- Dec 30, 2008
- 9
- 0
- 18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: 1-2 days
Budget Range: ~ $450 after shipping/rebates
System Usage from Most to Least Important: General home use. Productivity, web browsing, streaming/dvd movies, light gaming (mainly older games), music burning/ripping, etc. Need a well-rounded machine.
Are you buying a monitor: No. Already own a Samsung SyncMaster.
Parts to Upgrade: Case, CPU, Mobo, Memory, Optical Drive, GPU (maybe?)
Do you need to buy OS: Not right away. Own Windows XP Home Edition. Plan on getting Windows 7 later this year (Full not OEM)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com
Location: Lake Charles, Louisiana
Parts Preferences: Not really.
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: Not planning on it, but never say never.
Your Monitor Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Additional Comments: Already own monitor, input devices, and 2 x HDD. The HDDs were recently purchased to replace what I initially thought was a failing disk. (see below)
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Current PC is ancient. Built in 2002 around AMD Athlon XP single core CPU. A few upgrades along the way (CPU, PSU, GPU, Memory, HDD) extended its life. It has served me quite well. I almost hate to part with it, but the more software advances the more sluggish it becomes. It has also been a little "flaky" lately when powered off and then back on. There have been a couple of times recently when the SATA HDD is not detected at startup. Usually after a restart or two it boots up ok, but I initially thought the drive was failing and ordered some new ones. Then the PC shut off once when I closed the dvd drive bay, so now I'm thinking mobo or PSU. Whatever the case, I don't see the sense it putting more $$ into this machine.
As mentioned, I already own the HDDs for the build:
Western Digital WD Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - OEM
Here are the other components I am considering:
Build A: APU
APU + Mobo: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4 + AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz $199.98
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) $77.99
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W Modular Power Supply $59.99 (-$10 MIR=$49.99)
Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Black SATA - OEM $19.99
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Black SECC ATX Mid Tower $74.99 (-$25 MIR=$49.99)
Shipping: $13.64
Cost + Shipping: $446.58
Minus $35 MIR: $411.58
Build B: CPU + GPU
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz $79.99
Mobo: ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $94.99
GPU: EVGA 01G-P3-2632-KR GeForce GT 630 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $64.99 (-$15 MIR=$49.99)
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) $77.99
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W Modular Power Supply $59.99 (-$10 MIR=$49.99)
Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Black SATA - OEM $19.99
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Black SECC ATX Mid Tower $74.99 (-$25 MIR=$49.99)
Shipping: $12.22
Cost + Shipping: $485.15
Minus $50 MIR: $435.15
So, which do you recommend, and why? I tried to make both builds as equitable as I could. I'm leaning a bit toward A since it is a little cheaper (falls under budget target even w/o sometimes risky MIR) and I think I can get by with just the included case fans for cooling. (Selecting a case BTW has been a PITA since my primary requirement is that it be under ~18.25 inches so it fits into the space allocated for it. This seemed to be the best constructed/most feature-rich case I could find that fit the size requirement and wouldn't make me feel like I was playing Operation getting in the components.)
Thanks for any and all input.
Budget Range: ~ $450 after shipping/rebates
System Usage from Most to Least Important: General home use. Productivity, web browsing, streaming/dvd movies, light gaming (mainly older games), music burning/ripping, etc. Need a well-rounded machine.
Are you buying a monitor: No. Already own a Samsung SyncMaster.
Parts to Upgrade: Case, CPU, Mobo, Memory, Optical Drive, GPU (maybe?)
Do you need to buy OS: Not right away. Own Windows XP Home Edition. Plan on getting Windows 7 later this year (Full not OEM)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com
Location: Lake Charles, Louisiana
Parts Preferences: Not really.
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: Not planning on it, but never say never.
Your Monitor Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Additional Comments: Already own monitor, input devices, and 2 x HDD. The HDDs were recently purchased to replace what I initially thought was a failing disk. (see below)
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Current PC is ancient. Built in 2002 around AMD Athlon XP single core CPU. A few upgrades along the way (CPU, PSU, GPU, Memory, HDD) extended its life. It has served me quite well. I almost hate to part with it, but the more software advances the more sluggish it becomes. It has also been a little "flaky" lately when powered off and then back on. There have been a couple of times recently when the SATA HDD is not detected at startup. Usually after a restart or two it boots up ok, but I initially thought the drive was failing and ordered some new ones. Then the PC shut off once when I closed the dvd drive bay, so now I'm thinking mobo or PSU. Whatever the case, I don't see the sense it putting more $$ into this machine.
As mentioned, I already own the HDDs for the build:
Western Digital WD Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - OEM
Here are the other components I am considering:
Build A: APU
APU + Mobo: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4 + AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz $199.98
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) $77.99
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W Modular Power Supply $59.99 (-$10 MIR=$49.99)
Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Black SATA - OEM $19.99
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Black SECC ATX Mid Tower $74.99 (-$25 MIR=$49.99)
Shipping: $13.64
Cost + Shipping: $446.58
Minus $35 MIR: $411.58
Build B: CPU + GPU
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz $79.99
Mobo: ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $94.99
GPU: EVGA 01G-P3-2632-KR GeForce GT 630 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $64.99 (-$15 MIR=$49.99)
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) $77.99
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W Modular Power Supply $59.99 (-$10 MIR=$49.99)
Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Black SATA - OEM $19.99
Case: Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Black SECC ATX Mid Tower $74.99 (-$25 MIR=$49.99)
Shipping: $12.22
Cost + Shipping: $485.15
Minus $50 MIR: $435.15
So, which do you recommend, and why? I tried to make both builds as equitable as I could. I'm leaning a bit toward A since it is a little cheaper (falls under budget target even w/o sometimes risky MIR) and I think I can get by with just the included case fans for cooling. (Selecting a case BTW has been a PITA since my primary requirement is that it be under ~18.25 inches so it fits into the space allocated for it. This seemed to be the best constructed/most feature-rich case I could find that fit the size requirement and wouldn't make me feel like I was playing Operation getting in the components.)
Thanks for any and all input.
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