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Is it time to put my baby (PC) to pasture?
Lindsay Lohan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok folks - I know that we seem to get a flood of "What should I buy" PC questions, I'm actually not going to go that route on you...my question is simple: Is it time to retire my PC and consider replacing it?
I'm looking at a budget this tax season of about $500 - 600 bucks or so and I'm at the point where I really need to look at whether to add onto my current rig or just start fresh.
What I use it for:
Some (casual) gaming...nothing major...we're talking Sims 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and Bookworm Adventures. I'd love to try Halflife 2 or a few other games, but I really don't demand OMG MORE POWER stuff here.
Photoshopping family pictures
Web browsing
Music (listening)
What I have:
Athon 1800
512 megs ram
Geforce FX 5700LE
Built in sound card
DVD burner & CD rom drives
2 harddrives (30gb & 40gb IIRC)
17" CRT monitor (Compaq P720)
Now, here's the fun part - I really need to be able to buy a new copy of Windows XP (can be an upgrade version, I have a copy of Windows 98 somewhere around here) along with either the new PC or the update to my system.
I think that by the time I bought an OS, a bigger harddrive, more ram, maybe a new video card, I might be getting beyond the cost effectiveness of simply updating. So - I'm thinking that it might be more to my interest to pick up a refurbished Dell in their outlet for $400 bucks or so which would have more ram, more harddrive space, and an Athlon 64 processor, and maybe have enough left over for a $200ish flatpanel.
So, I guess a few options...update my PC (and buy an OS)? Build a new PC? Buy an off the self refurbished dealie?
I'm looking at a budget this tax season of about $500 - 600 bucks or so and I'm at the point where I really need to look at whether to add onto my current rig or just start fresh.
What I use it for:
Some (casual) gaming...nothing major...we're talking Sims 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and Bookworm Adventures. I'd love to try Halflife 2 or a few other games, but I really don't demand OMG MORE POWER stuff here.
Photoshopping family pictures
Web browsing
Music (listening)
What I have:
Athon 1800
512 megs ram
Geforce FX 5700LE
Built in sound card
DVD burner & CD rom drives
2 harddrives (30gb & 40gb IIRC)
17" CRT monitor (Compaq P720)
Now, here's the fun part - I really need to be able to buy a new copy of Windows XP (can be an upgrade version, I have a copy of Windows 98 somewhere around here) along with either the new PC or the update to my system.
I think that by the time I bought an OS, a bigger harddrive, more ram, maybe a new video card, I might be getting beyond the cost effectiveness of simply updating. So - I'm thinking that it might be more to my interest to pick up a refurbished Dell in their outlet for $400 bucks or so which would have more ram, more harddrive space, and an Athlon 64 processor, and maybe have enough left over for a $200ish flatpanel.
So, I guess a few options...update my PC (and buy an OS)? Build a new PC? Buy an off the self refurbished dealie?
Lindsay Lohan on
0
Posts
Which you aren't at least to some point, otherwise you wouldn't be posting, $600 is enough to get you an OK rig. Certainly for what you need. It won't be able to play anything crazy modern though.
You could easily get a pretty good processor (one of the low end core 2 duo's) and an at least okay video card (I'm thinking anwhere from an X800 to maybe a 7600 here) and easily a gig of ram for what you're asking.
You're not on PCie, you're stuck with DDR1, and I doubt your power supply would have the right connectors for a new mobo... so pretty much everything has to go.
Get yourself a Core 2 Duo e6300 and build yourself a budget 775 platform.
A 7900 GS will serve you well for gaming.
320 gigs is currently the best ration of gigabytes per dollar for a hard drive.
Sorry, but you're going to need at least a gig of ram, and ram is freaking expensive. No name stuff can be a little inconsistent, but the high end stuff is ridiculously expensive.
DVD burner could be moved over from the old rig.
Sound will be on board most mid range LGA 775 boards, and has actually gotten pretty good as long as you're not too particular about quality.
DVD burner can be moved over.
You'll probably need a case and powersupply... please buy a decent power supply. It really is important, even though you won't notice the functional difference. The OCZ gameXtream 600w comes highly recommended, and can be found fairly inexpensively.
I'd hold on to the CRT monitor for now... the next significant step up would be a 20 to 22 inch screen at 1680 x 1050, and those will be coming down in price, not horribly long from now.
Good advice and I'd like to personally vouche for the ocz 600 gamer PSU, this thing is a monster.
Mines power 8800sli and a heavily ocd 64 x2 and is still completely stable :shock: Despite all the crap people claim that you need more then 600.
OCZ sucked a while back but they've really come back.
If you decide on a prebuilt system make sure that the memory will be expandable to 2GB without trowing away the old sticks; it would be more future-proof to get a system that uses DDR2 memory.
You will want to have a PCI Express x16 slot on the motherboard; if you'll try to squeeze in the LCD in the budget then there is a good chance that you'll only get on-board video, Athlon systems will most likely come with GeForce 6100 which is probably slightly slower than your current card - this might still be preferable if their cards are overpriced (a 7600GS at newegg costs ~$90, a 7600GT $130 ATM). Intel systems are likely to come with Intel's integrated graphics which is pretty much useless for gaming - even older 3D games are unplayable.
If you decide on building your own then I would suggest getting a single-core Athlon 64 3800+, which are cheap ($100) but still pretty powerful, some AM2 motherboard, 1GB of DDR2-667 or better RAM, GeForce 7600GT, a 450W FSP PSU, some inexpensive case and a hard drive, as it's likely to be noticeably faster than your old ones.
