I want to preface this by saying I am not in a hurry and plan to pick up peripherals like optical drives and hard drives along the way until I am ready to pull the trigger on the CPU, MB, GPU, and memory. Please don’t spend a lot of time giving me specifics right now, I am more looking for some general advice as the prices fluctuate and more products hit the market. If I had to buy today it would likely be a P2 X3 720 with an ASUS M4A78T-E because for $300 I could have the system pretty close to running. The longer I put it off the more likely an i7 will be in my future but something faster will be out then so maybe the trick is to never buy one. I could always just wait until the next faster thing comes down in price. It’s a little like an endless cycle. Just think about buying a computer, never actually buy one.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: sometime in the next couple of months
BUDGET RANGE: Around $1000 the sooner the cheaper the longer I wait might increase budget
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: photo editing, web surfing, general Office apps,
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: I just got a Thermaltake Element S case for $109 and Windows XP SP3 OEM because it went on sale for $69 and want as simple a build as possible and my current computers have XP so I am more familiar with it. It was my birthday and the wife asked. She could swing a whole system so she gave me a budget of $200. I also have a new 500w Coolmax PS that was a warrantee replacement after a power surge took out the kids computer’s PS. I bought a replacement so I wouldn’t have to deal with them using our computer for 3-4 weeks. I know the PS is of low quality so I may not use it on the build but it was free and new in box so I might give it a try for a while.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Purchased previously from Newegg and was satisfied
PARTS PREFERENCES: No real preferences looking more at stability, value, longevity and future upgradability
OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes
MONITOR RESOLUTION: open but higher is better due to photo editing
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Our computers are HPs but I will not buy another mass built computer. You get crap and they treat you like crap. The free trial bundle software drives me crazy and I hate that they wont give me the XP discs. That’s all I have to say about that.
Our main computer is about 4 1/2 years old and the kids computer is about 7 1/2 years old both are Pentium 4s. I have replaced and added hdds in both and replaced the graphics card in the kids. We plan to leave the kids with the older current computer because surprisingly the older computer does better with the games because of the upgraded graphics card while the newer one has OB graphics.
Our current computer will be relegated to wife’s scrapbook to run assorted paper cutting things and allow an extra internet access point. I want to build something that we can keep a long time but ultimately will be destined to be my kid’s gaming computer in a couple of years. They are currently 8 and 10 and they will only get our hand me downs until the are able to buy their own. I do need to consider that I will likely upgrade video cards in 2 to 3 years when it is handed off to the kids. They will likely try to OC the thing and do all the typical gamer stuff.
I am open to any brands but value is key and it must be something that will allow future upgradability and still be usable in 5-7 years.
Thanks
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: sometime in the next couple of months
BUDGET RANGE: Around $1000 the sooner the cheaper the longer I wait might increase budget
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: photo editing, web surfing, general Office apps,
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: I just got a Thermaltake Element S case for $109 and Windows XP SP3 OEM because it went on sale for $69 and want as simple a build as possible and my current computers have XP so I am more familiar with it. It was my birthday and the wife asked. She could swing a whole system so she gave me a budget of $200. I also have a new 500w Coolmax PS that was a warrantee replacement after a power surge took out the kids computer’s PS. I bought a replacement so I wouldn’t have to deal with them using our computer for 3-4 weeks. I know the PS is of low quality so I may not use it on the build but it was free and new in box so I might give it a try for a while.
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Purchased previously from Newegg and was satisfied
PARTS PREFERENCES: No real preferences looking more at stability, value, longevity and future upgradability
OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes
MONITOR RESOLUTION: open but higher is better due to photo editing
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Our computers are HPs but I will not buy another mass built computer. You get crap and they treat you like crap. The free trial bundle software drives me crazy and I hate that they wont give me the XP discs. That’s all I have to say about that.
Our main computer is about 4 1/2 years old and the kids computer is about 7 1/2 years old both are Pentium 4s. I have replaced and added hdds in both and replaced the graphics card in the kids. We plan to leave the kids with the older current computer because surprisingly the older computer does better with the games because of the upgraded graphics card while the newer one has OB graphics.
Our current computer will be relegated to wife’s scrapbook to run assorted paper cutting things and allow an extra internet access point. I want to build something that we can keep a long time but ultimately will be destined to be my kid’s gaming computer in a couple of years. They are currently 8 and 10 and they will only get our hand me downs until the are able to buy their own. I do need to consider that I will likely upgrade video cards in 2 to 3 years when it is handed off to the kids. They will likely try to OC the thing and do all the typical gamer stuff.
I am open to any brands but value is key and it must be something that will allow future upgradability and still be usable in 5-7 years.
Thanks
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