I'm looking to get the best value for the buck on my 3 year old computer that I am updating (pretty much all the components)
Its an old HP Media Center and I have $600 to spend on Gaming PC upgrades. Can anyone take a look to make sure I've done my homework so far. In the end (after a few upgrades) I'd like a PC that plays Blu-ray movies and can do it smoothly. Has anyone recently upgraded from the original dual cores (like the early Athlons) to the brand new Phenoms.... Should I be expecting a VAST improvement??? As of now flash video (youtube, hulu, etc.) stutters at 1680x1050 and any Divx movies over 720p bring down the system. The games I play are Empire Total War, Counterstrike, and I'd like to be prepared for The Old Republic.
I'm upgrading from a AMD Athlon x2 4200 (2.2 ghz) on a 939 Socket Mobo. I already have Vista\ 7RC1, 3 500gb+ harddrives, case, TV Tuner, and a ATI 4850 512mb GPU.
What I need to upgrade is:
**CPU
$245 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
$139 AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
**Motherboard
This old AMD Socket 939 board obviously has to go, I'll need one with dual PCI 2.0 slots (and dual 16x crossfire) and will need to support 1600 DDR3 Memory, and have 2 PCI-E slots for my TV Tuner and future Audio Card. It would be helpful for right now to have a Digital Audio Out (Coax) for my sound system.
There seems to be a lot of AM3 Motherboards on Newegg
The range is from $90 to $200, with everything from Quad GPU support and on.
**Memory
As I'd like to go with an AM3 socket mobo, it will run only DDR3.
**PSU
My stock PSU is 4 years old and only 350watts, I'm suprised it powers up my GPU and Hard Drives as is. I think this is going to cost $130-160 no matter what to get a 800W-1000W. Is the modular cable system really worth it?
Has anyone recently updated any of these components or better yet built a PC with like specs and know of any good Combo deals on Newegg.
EDIT:
So far this is what I might purchase come Sunday night:
Going with a Phenom II X3 that can be OC'd to 3.2-4Mhz stable, and a much cheaper Motherboard that will even allow its 3300 series ATI card to hybrid crossfire with a regular graphics card (HD4850), it also has everything else I need. With the above will I need anything extra, like Thermal Paste, Fans (I have a 90mm right now, and the CPU comes with one, along with the PSU)?
Its an old HP Media Center and I have $600 to spend on Gaming PC upgrades. Can anyone take a look to make sure I've done my homework so far. In the end (after a few upgrades) I'd like a PC that plays Blu-ray movies and can do it smoothly. Has anyone recently upgraded from the original dual cores (like the early Athlons) to the brand new Phenoms.... Should I be expecting a VAST improvement??? As of now flash video (youtube, hulu, etc.) stutters at 1680x1050 and any Divx movies over 720p bring down the system. The games I play are Empire Total War, Counterstrike, and I'd like to be prepared for The Old Republic.
I'm upgrading from a AMD Athlon x2 4200 (2.2 ghz) on a 939 Socket Mobo. I already have Vista\ 7RC1, 3 500gb+ harddrives, case, TV Tuner, and a ATI 4850 512mb GPU.
What I need to upgrade is:
**CPU
$245 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
$139 AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
**Motherboard
This old AMD Socket 939 board obviously has to go, I'll need one with dual PCI 2.0 slots (and dual 16x crossfire) and will need to support 1600 DDR3 Memory, and have 2 PCI-E slots for my TV Tuner and future Audio Card. It would be helpful for right now to have a Digital Audio Out (Coax) for my sound system.
There seems to be a lot of AM3 Motherboards on Newegg
The range is from $90 to $200, with everything from Quad GPU support and on.
**Memory
As I'd like to go with an AM3 socket mobo, it will run only DDR3.
**PSU
My stock PSU is 4 years old and only 350watts, I'm suprised it powers up my GPU and Hard Drives as is. I think this is going to cost $130-160 no matter what to get a 800W-1000W. Is the modular cable system really worth it?
Has anyone recently updated any of these components or better yet built a PC with like specs and know of any good Combo deals on Newegg.
EDIT:
So far this is what I might purchase come Sunday night:
Going with a Phenom II X3 that can be OC'd to 3.2-4Mhz stable, and a much cheaper Motherboard that will even allow its 3300 series ATI card to hybrid crossfire with a regular graphics card (HD4850), it also has everything else I need. With the above will I need anything extra, like Thermal Paste, Fans (I have a 90mm right now, and the CPU comes with one, along with the PSU)?
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