Hardware

Currently my computer is starting to reach its limits, for the first time ever I have obtained I game I cannot even play at all. Which has made me realise I need to upgrade. 5 years is a long time between computers, but my computer was once top-of-the-line, so it was able to last quite a while especially with decent care and attention.

So to put it simply, there is pretty much nothing I plan to salvage from the current rig, so I'll be buying everything new. The only things I'll be carrying over is my current monitor, mouse and keyboard as well as all sound devices.

I don't plan on making the purchase until around late March next year, which would mean prices would drop, especially with new releases from Nvidia dropping other prices on the market. But I just want to get a basic build together so I don't spend time running around when I would rather be ordering and just updating a few parts when spare cash comes in.

To come to price, I plan on devoting around $800, I would spend up to $1000 if it was something really worthwhile though. From tampering, I've been able to build decent rigs that cost around $600-700 and can play most current games on high as well as being partially future-proofed, but obviously I believe the experts on this could do even better.

Just for some help as to anyone who wants to look around, in terms of prices in Australia as of current, I suggest these two sites, as they will more then likely be where I order from, and are the standard for most local stores as well.

PC Case Gear
MSY Price Guide (Worst site I have ever seen for looks, but its usually some of the cheapest prices)

Thanks to anyone who can help out with this.

Edit: $800AU is roughly $750 US and roughly 500 Euro

This post has been edited by Oreb-: Nov 18 2009, 02:01 AM

I would wait until the new year before you started looking at prices with both Intel and Nvidia releasing new hardware prices will change..

I would recommend looking at the Intel Core i7 920 D0 2.66GHz, as it overclocks nicely up to 3.2ghz on stock cooler, so same as an i7 965 for a third of the price. (UK price approx £200)

Motherboard of ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 iX58 Socket 1366 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard: (takes either Sli or Crossfire) again for around £200 mark but prices will probably drop in new year..

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Dominator Memory CL8(8-8-8--24) for i7 Motherboards, around the £120 mark.

Graphic card wise the choice is wide with Graphic Cards in the 9 series from Nvidia still strong and the newer GTX260 and above being above £200 mark.. saying that you can get ZOTAC GTX260 192 Core SYNERGY EDITION 896MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card for about £150 and has good reviews.. HD 4850 and HD 4870 lines from ATI are strong contenders and can you be yours around the £120 mark.

Use your existing case and PSU, That should give you 4-5 years more worth of gaming, in which you can upgrade the PSU at leisure.

Just a suggestion for you to look at and something I've been looking at as well.. as my 4 year old rig has just had one of it's 8800's give up the ghost.

Thanks for the tips. Hopefully some of those prices drop quite a bit, otherwise I the processor itself is almost half my budget at this point. Main reason is because while the Australian dollar is strong, things still have outrageous prices compared to other places.

In terms of re-using my case and psu. My case itself is an old encolsed one, with no decent ventilation or cooling options without hacking it to pieces. The psu may be re-useable, but I highly doubt a 5 year old psu will be able to keep up with most modern hardware and will probably become a bottleneck for the rest of the system.

Done some searching around and a bit of reading and this is what I've come up with so far:

Case: Thermaltake V9 Black Edition
PSU: Thermaltake Litepower 600W
Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
Memory: Corsair TR3X3G1600C8D 3GB (3x1GB) DDR3
Videocard: XFX Radeon HD4870 1GB
Harddrive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324 DVDRW Black

Alltogether it is $930 as of the current date. But with the expected price drops, I'm assuming it'll be at least 10% cheaper by the time early March comes around. Can I have any comments on whether this is a decent build or whether I am a raving lunatic?

Here's an idea:
Asus M4A77TD AMD Mainboard - 4x DDR3 / 6x Sata Raid / 1x IDE / Gigabit Lan / AM3 $101.20
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 620 2.6GHz 2MB Cache (AM3/AM2+/AM2) $129.00
Corsair DDR3 4GB PC-10600/1333 (2x XMS3 2GB) CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 Ram $125.40
Asus EAH5770-2DIS-1GD5 RADEON 5770, 1G, DDR5, PCIE2.0, 2xDVI, HDCP, HDMI, DX11, ATX $207.90
Thermaltake Litepower 500W ATX Power Supply Unit $66.00
LG GH22NS50 SATA DVD Re-Writer (22x - Black) $39.00
Thermaltake V9 - Black Midi ATX Tower Case - 23cm Top Fan & Side Window Panel (No PSU) $112.20
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA 3Gbs $77.00
Total: $857.70

http://www.centrecom.com.au

As you can see this system is stretched pretty thin. I'd advise you to spend more, so you can buy at least a better motherboard and the Radeon 5850.

Triple channel memory is only for intel x58 motherboards and the core i7 900 series, so 3x1gb means that you even cannot use dual channel so 2x2gb is way better.

This post has been edited by Species8472: Nov 18 2009, 15:41 PM

Thanks for that, I'm not exactly the best with computers. I know how to pull them apart, put them back together, I know how to fix them, I just don't know what parts are efficient together and what are just duds.

Like I stated above, I won't be making the purchases until Late February/Early March. So more then likely prices will drop in the months between them, so I should be able to bump up a few things and still keep around the $800-900 mark.

May I ask though as to why you would prefer the 5850, as in the main reasons why the huge price jump between cards is worth it.

edit: Would 4x1GB be more beneficial then 2x2GB?

This post has been edited by Oreb-: Nov 19 2009, 02:22 AM

The bump in price is equivalent to its performance, it's around 30% faster.
4x1 will still run in dual channel so it only a waste of space.