[Promagistrate]

Microcenter is the bees knees.

[CyberDork]

The process is $40 cheaper, but the SSD I'm looking at is $35 more expensive. Them seem to be hit or miss on some items. The 40 dollars on the processor is enough for me to take the drive.

[big_scott]

I bought all the parts in my system from Micro Center. They are always cheaper on processors than NewEgg, at least from what I've seen, and they are at least competitive on most other things, especially if it's on sale. The closest Micro Center to me only a 15 minute drive, and there is nothing like knowing what you want and being to go buy and install it same day. I hate having to wait for PC parts in the mail. Though I probably would have a much fatter wallet if I had to.

[CyberDork]

Newegg ships from NJ and I'm in MD. 2 day shipping is alright by me.

[CyberDork]

They have the 2500k for $160 and the 3570k for $190. Now I'm tempted to save 30 MORE dollars and get the 2500k. I would be saving $60 dollars compared to my original plan of the 3570k off of newegg. I've read there's not much of a difference between the two processors, except for overclocking which I really do not initially plan to do regardless.

[big_scott]

What GPU are you using? 3570K will allow you to utilize PCIe 3.0, whereas 2500K can only use PCIe 2.0.

[CyberDork]

660ti. I've read that current cards aren't even using the full bandwidth of 2.0 so it seems kind of pointless...

[Promagistrate]

Yeah, the whole 3.0 thing is really the only major advantage.

[big_scott]

Don't ask me, I don't even know how more bandwidth translates into real world performance. I'm just regurgitating what I've read.

[akward silence]

My downloads are sure faster on 80Mb/s than they were on 2Mb/s.

[big_scott]

Originally Posted by akward silence

My downloads are sure faster on 80Mb/s than they were on 2Mb/s.

I'm talking PCIe bandwidth, not internet bandwidth.

[akward silence]

**** I'm an idiot, I didn't see the like 6 posts above yours not talking about Internet

[akward silence]

Fwiw, tiger direct has i7-3770k processors for $289 (no rebate).

[eforce]

Hey guys, I'm looking to upgrade my desktop PC. It's pretty old and I don't have the money to replace the whole thing. This is what I need to do:

1. Buy a graphics card that can output to 1 VGA and 1 HDMI output simultaneously. If this is not possible or not easy to find, make it 2 HDMI.

2. Replace the hard drive. Stock one is on its way out. I have a licensed copy of windows 7 that I can install on as many machines as I want (it's legal).

3. Speed it up. I'm not sure if my limiting factor is the processor or the 3GB of ram, but it's too slow for my taste. Recently did a clean install of Windows 7 (64 bit) and it's still slow.

Specs:

Gateway GM5664

Processor AMD Phenom X4 9600 / 2.3 GHz
Memory 3.0 GB RAM
Hard Drive 500.0 GB - 7200.0 rpm
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2400XT

Newegg has some pretty reasonable upgrade packages and I was wondering if anyone here as any experience with them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...=Combo.1017861
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...=Combo.1017864

Edit:

Looking at this video card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121435

I realize I would probably still need to buy a graphics card with either of those. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

[toolbandfan]

If anyone needs a cheap Z77 micro ATX board. I have a brand new, never used ASRock Z77M that I can send you for $40 plus the shipping. Probably no more than $50 shipped. I got it with a SSD and I don't think I'm going to use it for a build.

Here is a link.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157325

[akward silence]

Read your post wrong lol

Also, CompUSA matched micro center for the i5-3570k. $189 with no tax!

[Mustang7302]

Originally Posted by eforce

Hey guys, I'm looking to upgrade my desktop PC. It's pretty old and I don't have the money to replace the whole thing. This is what I need to do:

1. Buy a graphics card that can output to 1 VGA and 1 HDMI output simultaneously. If this is not possible or not easy to find, make it 2 HDMI.

2. Replace the hard drive. Stock one is on its way out. I have a licensed copy of windows 7 that I can install on as many machines as I want (it's legal).

3. Speed it up. I'm not sure if my limiting factor is the processor or the 3GB of ram, but it's too slow for my taste. Recently did a clean install of Windows 7 (64 bit) and it's still slow.

Specs:

Gateway GM5664

Processor AMD Phenom X4 9600 / 2.3 GHz
Memory 3.0 GB RAM
Hard Drive 500.0 GB - 7200.0 rpm
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2400XT

Newegg has some pretty reasonable upgrade packages and I was wondering if anyone here as any experience with them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...=Combo.1017861
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...=Combo.1017864

Edit:

Looking at this video card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121435

I realize I would probably still need to buy a graphics card with either of those. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

How much are you looking to spend?

[akward silence]

So I saw CompUSA has a better deal on a HAF 932 and various 850w PSUs. Do they have any good mobos, or should I go with the Extreme4 still?

They only have Asus, msi, evga and Intel mobos. I'm looking at $150ish on a mobo, Z77 ATX.

For example, is this a good choice? I was reading that the one click bios is really simple and easy to OC.

http://www.compusa.com/applications/...607&CatId=6976

[eforce]

Originally Posted by Mustang7302

How much are you looking to spend?

Under $400 for everything. If I can only get two decent quality components in that budget, I'd want the graphics card and the hard drive over the mobo/RAM.

[Mustang7302]

Originally Posted by eforce

Under $400 for everything. If I can only get two decent quality components in that budget, I'd want the graphics card and the hard drive over the mobo/RAM.

OK. You can't even buy quad core AM2+ socket chips from Newegg anymore. The memory is too old to be useful on a new motherboard. So my suggestion would be to keep what you've got, and go with a better GPU and a SSD.

The 650 Ti will just fit the power requirements of your Gateway host's PSU and is reasonably priced for a pretty respectable performance. Throw a 256GB SSD in there, like this Samsung 830, and enjoy faster reads/writes for the OS and applications; take your current platter drive and format it to be used as a media storage secondary drive.

Read up on the BIOS configuration changes before you install Windows to the SSD (changing the SATA port to AHCI). You'll get more performance from the SSD on more current hardware (with SATA 3.0), but it will get you by for a while longer when you can dedicate another $400 to a Motherboard, Processor, Memory and Power Supply (and case).

[eforce]

Originally Posted by Mustang7302

OK. You can't even buy quad core AM2+ socket chips from Newegg anymore. The memory is too old to be useful on a new motherboard. So my suggestion would be to keep what you've got, and go with a better GPU and a SSD.

The 650 Ti will just fit the power requirements of your Gateway host's PSU and is reasonably priced for a pretty respectable performance. Throw a 256GB SSD in there, like this Samsung 830, and enjoy faster reads/writes for the OS and applications; take your current platter drive and format it to be used as a media storage secondary drive.

Read up on the BIOS configuration changes before you install Windows to the SSD (changing the SATA port to AHCI). You'll get more performance from the SSD on more current hardware (with SATA 3.0), but it will get you by for a while longer when you can dedicate another $400 to a Motherboard, Processor, Memory and Power Supply (and case).

Thanks for the info - I think I'll go that route. While I've got the computer taken apart, do you think I'd see a significant difference if I upgraded the RAM to a full 4GB? Right now it's running a 1GB+1GB+512MB+512MB configuration per factory form.