Help with upgrading my PC

Talk about anything and everything not related to this site or the Dreamcast, such as news stories, political discussion, or anything else. If there's not a forum for it, it belongs in here. Also, be warned that personal insults, threats, and spamming will not be tolerated.
Post Reply
Stryfe
Psychotic DCEmu
Psychotic DCEmu
Posts: 577
https://www.artistsworkshop.eu/meble-kuchenne-na-wymiar-warszawa-gdzie-zamowic/
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:34 am
Location: Nowhere U.S.A.
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Stryfe »

Hi.

After my main pre-built gaming rig failed a couple years back, I had pretty much dropped out of playing current PC games. I ended up busting out an older tower from storage, with a *don't laugh* Pentium 4 CPU. As I was pretty much been sticking to emulation of older systems and indy games, this worked alright for a while.

I'll be reusing my Thermaltake 500 watt PSU, and my nVidia GT250 1TB GPU. Assuming I have a very limited budget, could anyone comment on these following components I've lined up? If anyone knows of better alternatives, or better deals, please let me know.

Motherboard
- Best deal I've found

CPU
- Best deal I've found

RAM
- Best deal I've found
ImageImageImageImage
Jeeba Jabba
Jeeba Jabba
Posts: 9106
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2001 7:00 am
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Jeeba Jabba »

From what I remember, back at their debut, triple-core processors aren't worth shit, and were quickly skipped over.

As for that GT250, I'd look into replacing that as soon as you got the chance (in the near future, at least). The best deal remains the Radeon 6950, as it can be flashed and unlocked to a 6970... all for only around $250. You'll survive on the 250 with low resolutions, and bottomed out settings just fine, but if you're gonna want to turn anything up, thats your best option .


Hadn't really the chance to look at mobos and CPUs for ya, but that RAM is a fair deal. While heatsinks on ram are nice, you aren't really gonna push them much with the surrounded components. Wish you the best of luck, and always keep an eye out for Newegg's daily deals.
Image
"He who cannot draw on 3,000 years is living hand-to-mouth." -Goethe
Jeeba Jabba
Jeeba Jabba
Posts: 9106
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2001 7:00 am
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Jeeba Jabba »

Moved to Off-Topic.
Image
"He who cannot draw on 3,000 years is living hand-to-mouth." -Goethe
Stryfe
Psychotic DCEmu
Psychotic DCEmu
Posts: 577
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:34 am
Location: Nowhere U.S.A.
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Stryfe »

Jeeba Jabba wrote:From what I remember, back at their debut, triple-core processors aren't worth shit, and were quickly skipped over.
After doing some reading, I was under the impression that there weren't many games that utilized over 2-3 cores. Would it be worth the gamble IF the fourth core could be unlockable through the linked motherboard? (Phenom II X4 B55?)

I had considering moving one class up to the Phenom II x4 line CPUs. But... they were $20-40 more expensive, and I was confused by all the different variations.
Jeeba Jabba wrote:As for that GT250, I'd look into replacing that as soon as you got the chance (in the near future, at least). The best deal remains the Radeon 6950, as it can be flashed and unlocked to a 6970... all for only around $250. You'll survive on the 250 with low resolutions, and bottomed out settings just fine, but if you're gonna want to turn anything up, thats your best option .
Unfortunately, $250(>) is the range I have to spend right now.

[EDIT] In hind sight, I really need to stick with Nvidia for my Linux usage. I imagine I could get a decent gaming card in the 150-200 dollar range. [/EDIT]
Jeeba Jabba wrote:Hadn't really the chance to look at mobos and CPUs for ya, but that RAM is a fair deal. While heatsinks on ram are nice, you aren't really gonna push them much with the surrounded components. Wish you the best of luck, and always keep an eye out for Newegg's daily deals.
So it might be worth the extra $8 for the T1 line?
ImageImageImageImage
Stryfe
Psychotic DCEmu
Psychotic DCEmu
Posts: 577
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:34 am
Location: Nowhere U.S.A.
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Stryfe »

My original modest gaming had a core2duo, the nvidia gt250 (originally 8600gt), and only 3 gigs of ram. I bought it about 4 1/2 years ago, and the cpu + mobo crispified a little under 2 years ago.

Having said that, I've completely changed my lineup here, and decided on the following.

