Desperately Need New PC

Hello fellow computer geeks and nerds. I've been using the same piece of crap computer for the past 8 years and it's truly on it's last leg. Been saving up for a few months and I'm almost ready to make the move in building myself a new PC. However, I haven't been up to date on computer technology news/info for 6+ years so I'm truly left in the dark.

I would truly appreciate some opinions and input on what combinations of parts would be ideal for my new PC (on a budget of roughly $600).

I currently have pure ***for parts, so almost anything would be a significant upgrade compared to what I got:

AMD Athlon XP 2500 (1.53 GHZ)
1 GB of DDR PC2100 RAM
AGP port with a Nvidia FX 5700 series card
80 GB HD running on PATA still

I'll be making all my purchases from Newegg, so check there if you would like to help me choose selective parts ^^

I appreciate the input, advice, opinions and help ^^ Thanks everyone~

PS: Speakers, Monitor(s) and peripherals will be purchased separately, so please make the focus on nothing more than the PC (case and PSU included).

Hey there, I build PCs as a side project of mine. Here is a quick PC I put together that would run great with anything you toss at it.
First off lets start with your Hard drive choices:
HDD: Raptor 74 GB main(OS , Software), 1 TB Secondary(dump drive, music movies pictures random junk)
Raptor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136033
1 TB drive(high cache):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

CPU: my personal favorite is AMD .
Don't skip out on the new AMD socket AM3 CPUs, great stuff and quad core!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103650
Motherboard: Gigabyte Mobo, they do great jobs on them.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128378
RAM: gotta love RAM, so cheap now days. get 2x of this stuff, your mobo supports it!(up to 16 GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231189

ok... ill need to repost this. i just noticed the 600 dollar limit and yeah, thats 600 dollars hahah will post another in a few

Yeah, $600 is the realistic mark but it's a soft cap for now, can go slightly above or below if need be. I don't really care if it's AMD or Intel, my primary focus is having a PC that isn't run by a hampster on an exercise wheel.

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811215009

HDDs: Primary Raptor, secondary dump drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136033
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128376

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339

Ram: Get 2x of these, you do not want to be bottle-necked on your ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103253

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152037

Should come out to 690 dollars. almost got it on your budget, but you can adjust as needed. That set up should run tons of games just fine.
Also the reason i suggest two separate hard drives, is due to the fact that often times the primary drive gets cluttered and requires lots of defragmentation,if you simply keep a storage drive to put all your downloads, your PC will always run as smooth as the first day you got it :)

I appreciate the help immensely! This will be a great basis to go off of. I'll tweek and adjust it later when i'm not lagging so badly but overall this is definitely looking good.

I'll eventually get more hard drives but it'd be nice to learn how to use RAID and have a mobo that supports it. Anyone know how the different RAID setups work? It'll save me the effort, time and heartache of dealing with removable storage and backup software -.-

well you could raid, but they have to be the same size and type, so you could raid and have really fast performance, but for practical purposes, i just suggested two drives so you wouldnt cluster up one drive alone.

btw, 2 x raptor in raid is amazing XD

I was thinking mainly of using RAID in the sense of backup security. I believe RAID0 aka Mirrored is where it reads and writes the same data to two linked drives so if one were to fail, you wouldn't lose anything. After that it gets more complicated using various odd numbered setups.

doing anything other then a mirrord raid system can cause more problems then its worth, without enough backups, one failed drive can take out the entire array, so you security purposes, raid0 is the best.

also inc pricelist in a few

Thanks guys, I truly appreciate it. Should hopefully be ordering before the turn of July. After I know what i'm getting of course >.>

ah i see, then yeah, you would want 3 hard drives, 1 main, 2 dump drives, 500/500? or 1000/1000 GB. the raptor is totally worth it btw, they really have dropped down in price since i first got mine.

you could also do speed and back up. 74/74 Raptor x2, and 1000/1000 GBx2 :o
but that would cost a good amount.

Yeah I'll worry about hard drive and RAID setups later. For now I should just worry about actually getting a functional PC lol. But yeah, RAID0 is what I'll go with should I get a mobo with that available. Even if it doesn't it shouldn't cost too much to find a RAID card for a PCI slot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119047
Coolermaster case for about 50 bucks
honestly just about any case for 50~ from a major manufacturer will work fine (just make sure its a mid-tower)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073
500G SATA HD, good timings, really nice HD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339
Nvidia 9800gtx+ honestly amazing for this price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
Corsair 520W PSU, these babies a rock solid, and its modular!
saw a test where one of these was running a triple SLI system, waaaaaaaay beyond what its supposed to, without wavering

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231121
A solid 2G DDR2800 stick for 25 bucks, whats to complain about

now down to the brass tax

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188035
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115206

I chose to opt for a Core2Duo system simply because they will outperform AMD systems right now in a doller-per-doller battle

having built multiple systems like this one myself, i can say without a doubt this will run better then an AMD system that cost roughly the same. Not including that if you ever wanted to make the system faster, Wolfdale cores overclock amazingly well, with relatively no extra work.

This system is only really missing a DVD burner (there like 25 bucks)

This build ends up being just under $606 without the DVD burner

Edit: read up on posts i missed, and that motherboard has SATA raid 0/1/0+1/5/JBOD

Heh, at first I was gonna say WTF @ onboard video on the mobo until I realized it just needed an extra card to run what in essence would be an onboard SLR. I am loving this setup you made here. Extremely practical and efficient, yet relatively inexpensive. I think we might have a winner here. Thank you so much Zaps.