$571 before tax/shipping if I didn't miss anything. XP Home from newegg would bring the total to ~$661, so be sure to buy something for $5 before ordering.
edit: you can save $13 by getting a smaller drive; you can also upgrade the CPU to a dual-core for $35, which might make the desktop use more smooth but is unlikely to make the apps you listed run faster.
editedit: oh, hey - without the HDD you would almost fit into the budget even with the OS
At night, the ice weasels come."
And then windows update fucks on boot.ini, and your system is slowly losing cohesion.
There's a program to find out your CD-Key as long as your install stilll vaguely boots http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml
After that it's simply a case of "borrowing" another install CD from someone/somewhere.
To Op Post. If you are going to get a new system, make sure you get a copy of vista not xp, or at least a free upgrade.
It's a Dell, refurb, $489.
Operating System
Genuine Windows XP Media Center 2005
Memory
1 GB DDR2 NON-ECC SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive
160 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Video
256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
Hardware Upgrade
13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Certified Refurbished
Certified Refurbished
Base
XPS 410 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB)
Media Bay
16X DVD ROM Drive
You won't be playing that many games on the graphics card. But apart from that...
Here's what's in my Newegg shopping cart right now:
OCZ S.O.E 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Desktop Memory Model OCZ2SOE6671G - Retail
$109.99
ASUS P5L-VM 1394 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$94.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6300 - Retail
$191.00
Total
$395.98
With your budget I'd get what I have there, add in an Antec case that comes with a PSU and get a budget video card. With DX 10 just about to get here I don't see a point in buying something good now as the new tech is right around the corner. The motherboard is a nice stable Asus, I don't care about OCing, RAID, dual video cards, etc.. just want it to run.
I like building my own systems and picking just what components I want. Never was a big fan of buying pre-built.
I KISS YOU!
Just curious, I actually really like my case, how can I tell if my case/power supply would be adequate?
Well the case, as long as it's a standard ATX one, will be fine with whatever ATX motherboard you stick in it. Just make sure its big enough to fit all the stuff in it that you want.
I think. Can someone confirm that the older ATX cases still work with new motherboards that come with PCI-E slots instead of AGP? Did they keep them in the same spots so they still line up with the spaces in the back?
As for the PSU, it's old so it's most likely not going to have all the fancy stuff on it that the new ones come with, the the sata power plugs and a high enough wattage, but most of the time you can just unscrew the old power supply and put a new one in.
I KISS YOU!
Ugh. Maybe I'll just wait. Would an updated Athlon chip, 512more ram or maybe a new video card make any difference to my system? I'm mostly frustrated when running multiple applications the chugging and slowdown that occurs.
Depends what you upgrade to. I went from a 2400xp/512mb to a 3200xp/1gb and certainly found it to be a lot smoother.
With a 6800GT as well, I'm still comfortably playing all the latest games at medium settings and at high resolutions.
However I'm now desperately wanting (and unable to afford) a dual core system because I tend to absent mindedly run lots and lots of programs at once
I'm considering a 17 or 19" Dell flat panel, just because it's what I use at work and really like it. I assume those are decent since they seem to hit about the midrange pricepoint when I've compared them to other monitors.
You didn't specify your motherboard, but if you wanted to go for affordable power, I'd recommend taking your processor up to an Athlon XP 3200 (or just buy a 2500 and a good thermalright heatsink), 1-2 Gb of DDR400 low-latency RAM ("CAS 2" is the buzzword there), and a GeForce 6800GT 256 Mb card.
That should run you about $300. You'll score near 19000 on 3dMark2001SE, and be able to run most shooters at 70 frames per second, perhaps not at full detail, at 1024x768.
The best thing is, if your motherboard can go 200 Mhz FSB (nForce2 400 Ultra would be optimal), you won't even need to reinstall windows.
Your call if you want to go with a newer architecture, though. I'm of the mindset to squeeze every last bit of juice from the orange before discarding the rind.
EDIT: Don't bother reading the above. I'll just agree with Rook.
I'm going to make love to you tonight. Ok? Ok.
Check customer reviews at newegg for the Antec SmartPower 450W that comes with the Sonata II - it seems that they have a high failure rate and worse than that the support seems atrocious.
Herby: If you decide to wait then Intel will be releasing new Core 2 Duo CPUs at slightly lower price points and later dropping them down significantly (the cheapest will cost $113 and you'll be able to get an E6420 for the price of E6300; the E6x20 chips have double the cache which makes them a bit faster than the E6x00 versions). I think the cheaper CPUs will be introduced sometimes in Q1 2007 (with the cheapest one costing ~$135), but the price drops will come in Q2.
Mainstream DX10 cards should come out around that time also.
edit: Upgrading really boils down to the motherboard and if it supports Athlon XP CPUs and maybe also how you feel about overclocking. If you need to get a new motherboard then you might as well get a socket 939 one, as you would get the benefit of cheaper new video cards (eg. PCI-E 7600GT=$130 while AGP 7600GT=$180) and the A64 3200+ would be faster than any XP (costs only $59), you'd likely also want new DDR400 RAM if you don't have it, or if you do you can also use it in the 939 system..
Anyway, if your motherboard can work with Athlons XP then you could upgrade it to 1GB/AGP 7600GT or used 6800GT/AXP 2500+ or better for ~$400 with the OS. It also depends a bit on how powerful your PSU is (I think ~360W would be enough) and if your current memory is DDR400 (slower will work also but might have a noticeable effect on performance)
At night, the ice weasels come."