Upgrade Advice

[clawcity]

Hey guys, my girlfriend is looking at buying a whole new system, and I'm woefully behind on current technology. What CPU, motherboard & video card would you boys recommend for a good system for less than $1000 total (incl case, CPU, mobbo, RAM etc).

[davet8]

most games are gpu bound these days.

if i were putting 1k total into a system (including almost everything except monitor/input, drives, by the sounds of it) id be going AMD cpu, ~4gb ddr3 1600 ram, 790fx chipset motherboard, and a decent midrange GPU like the 5770 or 5850.

coolermaster 690 series cases are cheap, will fit the extra long GPU cards and are decent for aircooling.
~650w psu should be more than enough.


if your GF is anything like mine though, the PC will probably wont be used for anything more intensive than web, movies, music and goddamn farmtown.. so if thats the case, something like this (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1023&products_id=13945);
just add ram, a low end SSD for super fast bootup times (and will make it seem waaay faster than it is).
should handle some light gaming aswell with that ION onboard graphics, anything based on valves source or the older engines should be fine.

[clawcity]

She does actually play games on her PC, so she'll need a video card capable of more than farmtown ;)
Any particular AMD CPU in mind?

[KamiKaze_King]

I am selling my old gaming PC now that I have my MacBook Pro I don't use it anymore.

I can't remember exact specs, but it is a Dual Core 3GHz Intel Processor, Nvidia GeForce 8800GTS 640MB Graphics card. 2 x 250GB HDD's (I think), Legit Win 7 Pro installed, 2GBDDR 2 Memory, Thermaltake Tsunami Case, 2 x 17" Moniors Logitech Keyboard and Mouse.

Looking for around $700 for it ono

[davet8]

She does actually play games on her PC, so she'll need a video card capable of more than farmtown ;)
Any particular AMD CPU in mind?
lucky you :)

well considering the amd quadcore pricing starts at ~$130, for a 2.8ghz part (no l3 cache, though - but slightly more for one that does have that), id be looking at those rather than the dualcores.
infact only the black edition 965 (unlocked multiplier - overclockers delight..) one costs more than $200, and even then not much over. should keep up (in games) with the core i5 cpus, especially when they cost much more.
and generally, i5 motherboards cost more too. RAM will be the same for amd/intel though.
i think that AMD has a better upgrade path than i5 also - the AMD 6+ core cpus should drop straight in, whereas with intel, those sorts of things are i7 only.

a dualcore will save you a little bit of $ and be slightly faster (at some things), but to me, no amount of mhz will make up for losing 2 whole cores - this might not matter, depending on the games shes playing.
quadcore will probably help the PC keep up in the future too

[clawcity]

She's eyeing off the AMD II Athlon X4 635 2.9GHz to replace her current AMD Athlon X2 5200+ 2.6GHz
She's also looking at the Radeon HD5770 to replace her Nvidia 8600GT.
The 790fx boards seem to have a heavy pricetag so we're considering the GA-790XT-USB3

[clawcity]

Oh and a BenQ 18.5 inch LCD 1366x768 5ms thrown in for good measure ;)

[davet8]

nice choices.

edit: further advice not required, youve got it covered there :)

[clawcity]

I imagine PCs these days need a heap of juice. How big a PSU you reckon we'd want?

[Beefy]

I imagine PCs these days need a heap of juice. How big a PSU you reckon we'd want?

Depends on your vid card, mostly. If you're just going mid range video, a 650W ought to be plenty.

Re: your comment about the screen... How can people play on 18.5" screens? Looking at the whole thread, I'd personally just spend money on a new video card and screen for the existing PC.

[davet8]

yeah, anything more than a 650 is overkill for that. would want a ~550 at least though.

corsair do a good modular 650w model, though its not the cheapest. having said that, i remember all too well the last time i cut corners on the PSU, and regretted it..