Instead of making a new thread, opinions? And yes I'm aware that it's missing a mobo atm looking for ideas on that to go with the other components and maybe something that can be liquid cooled... Probably about a 2k max price tag is my limit as it is now it's sitting at 1283. Opinions, thoughts, suggestions, ideas {Yes, please!}

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160 = $150

HDDs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152119 = $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 = $109

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121308 = $260

Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224 = $170

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674 = $245

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182188 = $199

Arte, looks like you got all the help you need, but I'll just say anything that you can carry over to the new build, do so. I got a nice case way back from a mom and pop store in my area, and have recycled it for 3 builds now. Easy way to save money unless your current case is crap (or not a standard mid tower) or you just want something new.

Ditto for the Optical Drives. Since your current PC is old, you prolly are a little outdated as to your drives...but if it's a 16 speed DVD burner, and it works, why buy new? I upgraded to SATA opticals drives in my newest build...but I will have these until they break.

Everything else, yeah...you're gonna need new. Luckily, since the i7's and such are out now, the older *** (that really ain't that old if you think about it) is dirty cheap. Compared to what you've got now, it'll be freaking night and day lol

I hate mid tower cases. Full tower is the way to go, more space to work with, future upgrades made possible, and easier to cool down.

if you don't want the job of putting it together(my brother bought one from here and it has been good so far.) I would try this.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_II/

It's not the best PC in the world but it's cheap for around 619 and it's already put together.

I only really have opinions on the CPU, Video card and case. For the money you're willing to drop on each of them, it seems like there's generally better stuff that's possibly cheaper. Also, since you're looking at a triple-channel memory kit, you'll either want to jump to corei7 or back down to dual-channel kits, which is very much in the price range you already have for a CPU and hasn't really found any negative critics yet. Intel and AMD fan-boys alike have to admit i7 is hot ***. lol The case in particular also seems fairly expensive, and while it has good reviews I'd "guess" at that price you might be able to find something better. Same with GFX, though the more you push that area of your build, the more you'll want to consider liquid-cooling, but that's just my opinion. Good luck!

Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/

If anyone in this thread isn't aware of this site, I'd use it in conjunction with Newegg to identify the mix of price and performance you're looking for, as I usually see Newegg as the place where great values are highly rated, but may not be the best in performance.

At second glance alot of this goes far beyond my expectations of what I would be able to get with $600. My upgrades will be few and far between aside from new HDs for more space. Perhaps I'll lower estimate to about $400 and use the other $200 for a new monitor ^^

Kinda sick of using my ancient Viewsonic 17" CRT. It's nice but I hate how clunky and small it is.

As long as it can play FFXI, have capacity for XIV in the future, play music, movies, and browse the internet with relative ease I'll be happy as a bird with a french fry.

There's constantly deals lately for very nice and affordable LCDs now, most commonly 24' which is lurvely. As long as you aren't using them for something like serious graphic editing, the affordable models are awesome for most uses. I'd be glad to put you down for deals notice when I spot them. lol

Yeah, if you find a good deal on things let me know. Frankly dog ***would be a significant upgrade compared to what I currently have so don't worry about critical quality. I'm just in it for the simple things like games, music, web browsing, and various document work.

Oh and if anyone has suggestions on name brands that are proven to be awesome throughout the years please feel free to put in your two gil.

What are you looking to spend, Arte? Also, do you have a particular screen size in mind, or a resolution? Some think 24' widescreen is too big for a personal computing space, so if that's too much you'll save money on something smaller anyway. Generally I'd recommend somewhere between 22-24 in order to fulfill a nice-looking 1920x1200/1920x1080 res which is HD resolution for movies you might be watching on your compizzle. lol

Honestly I dont wanna go above $200 on a monitor. I have a clunky 17" CRT, so almost any simple LCD with standard technology would be a significant upgrade. Ghosting is a thing of the past, so I'm not worried with having top of the line features or quality. If the brand is good and reliable I'm sure it'll be great regardless.

Gotcha, I'll PM you and possibly reply back here if I spot something ideal soon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001278&Tpk=T220HD

come with a TV tuner too (its basically a TV)
<3 this monitor

Probably having a total brain fart here, but I never quite understood the difference in general between a monitor and a TV. Presumably a monitor is a display device typically using DVI/VGA outputs while a TV has outputs mainly for "cable" and contains a tuner allowing one to change channels?

I dunno, I'm semi-confused. But either way that monitor looks amazing for the price if you don't mind resting it on a flat surface.

With the newer LCD TV's, the difference is minimal. A lot of them have the inputs for PC's and such, as well as the standard TV ***like a tuner, cable inputs, etc. I use my 32" LCD as a computer monitor all the time ^^

Yeppers, though if you'd like to use a monitor as a TV, depending on whether or not you'll be connecting it to an HDTV source, you'll want to check the inputs for HDCP compatibility and figure out which input is using it, so you aren't locked out of your HDMI or DVI input you planned to use for your computer unless you're swapping them around each time you change interfaces.

The other note I'd make in regards to Zaps posted monitor is that it isn't full HD resolution, and the best part about computer monitors is that in general you're sitting close enough for your eyes to distinguish the resolution quality between SD, 720p and 1080p. With TVs, the distance you're viewing from can make a big difference as to whether your eyes can even tell the difference between a cheaper 720p TV and a 1080p TV. With that said, I say take full advantage of the PC/desk situation and go for 1920x1200/1920x1080 monitors. >.o

Edit: Reading through my RSS stuff and noticed Gizmodo actually wrote up an article explaining this really recently. Here's link for anyone interested in the details of resolution compared to viewing distance: http://gizmodo.com/5280355/guess-what-many-of-you-wasted-money-on-your-1080p-tv-but-theres-hope

only problem with that is usually price, but if you can, go for it.