Motherboard: P8Z68-V
CPU: Intel Pentium Processor G860
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB DDR3 1866 MHz ( 2 x 4 GB )

Hopefully, this will hold me over until I can purchase a new graphics card in about 3-4 months. From there, the linked motherboard could then be upgraded to a i5, or i7, CPU around the 2013 tax season. If nobody sees any glaring error here, I'll be putting my order in about a week.

Total Price: $232 US
- Items all new with one being an open box under warranty.

The Athlon x3 455 being schooled by the G860 on the games I'm immediately interested in.

- Skyrim (I need my mods!)
- Starcraft 2
ImageImageImageImage
User avatar
melancholy
DCEmu's Ace Attorney
DCEmu's Ace Attorney
Posts: 10969
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2001 12:34 am
Location: Indiana
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by melancholy »

The only thing I would say is to get an i3 instead of the Pentium. The cheapest one is only $20 more, but would give you a considerable speed increase. If you really can't swing the extra $20, take the RAM down to 1600 speed to save money.
Stryfe
Psychotic DCEmu
Psychotic DCEmu
Posts: 577
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:34 am
Location: Nowhere U.S.A.
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Stryfe »

melancholy wrote:The only thing I would say is to get an i3 instead of the Pentium. The cheapest one is only $20 more, but would give you a considerable speed increase. If you really can't swing the extra $20, take the RAM down to 1600 speed to save money.
I'd rather not decrease the RAM quality as I had planned on increasing it to 16GB eventually. That would put me a $100+ upgrade situation later down the road.

But... I will wait a couple weeks longer to see if I can snag a i3-2100, or i3-2120, for under $100 w/heatsink+fan. If only I didn't have so many family issues to deal with, I would have had a decent PC already.

Thanks for the input guys. :mrgreen:
ImageImageImageImage
|darc|
DCEmu Webmaster
DCEmu Webmaster
Posts: 16389
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2001 6:00 pm
Location: New Orleans, LA
Has thanked: 120 times
Been thanked: 92 times
Contact:

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by |darc| »

Stryfe wrote:
melancholy wrote:The only thing I would say is to get an i3 instead of the Pentium. The cheapest one is only $20 more, but would give you a considerable speed increase. If you really can't swing the extra $20, take the RAM down to 1600 speed to save money.
I'd rather not decrease the RAM quality as I had planned on increasing it to 16GB eventually. That would put me a $100+ upgrade situation later down the road.

But... I will wait a couple weeks longer to see if I can snag a i3-2100, or i3-2120, for under $100 w/heatsink+fan. If only I didn't have so many family issues to deal with, I would have had a decent PC already.

Thanks for the input guys. :mrgreen:
But running a system on a Pentium with 16gb of RAM is just silly.
It's thinking...
Jeeba Jabba
Jeeba Jabba
Posts: 9106
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2001 7:00 am
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Jeeba Jabba »

|darc| wrote:
Stryfe wrote:
melancholy wrote:The only thing I would say is to get an i3 instead of the Pentium. The cheapest one is only $20 more, but would give you a considerable speed increase. If you really can't swing the extra $20, take the RAM down to 1600 speed to save money.
I'd rather not decrease the RAM quality as I had planned on increasing it to 16GB eventually. That would put me a $100+ upgrade situation later down the road.

But... I will wait a couple weeks longer to see if I can snag a i3-2100, or i3-2120, for under $100 w/heatsink+fan. If only I didn't have so many family issues to deal with, I would have had a decent PC already.

Thanks for the input guys. :mrgreen:
But running a system on a Pentium with 16gb of RAM is just silly.
Image
"He who cannot draw on 3,000 years is living hand-to-mouth." -Goethe
Jeeba Jabba
Jeeba Jabba
Posts: 9106
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2001 7:00 am
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Help with upgrading my PC

Post by Jeeba Jabba »

Also, if you're trying to stay nVidia, the 560ti is a good card for the price. Hasney had one and it worked really well for him, plus I have its mobile cousin in one of my laptops and it performs really well. It's a good mid-range card.

I'm guessing all of their fermi cards should go down in price increasingly soon with Kepler out.
Image
"He who cannot draw on 3,000 years is living hand-to-mouth." -Goethe
Post Reply