Need some advice

[Desertfox]

Well I plan to save my money and buy parts to build a new pc. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on different parts I should consider. Note: I am on a budget

Here are my current choices

CPU: Intel i5-750
RAM: 4gigs of DDR3-1333
Video/Graphics card: not sure yet leaning towards ATI 4870 or GTX 260
HDD: Caviar Black 1TB SATA
Sound Card: not sure, may just keep the one I have
Motherboard: GA P-55 UD4P ATI&SLI+Crosfire
Cooler: Hyper 212+ Universal CPU Cooler Socket LGA1366/1156/775/AM3/AM2/940/939
Optical Drive: going to keep this one probably, unless I really need to change
OS: Maybe windows 7 Ultimate (Might as well get all the features)
Case: I have no idea
PSU: Maybe a Corsair 750watt

Thanks for any feedback!

[Dukat]

The P55 is rather new but it looks like it will be sold in large quantities and thus support might increase. Currently there is some teething trouble.

From what I see you'll need at least a 700watt power supply.
With such a big power supply I'd reach for a good case with a big fan, more than 120mm.
You also might use more than 4 Gigs with Windows 7. I'd think about 2x4GB.

[Desertfox]

From what the requirements say http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/system-requirements.aspx, I only need 1gig of RAM, but 4 was just a start point anyway, because I planned to continually add more as I go along.

[Cory the Otter]

hijack the thread for a second; what is the most powerful processor i can get that is compatible with my specs?
Manufacturer:   
Acer
Processor:   
AMD Phenom(tm) 8400 Triple-Core Processor (3 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory:   
3838MB RAM
Hard Drive:   
148 GB
Video Card:   
NVIDIA GeForce 9200
Monitor:   
Generic PnP Monitor
Sound Card:   
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Speakers/Headphones:   
Keyboard:   
USB Root Hub
Mouse:   
USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:   
Operating System:   
Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.090803-2339)

[Desertfox]

What mobo you do you have? Specifically, because if not, you could by something that wont work

[Cory the Otter]

What mobo you do you have? Specifically, because if not, you could by something that wont work

Mobo?

[Desertfox]

The P55 is rather new but it looks like it will be sold in large quantities and thus support might increase. Currently there is some teething trouble.

From what I see you'll need at least a 700watt power supply.
With such a big power supply I'd reach for a good case with a big fan, more than 120mm.
You also might use more than 4 Gigs with Windows 7. I'd think about 2x4GB.

for case I was looking at the Three Hundred ATX http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0283272
                

Mobo?

motherboard, just being lazy didn't feel like typing it so I used slang.

[Cory the Otter]

as far as i know, i don't have one....i really know nothing about the technical specs of my computer other than that xfire report i posted.

[Desertfox]

If you can find out what socket it has, you can find out what CPU you cna get

[Dukat]

as far as i know, i don't have one....i really know nothing about the technical specs of my computer other than that xfire report i posted.

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=news&location=2009_release_sp3&langx=en&a=

[cannonfodder]

What mobo you do you have?

as far as i know, i don't have one....

LOL...that's farkin' funny...

Dude, the motherboard is the big circuitboard that everything else (CPU, HDD,etc.) plugs into (I'd like to see how your PC works without one... ).

Download Sandra (from link in Dukat's post), it'll tell you everything you need to know about it.

You could also open the PC and look for a brand/model number on the board itself (should be fairly easy to find), and then Google it.

[Stefan]

Well i wouldnt spend that much on a corei5 system when the most demanding thing you do on it is gaming, for which you should buy AMD which is same speed and a good deal cheaper not to mention unlocked multiplier

The money you save you can spend on a 5850 or 5870 then whichever suits your price range.

To lay out the specs

AMD 955 or 965 ( the 965 is out in the new 125w revision )
Gigabyte 790x DDR3 version mainboard
Ramwise go for the GSKILL ripsaw series

everything else looks good enough, about the soundcard yeah its not worth going for a soundcard anymore unless you want to spend +100 dollars on it. The gigabyte mobo has realtek 889 which is pretty decent.

[NTH]

A few things:

- You invest much in your PSU while your system hardly needs it. 500w is sufficient.

- To get the max out of you DDR3 memory you should set up a tripple channel, instead of a dual channel. So that means either 3 GB or 6 GB of memory. Otherwise it won't match the bus speed.

- Video card: get a Club3D HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E. Already has DirectX 11 support. Good price.

- HDD.Better to get two of 600 GB then one of 1 TB. Put them in RAID0 to prevent long loading screens. Like FH2 map loading for example.

- For your MOBO. The Asrock P55M Pro has gotten nice reviews and has a good price/quality relation.

Good luck.

[Desertfox]

Well i wouldnt spend that much on a corei5 system when the most demanding thing you do on it is gaming, for which you should buy AMD which is same speed and a good deal cheaper not to mention unlocked multiplier

The money you save you can spend on a 5850 or 5870 then whichever suits your price range.

To lay out the specs

AMD 955 or 965 ( the 965 is out in the new 125w revision )
Gigabyte 790x DDR3 version mainboard
Ramwise go for the GSKILL ripsaw series

everything else looks good enough, about the soundcard yeah its not worth going for a soundcard anymore unless you want to spend +100 dollars on it. The gigabyte mobo has realtek 889 which is pretty decent.

Actually, the i5 generally out performs the AMD 965/955 from what I've heard, and I can get it at a lower price.

 

A few things:

- You invest much in your PSU while your system hardly needs it. 500w is sufficient.

- To get the max out of you DDR3 memory you should set up a tripple channel, instead of a dual channel. So that means either 3 GB or 6 GB of memory. Otherwise it won't match the bus speed.

- Video card: get a Club3D HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E. Already has DirectX 11 support. Good price.

- HDD.Better to get two of 600 GB then one of 1 TB. Put them in RAID0 to prevent long loading screens. Like FH2 map loading for example.

- For your MOBO. The Asrock P55M Pro has gotten nice reviews and has a good price/quality relation.

Good luck.

Never though about getting 2 600GB HDD's so maybe I'll do that, but it'll cost more. I'll also triple channel the RAM, and I'll have to look to see my Video card choices to see if the 5770 is better than my other choices.

[Cory the Otter]

i want to keep everything i have still in the computer. is it possible to have the upgrades work in unison with the old parts for a faster/better performance?