building a budget pc

[RLucky82]

My main usage is no longer gaming since I don't have that much time. What I find myself doing mostly is using SolidWorks o9 + or PhotoShop + web surfing on a second monitor while listing to music or streaming NPR. I also have my HDtv connected to watch hd MX races that currently play in slow motion.


My current rig is;
athlon xp 2500 - Asus A78N delux - 2gb ram - All in Wonder Radeon 9800 - Klipsch 5.1. its been around for quite a while, and still working great except for laggy video and skippy music when multitasking. When I say I get my moneys worth... well you get the idea.


Anyways since my dads computer just died (not worth fixing) I figured I would just give him this one and build another. My goal is to spend the least $ and still be able to multi-task and not have laggy music. and watch the latest video.


since I have a second 500gb iede can I reuse it? Or is it possible to mix ide and sata? I would like to get a sdd for the os If its worth it for this budget system?


I don't need DVD-burner, keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitors(yet), I kind of prefer AMD but not that important. and I don't much care for overclocking unless its really easy and worth it!


I guess some of the questions I have are, do I need quad core processing or will dual core fit the bill for what I'm doing? Is DDR3 that much better then DDR2? and where I really need help is matching the best Mobo to the processor. I'm hoping since this isn't the latest greatest build some of you should have the bugs already worked out?


here is my current rig


Thanks for your help!

[obsidian]

The big question is your budget. Do you have an approximate dollar figure?

iede? I suppose you mean IDE/EIDE. It depends on the motherboard you get, but most modern mobos still support IDE. Any new devices you add will certainly be SATA.

SSD's are really awesome but they come with a hefty price tag. So they are only really "worth it" if you have a fairly good budget to work with. At the moment, I would say skip it if you're on a budget and you can eventually upgrade to one easily when the price comes down or if more money becomes available to you.

While a dual core might do, you may find that a quad core is easily affordable now (it all depends on your budget). Processor (and with that motherboards) and video card choices are extremely variable depending on price. An older Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 costs $150 here, a newer i5 750 is $230. Cheap for you might mean $700 in total, cheap for me might mean $1500.

DDR3 is not much better than DDR2, some higher end systems will only run on DDR3, lower ones only DDR2. Don't worry about buying premium grade memory unless you plan on overclocking, concentrate on buying as much cheap RAM as you can to fit your budget. RAM is relatively cheap and an easy boost in performance, 4GB recommended (2x2GB).

You can probably skip the sound card and use integrated sound, not much difference these days. Hard drives are your discretion, a 1TB SATA drive will run you only $100.

Pick a case to your liking. Get yourself a decent 400-600 watt PSU. I like the Corsair PSUs. Other large brands are good too. Just don't cheap out on the PSU and buy a no-name brand one, if a PSU breaks it often takes the rest of your computer with it. Efficiency is key for low power/low heat usage.

Also don't forget about upgrading stuff like software. On a new system I recommend upgrading to a 64-bit version of Window 7. Older OS like Windows XP don't maximize on newer hardware (especially if you have 4+ GB of RAM).

[RLucky82]

The big question is your budget. Do you have an approximate dollar figure?

While a dual core might do, you may find that a quad core is easily affordable now (it all depends on your budget). Processor (and with that motherboards) and video card choices are extremely variable depending on price. An older Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 costs $150 here, a newer i5 750 is $230. Cheap for you might mean $700 in total, cheap for me might mean $1500.

This is whats driving me nuts, trying to figure out which pieces parts to match together?!? I've tried reading a few of the other threads on this but most are not in the states and the prices don't cross over.

I would like to keep it under 800$ (not including monitors) Windows 7 64bit for sure and I will probably splurge for the "Pro" edition. 4gb of ram seems to be the minimum these days. Integrated sound will be good enough for me. I have a ps3 for BluRay. I agree on the power supply I have seen many fail (even catch on fire) but my Antecs have been delivering smooth power for 8 years now!

it looks like sdd will have to wait. I was hoping to wait another 18 months for this build but...

[obsidian]

Here are a couple of quick links that should tell you approximately what you are looking at. I think a quad core i5 is in your budget if you work it right. You can probably make do with your old hard drive for now if things become really tight.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27782 ... tique-core

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f76/800-i ... ig-222455/

[Scourge]

The new Athlon IIs and Phenom IIs are very affordable and pretty powerful to boot. You might want to check those out.

