1. Are you looking for a new monitor
2. An approximate Price range would help A LOT!

browse http://www.pccasegear.com thy do both packages and give you good parts for cheap

1. Are you looking for a new monitor
2. An approximate Price range would help A LOT!

Nope, Monitors fine, as are kb and mouse etc also hoping to reuse my case which is a Thermaltake Soprano in mint condition

Price is openish maybe up to $800 absolute max, I like to buy stuff thats been out for a couple of months so it’s not at the extreme pricing point stuff starts at when newly released.

Ok,

Can you post up your current specs so we have something to compare your upgrade with?

Cheers, BR

Ok,

Can you post up your current specs so we have something to compare your upgrade with?

Cheers, BR

From memory I think it’s

Thermaltake Soprano case

Core2Duo 6420 @ 2.13

Asus/Nvidia 9600GT video card

500 gig Seagate SATA HDD

Asus P5 mobo with onboard sound and lan, can’t remember the model number offhand

2 gig Kingston RAM

Pioneer DVD Burner

Sony DVD Burner

Out of curiosity, why the two DVD burners?

Including video card upgrade? Because a 9600 is pretty old now. I was bored enough to throw around some figures and see what I could get you for $800. I must say, it looks pretty darn good.

I have no idea about PSU or HDD. Tell us what you have, and someone who knows this stuff better than me can tell you if you’ll need to upgrade. I’m just giving you price ranges and nice options.

I’ve used spoiler tags to stop this from being a wall of text:

Hardware options and price ranges:
[spoiler:22y5xsbx]CPU: i3 550 (3.2GHz 4MB Cache)= $131 $131-$199

i5 650 (3.2GHz 4MB Cache) = $195
i5 760 (2.8GHz 8MB Cache) = $199

Mobo: With USB2.0: $88-$131
ASUS P7H55-(M or V) (1333MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 12USB2) = $88
ASUS P7P55-LX (1600MHz + 1xPCIEx4 + 2xPCIEx1 + 14USB2) = $115

Both have 4DDR3 slots, 6SATA2, 1PCIEx16, 3PCI

With USB3.0:
ASUS P7P55D-E (1600MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 2USB3 + 12USB2 + 2xSATA3) = $131
(4DDR3 + 6SATA2 + 1PCIEx16 + 2PCI)

I don’t know mobo’s too well, but you like ASUS, and figuring out the differences between motherboards is a pain, so I left it at these three options.

RAM: $75-$210
Kingston 2x2GB 1333MHz (10600) Non-ECC = $75
Kingston 2x2GB 1600MHz Non-ECC = $105

Kingston 2x2GB 2000MHz (16000) Non-ECC = $128
You have to overclock most motherboards to get 2000MHz so I suggest against it.

Graphics: ATI: $132-$275
ASUS 5770 1GB GDDR5 = $159
ASUS 5850 1GB GDDR5 = $269

6850 1GB GDDR5 = $220
6870 1GB GDDR5 = $275

NVIDIA:
I don’t like this card -> EVGA GTS450 1GB GDDR5 = $132
ASUS GTX460 768MB GDDR5 = $195
Gigabyte GTX460 1GB GDDR5 = $213
Gigabyte GTX465 1GB GDDR5 = $229

HDD: Seagate 500GB 16M = $51 $0-$228
Seagate 1TB 32M = $75
WD options available too:
Green (good for enviro): 1TB 64M @ $74, 1.5TB 64M @ $105, 2TB 64M @ $119
Black (fast): 1TB 64M 7200RPM @ $109[/spoiler:22y5xsbx]

Builds:
[spoiler:22y5xsbx]Minimum (no PSU or HDD):
i3 550 (3.2GHz 4MB Cache) = $131
ASUS P7H55-(M or V) (1333MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 12USB2) = $88
Kingston 2x2GB 1333MHz (10600) Non-ECC = $75
ASUS 5770 1GB GDDR5 = $159

Total = $453

Option 1 (no PSU):
i5 650 (3.2GHz 4MB Cache) = $195
ASUS P7P55D-E (1600MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 2USB3 + 12USB2 + 2xSATA3) = $131
Kingston 2x2GB 1333MHz (10600) Non-ECC = $75
Kingston 2x2GB 1333MHz (10600) Non-ECC = $75
6850 1GB GDDR5 = $220
(Storage) WD Green 1.5TB 64M = $105

Total = $801

Option 2 (no PSU or HDD):
i5 650 (3.2GHz 4MB Cache) = $195
ASUS P7P55D-E (1600MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 2USB3 + 12USB2 + 2xSATA3) = $131
Kingston 2x2GB 1600MHz Non-ECC = $105
Kingston 2x2GB 1600MHz Non-ECC = $105
Gigabyte GTX465 1GB GDDR5 = $229

Total = $765

Alternative to Option 2 (change to other i5 CPU, swap 2x2GB RAM for a 2TB storage drive):
i5 760 (3.2GHz 4MB Cache) = $199 (+$4)
ASUS P7P55D-E (1600MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 2USB3 + 12USB2 + 2xSATA3) = $131
Kingston 2x2GB 1600MHz Non-ECC = $105
Gigabyte GTX465 1GB GDDR5 = $229
(Storage) WD Green 2TB 64M = $119(+$14)

Total = $783 ($765 + $4 + $14)

Maximum (just over budget, no PSU or HDD):
i5 760 (2.8GHz 8MB Cache) = $199
ASUS P7P55D-E (1600MHz + 3xPCIEx1 + 2USB3 + 12USB2 + 2xSATA3) = $131
Kingston 2x2GB 1600MHz Non-ECC = $105
Kingston 2x2GB 1600MHz Non-ECC = $105
6870 1GB GDDR5 = $275

Total = $815[/spoiler:22y5xsbx]

For an extra $4, you can swap the $105 1.5TB storage drive or $105 RAM out for a $109 fast 1TB WD drive.
Or, for an extra $14, you can turn a $105 1.5TB storage drive into a $119 2TB storage drive

All prices that I obtained were from staticice.com.au. They weren’t always the lowest, but the lowest from a vendor I knew and trusted.

