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suddenly in the market for a new machine

Ruptga

Ruptga

Lifer
I woke up this morning to find that my 2.5 year old laptop had passed in the night. The last time I was anything close to up-to-date on hardware was about 2.5 years ago, so here I am.

I'm thinking of getting a desktop this time (leaning towards buying, but could build). The lack of mobility won't be much of an issue, and I know I can get more jiggahertz/$ with a desktop. I think my laptop had a 2.26 C2D and a mobile 9600gt. I think.

I'd been using that laptop for everything. Neffing, Starcraft II, World of Tanks, Supreme Commander, and the odd bit of work. So, system requirements aren't too high. I already have a surge protector and mouse, but will need everything else. How much should I be expecting to spend just to replace the laptop's performance? How much more than that could I spend before diminishing returns really kicks in? Where should I start looking?

Also, I'm not opposed to mild OCing.
 
to replace the laptop you are looking at ~500 bucks worth of desktop. diminishing returns tend to start around $1,200. That said, 1,000-1,300 seems to be the best place to go if you need a monitor, keyboard, and the computer. (speakers/headset?)

Will you need an operating system?
 
I will need a copy of windows. I'd forgotten about speakers. When I care about sound I use headphones, so I'll probably get some $15 speakers for when I don't. Either that or I'll move my Klipsch 2.1s from the TV to the PC.

So, $500 to replace the laptop's hardware. What would a decent monitor tack onto that? $200?
 
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ doesn't seem to mark up their parts too much over Newegg.

You should be able to put together a nice PC for around $1,000:
inter core i5 2400 / 2500 / 2500 K (the "K" is the only one that overclocks, but stock speed is fast enough)
intel socket 1155 motherboard - Z68 chipset is best choice
8 GB RAM (2 x 4) - DDR 1333 is fine, faster speeds don't really help
1 TB drive
nvidia Geforce 560 ti 1 GB (I'd pay the $5 extra to get EVGA brand)

The stock heatsink is fine though I think they throw in a better one free.
 
500 was a rough guess, to get a machine you will use for another two years, i would head up to 600-650. A standard 22-24" monitor will run you 150-200. (1080p of course)
 
Thanks, mnewsham, I didn't even know where to start but you took care of that for me.

In your first list did you mean to link to an SSD? You have the same drive posted for both lists. I do have a 2.5" hybrid drive, 500gb, I think. I was thinking of using that anyway. I haven't quite had that a year yet, so, apart from finding a connector adapter, I shouldn't have any problems with that.
 
it should be the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drive. 3.5 Inch 7200RPM
It would be advisable to add an SSD later, however it would be an additional 100-200 upfront.
 
I am very broke and am thinking of ways to spread out the cost of this. What do you all think of getting an i3 2105 or a8-3850, then buying a 6850 after a month or two?
 
You could get an i5-2400 and that $60 H61 motherboard. You lose overclocking but keep the quad-core CPU instead of just dual-core.

I have a little Acer i3-2100 SFF box, and the intel CPU's HD2000 graphics do work for light or older gaming, Half-Life 2 runs quite nicely at 1280 x 800.

So yes, you could start with an i3-2100 or i5-2400 now and add the real graphics card later.
 
It looks like I can do this for $560 by using an old monitor, putting off a real graphics card for a while, and reusing my laptop's hard drive. Does anyone know offhand if I'll need some adapter or another to use a 2.5" drive? As far as I know it's a plain sata drive, so I wouldn't think it's necessary, but I wouldn't have thought my laptop would have died overnight either.
 
ADDAvenger said:
It looks like I can do this for $560 by using an old monitor, putting off a real graphics card for a while, and reusing my laptop's hard drive. Does anyone know offhand if I'll need some adapter or another to use a 2.5" drive? As far as I know it's a plain sata drive, so I wouldn't think it's necessary, but I wouldn't have thought my laptop would have died overnight either.
Click to expand...

You will need a 2.5-3.5 inch adapter if the case does not have one pre built (i dont think yours does)
 
Dell sells i5 desktops with monitor for $500-$600 these days, fully ready to go, warrantied, and with support and legal Windows. It's all but impossible to beat, unless you love hacking your own for some reason. Stick with default graphics for six months and upgrade later if you must. Save $ for something important.
 
 
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Open the Mac's Keyboard control panel, keyboard shortcuts section, to see how to do screenshots. Built-in functionality almost as good as SnagIt, but free and in the standard OS. It's great.
 
dclive said:
Dell sells i5 desktops with monitor for $500-$600 these days, fully ready to go, warrantied, and with support and legal Windows. It's all but impossible to beat, unless you love hacking your own for some reason. Stick with default graphics for six months and upgrade later if you must. Save $ for something important.
Click to expand...

But is the Dell going to shit itself if I try to put a graphics card in? I've had problems in years past with upgrading prebuilt machines. They tend to have proprietary components, power supplies that can't support another watt, etc.
 
No, it will work just fine. I've had Geforce 8800GTSs, 9600GSOs, and all kinds of other cards in my Dell quad-core $400 machines, and it's flawless.
 
Not really, newer cards are bigger, you cant assure him every sub $500 desktop from dell will have the space or be adequate for the thermals. and power draw.
 
Power draw is the main issue; most cards today are smaller than the 8800GTS (trust me; it was huge, the 9600GSO tiny in comparison).

Anyway, Dell's cases are fine. Spending tons of money when you don't need to do so is silly, and if you're really bored one day you can always slap a new 1000W PSU into your Dell case so you can waste money AND energy; it fits too.
 
dclive said:
Power draw is the main issue; most cards today are smaller than the 8800GTS (trust me; it was huge, the 9600GSO tiny in comparison).

Anyway, Dell's cases are fine. Spending tons of money when you don't need to do so is silly, and if you're really bored one day you can always slap a new 1000W PSU into your Dell case so you can waste money AND energy; it fits too.
Click to expand...

Dell is getting better with PSU's, however my last dell (i7 860 with 5770 GPU) only had a 400w unit, there wasnt really much headroom to speak of in that unit. And AFAIK dell still has some units with proprietary PSU's.
 
Years ago Dell had nonstandard PSUs; no longer. It's a straight pop-out, pop-in if you want to replace it for most models.

Take a look at Anandtech's CPU+PSU (full system) wattage usage. Unless you're SLI'ing, it's more than enough for most. For OP, I think he'd be just fine. A 300W PSU ran an 8800GTS plus quad-core Intel Core CPU for years; a 400W PSU is plenty particularly given todays lower-power and more efficient CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4344/nvidias-geforce-gtx-560-top-to-bottom-overclock/15

Graph shows Anandtech's enthusiasts system - most graphics cards save the GTX280/47-80/580 (ie nVidia's highest end) use under 400W. Most considerably. If he gets a GXT560 for example he'll have loads and loads of headroom.
 
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