '1.5v only', hope that means it works with the 7600 GS.

I think I'll get the E6400 (if not the E6600); I already have the Corsair DDR2-800 RAM.

Thanks for the tips including the motherboard suggestions. How do you think the Gigabyte and the ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe compare for the C2D? And the 7900 GS vs. 7900 GTO?
 
So, what has me ambivalent now is how the old case, PS, motherboard and CPU, which are a perfectly adequate PC for hundreds of games I have now, go to waste. I'll also need to return the AGP 7600GS I just got, and buy a PCI-E card (if I'm buying a new motherboard anyway, may as well move to PCI-E than keep the AGP - just a hassle).

I ordered the Arctic cooler. Still picking a M/B - you said there are good ones for PCI-E? So far, Asus and Abit are being recommended.

Also, as I move my 2x512MB DDR to the new FX-55 939 PC, to add the needed second GB of DDR, should I buy two more 512MB, or a 1GB stick?
 
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