I’m pretty damn impressed with what you can get for $800. Option 1: 8GB RAM, 1.5TB storage drive, 6850, i5 650 and a mobo with USB3.0. And for just an extra $18, it becomes an i5 760 and a 2TB storage drive.

Hopefully this will give you an idea of what you can get. I’m not an expert on any hardware though, so hopefully others will be able to tell you which i5 CPU is better, which graphics card is better, which HDD is better, and whether that 2000MHz RAM is a better option.

Enjoy reading that. I spent like, an hour working on it. Might go to bed now.

If you need Windows 7, pirate it. I cbf factoring that in too.

I’m pretty damn impressed with what you can get for $800. Option 1: 8GB RAM, 1.5TB storage drive, 6850, i5 650 and a mobo with USB3.0. And for just an extra $18, it becomes an i5 760 and a 2TB storage drive.

If you need Windows 7, pirate it. I cbf factoring that in too.

Just in case you weren’t sure, If you go over 4gb of RAM, you will need a 64bit OS, so you are looking at win7 right there.

Green (good for enviro): 1TB 64M @ $74, 1.5TB 64M @ $105, 2TB 64M @ $119
Black (fast): 1TB 64M 7200RPM @ $109

I would urge you against getting the Western Digital Green Series HDD , the reason “they are good for the environment” is their spin speed is 5400 RPM (old laptop speeds) &
as far as I understand it , that translates to a machine that will be 25% slower before you’ve even installed CPU & RAM (a bottle neck on your system you can avoid by spending 20-30 extra bucks).

Avoid 2TB HDD’s as they were also limited to 5400 RPM (except WD Velociraptors which are way over priced )when I last looked 2 months or so ago , be sure to ask at the counter when you go to buy it ,
if they don’t know I suggest you leave & go elsewhere.

Standard HDD’s should have a spin speed of 7200 RPM or greater , the higher the spin speed the greater the performance / power consumption.
If your only using it to stream media to a TV for movies / music then low power consumption is what I would aim for.

I like WD’s / Seagate & am trialing out Hitachi’s on another system with no issues.
If you have any doubts about any of your hardware , call around , a good computer shop will know!

I can’t offer any advice on solid state drives as I’ve never used one.

Cheers

i0n

Yep, I only meant the Green drives as storage drives. That 1TB Caviar Black should be a nice performance drive though. Green drives should be where you stick your video files, not where you install your OS or games.

The performance of green drives isn’t too shabby though. I have two 1TB ones in my media centre pc: 1 for OS and recording to, the other for storing movies/tv/anime. It’s a pretty stupid setup – should have put recording on the other drive, but it runs very smoothly, never had any complaints about it being slow or lagging or anything. That said, I’m not using it for games or anything.

I entirely forgot about 64 bit. I have both versions of 7 Ultimate lying around, so I didn’t think much of it.

StaticIce says MSY have 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium for $108. I don’t know if you’d personally need Ultimate Mozzie, because in 7, they changed it so that only like, absolute IT geeks need Ultimate (I pirated it so it made no difference to me), so I think Home Premium should do everything you need it to. But that’s something you’d really have to look in to yourself – other people can’t tell you that you need 256-bit encryption on your hard drives or whatever Ultimate has.

Thanks iOn and noob for pointing out those things =]

If i was splashing out on a new box here’s what i recommend,
Yes there are from my local shop and price’s and product’s will differ, So along these lines Mozzie.

 http://store.wobm.com.au/products/1698 
 http://store.wobm.com.au/products/1697 
 http://store.wobm.com.au/products/1699 
 http://store.wobm.com.au/products/557 
 http://store.wobm.com.au/products/1557 
 http://store.wobm.com.au/products/1548  <- Optional

Have alookie.

CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 965BE $168
Mobo: Asus M4A87TD-USB3 $99
RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR3-1333 $79
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $58
GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD6850 $219
Case: Antec 300 $59
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 520C $69 (BYO power cord)
ODD: Sony DVD burner $27
CPU HSF: Coolermaster Universal Hyper 212+ $34

total: $812

Out of curiosity, why the two DVD burners?

*snip*

Enjoy reading that. I spent like, an hour working on it. Might go to bed now.

If you need Windows 7, pirate it. I cbf factoring that in too.

I like having 2 CD/DVD Drives so I don’t have to swap discs out as often when playing games, didnt have to be burners but they were about the same price as a standard drive at the time. I use the Pioneer for burning cos it makes a better job than the Sony

Thanks for the VERY comprehensive reply, I’m reading through it now 🙂

CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 965BE $168
Mobo: Asus M4A87TD-USB3 $99
RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR3-1333 $79
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $58
GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD6850 $219
Case: Antec 300 $59
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 520C $69 (BYO power cord) :banana: :banana: :banana:
ODD: Sony DVD burner $27
CPU HSF: Coolermaster Universal Hyper 212+ $34

total: $812

It’s a pretty slick set-up there mate for $800 , nice bit of research!
@ Moz , Sony burners are re-badged Lite-On burners or they used to be , if you go to any swap meets , the people selling media always recommend Pioneer for burning (better build quality imo).

Cheers

i0n

P.S. Power cord $100 😛

Not going to help with your Aim MOzzie LOL / pannzering

PS dont go WD hard Drive