Hi, I'm looking at using christmas money to upgrade my CPU/mobo and possibly RAM in my HP Media Center m7160n. Currently, I have:
3GB DDR2 RAM (2x1GB 2x512MB)
Intel Pentium D 820 @2.80GHz
Asus P5LP-LE Limestone Motherboard
Conexant Falcon II Analog TV Tuner (PCI)
RILink WLAN G (PCI)
MSi Nvidia GT440 (PCIe, dual slot)
250GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
2 DVD drives
300W PSU
I'm running windows 7 home premium 32-bit, but I'll switch to 64 if I get more RAM.
Some common tasks I need to use the computer for:
Internet Browsing
Office Applications
Animating in Flash Pro CS5.5
Animating while streaming with Livestream Procaster
Transcoding Videos with Badaboom
Recording TV in Media Center
Listening to music
Modeling in Autodesk Inventor 2011
I've also recently taken up some PC gaming, my current library and performance (all at 1280x1024):
Burnout Paradise
On low settings, around 40FPS with major slowdown during crashes.
Halo
Smooth in 3D with high settings
Sonic Heroes
Smooth with high settings
Sonic adventure DX
smooth in 3D with high settings and added motion blur filters
Oblivion
Smooth with high settings
Skyrim
around 40FPS with low settings
Trackmania nations forever
smooth in 3d with high settings
Team fortress 2
smooth in 3d with high settings
portal
smooth in 3d with high settings
minecraft
smooth with fancy graphics, smooth shading, and normal draw distance
terraria
smooth
magicka
smooth
Right now, I'm looking at this athlon II X3, and I need:
to know if this will be a significant improvement over my current CPU
a motherboard to go with it that will
-fit my tuner, wifi, and gfx cards
-have core (and possibly L3) unlocking for that fourth core
-preferably have surround sound in 3.5mm jacks
-preferably have FireWire
budget DDR3 RAM if necessary
and I need to avoid going over the PSU's limits to stay on a tight budget. right now I'm looking at around 175 USD, but I might be able to go higher. I need this desktop to last me 2 1/2 more years until I go to college.
oh, and I do all of my buying on amazon, though I may be able to make an exception for part of the order.
3GB DDR2 RAM (2x1GB 2x512MB)
Intel Pentium D 820 @2.80GHz
Asus P5LP-LE Limestone Motherboard
Conexant Falcon II Analog TV Tuner (PCI)
RILink WLAN G (PCI)
MSi Nvidia GT440 (PCIe, dual slot)
250GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
2 DVD drives
300W PSU
I'm running windows 7 home premium 32-bit, but I'll switch to 64 if I get more RAM.
Some common tasks I need to use the computer for:
Internet Browsing
Office Applications
Animating in Flash Pro CS5.5
Animating while streaming with Livestream Procaster
Transcoding Videos with Badaboom
Recording TV in Media Center
Listening to music
Modeling in Autodesk Inventor 2011
I've also recently taken up some PC gaming, my current library and performance (all at 1280x1024):
Burnout Paradise
On low settings, around 40FPS with major slowdown during crashes.
Halo
Smooth in 3D with high settings
Sonic Heroes
Smooth with high settings
Sonic adventure DX
smooth in 3D with high settings and added motion blur filters
Oblivion
Smooth with high settings
Skyrim
around 40FPS with low settings
Trackmania nations forever
smooth in 3d with high settings
Team fortress 2
smooth in 3d with high settings
portal
smooth in 3d with high settings
minecraft
smooth with fancy graphics, smooth shading, and normal draw distance
terraria
smooth
magicka
smooth
Right now, I'm looking at this athlon II X3, and I need:
to know if this will be a significant improvement over my current CPU
a motherboard to go with it that will
-fit my tuner, wifi, and gfx cards
-have core (and possibly L3) unlocking for that fourth core
-preferably have surround sound in 3.5mm jacks
-preferably have FireWire
budget DDR3 RAM if necessary
and I need to avoid going over the PSU's limits to stay on a tight budget. right now I'm looking at around 175 USD, but I might be able to go higher. I need this desktop to last me 2 1/2 more years until I go to college.
oh, and I do all of my buying on amazon, though I may be able to make an exception for part of the order.