[RLucky82]

delete

[Foo]

Read AEon's thread for most of what I'd be saying to you, too.

SSD is out. The cheap ones are **not** worth it.

Quad-Core and 4Gb should be your target. Probably i5 as mentioned but one of the older 'Q' chips would be okay if you're really stretching cash.

[obsidian]

RLucky82, can't see your shopping cart because it's stored locally in your cookies. Add it to your wishlist if you want to share.

[RLucky82]

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model ADX630WFGIBOX $100

ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO/U3S6 AM3 AMD 785G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard $120

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ $110

Western Digital Caviar Black 64MB Cache 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" $80

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $140

ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor $200

RAIDMAX Sirius ATX-701WS Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower $80

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified $40

BYTECC ME-747U2/BL 3.5" USB 2.0 External Enclosure 20$


Grand Total:* $880.oo

[Peenyuh]

Why 60 bucks fer a power supply? 500 watts. Pick n pull is good enough. Basic electronics course says salvage is good enough fer this.

[obsidian]

Not bad. You have an SSD but no video card or power supply. Personally, I would have skipped the SSD and spent more on the processor and GPU for performance since those are not easily upgradable. I'd wait for someone like Foo to offer a second opinion.

[RLucky82]

I reconfigured my system build - So far I like the price.


EDIT; yeah I haven't even started to look into video cards yet... I figured I would go for the ssd 75$ instant rebate (I know next year the same one will only be 25$) from my point of view it looks okay but if its possible get a decent performance boost by simply upgrading something for 20-30$ let me know!?!

So if I can use this case and power supply for my new build I can just swap these into another cheap case/psu? that would save a few bucks! Powered by Antec Tru-Power 430w

[RLucky82]

Is there any use for the two 500GB IDE drives that I will no longer be using? It would be nice if I could use them for some kind of network storage or backup devices!?!

[Foo]

Buy USB HDD enclosures for them & use em as backup or media drives. Easy & cheap.

[RLucky82]

Excellent I didn't know those existed! I have learned more about computers from Q3W and playing quake3 then all other places combined! Thanks everyone! Its tempting to upgrade to the 200$ mobo and a 300$ video card but at this point (with summer n all) it just doesn't make sense for me. I did droped the ssd for an sata and saved 150 or so $, since the price just dropped 10$ on the sdd and I'm sure it will keep dropping... the Mobo dropped 20$ today too and I upgraded the processor from 620 to 630 with 200Mhz faster for 2$ wooohooo! Next to find a decent matching Vidcard. and some LCDs

[Psyche911]

One site I've been reading for years puts together a series of suggested systems for different budgets every few months.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747

For you, check out page 4. It even links most of the parts on Newegg, which is where I prefer to buy my computer parts as well.

[RLucky82]

I used to use SharkeyExtreme.com but its kind of dead now

your link isn't working for me?

EDIT: Its working now! thanks for the link.

[RLucky82]

Why 60 bucks fer a power supply? 500 watts. Pick n pull is good enough. Basic electronics course says salvage is good enough fer this.

in case some of you cant read? this complete pc will be going to my fathers house!

[obsidian]

Did you buy and get the parts yet? What's the word?

[RLucky82]

My hangup was trying to figure out which mobo to get! I finally "discovered" SATA 6 and upgraded my mobo for future ssd possibilities and found one with usb3.0 to boot. I think its worth the 20$ price increase since the sale had ended on the other board anyways . I also got a 64mb cache sata6 hdd to match. Hopefully going to order the parts tonight - after my brain swelling goes down... In the fall I'll most likely be itchin' to get a bitchn' video card.

parts ordered ...waitin for the ups guy

the first batch of parts have arrived... monitor - power supply & case

[RLucky82]

and the rest of the parts showed up today...

[obsidian]

Nice! Putting it all together is half the fun. Take your time and enjoy it.

[RLucky82]

good use for a rainy weekend!

[RLucky82]

Everything is up and running smoothly now I'm starting to look at some video cards and found this one that requires minimum 450w powersupply will 50 watts really make that much of a difference since I only have 400w psu? currently powering 2hdds, 1 dvd, 2 casefans, and cpu fan.

XFX HD-485X-ZNFC Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

[SoM]

read the label on the PSU and see how much Amperes is on the +12V rail, if it's 30A+ you'll be fine