[Vagrant0]

I have a budget of roughly $1000 to work with.

I will be using my existing tower, powersupply.

For hardware, I currently would like to keep;
my 3.5 floppy drive IDE
my dvd r/w IDE
one of my Hard Drives (Seta II)
CRT Monitor uses a standard monitor cable.

For other hardware;
I have 2x 1gb of dual channel PC3200 400mhz memory
another Hard Drive (Seta II) (older, preferred as a "oh crap" backup to be shelfed)
AGP Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro (512mb) videocard (only if a new card puts me over budget)
Mouse has a USB connection and "old school" adaptor (good condition)
Keyboard has "old school" connector. (fair condition)
Printer needs a standard 16 pin connection

New stuff I will need;
Windows 7 OEM (have all other software I would need already) (not getting vista/vista with "free" upgrade coupon, want a direct install of windows 7 to work with).
New Processor & air cooling
New Motherboard
New Videocard* (doesn't have to be great, just enough to meet the demands of Fallout/Oblivion on high settings with higher resolution mods) (dual display would be nice, but not required)
New Ram
New 360gb+ Harddrive (decent speed)

Other stuff if there is money left;
100gb+ Hard drive and external enclosure (cooled) Seta Harddrive to a USB connection to computer.
Qwerty Keyboard without goofy extra buttons for a USB connection (only if motherboard requires it)

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Computer is planned to be something with future upgrade possibilities (without having to replace motherboard, processor, harddrives), enough to be "decent" 3-4 years down the road. (reliable parts)

Computer will be used for moderate gaming, but I can tolerate using lowered settings in most instances later on.

Processor/videocard probably won't be overclocked, but would prefer one that doesn't crap out because it's running a little hotter than normal.

I already know that I could get a "decent" system for $1000 by going to Dell, or buying from a store, but all that pre-loaded crap is annoying to have to remove, the software (many of which I already own, never intend to use) would only be usable on that exact system. If I wanted to deal with a computer that has lots of pre-loaded crap, and hardware I can never upgrade, I'd be buying a MAC. I like the challenge and freedom of building it myself and setting things up as I WANT them.

I will probably be holding onto whatever old hardware I have in order to eventually build a secondary PC for more simple things (have extra videocard and ram which are compatible). But that is far in the future.

I would appreciate any suggestions people might have for hardware. I will be ordering most of this stuff from www.Newegg.com, so newegg links would be preferred. I won't be buying anything until around December so that I can make use of any sort of sales or special deals that might be happening in order to make the most of my money. I can go a bit over budget, but would like to shoot for $1000 as a maximum so that I can afford to make some mistakes.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask.

[Thor.]

What are you planning on keeping with your new build, Also what is your old psu wattage. just asking.

I would recommend going amd, they are cheap efficient and highly overclockable.

I would suggest you get a asus motherboard, they are the best going.

if you want I'll quote you some prices.

processor

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16819103674

if you don't want a high end card but want to play fallout 3, i suggest get something like i have a 9800gtx, they are really reasonable right now, great for going sli.

motherboard for future sli, if your planning on that, only way really to play fallout 3 maxed.

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813131367

also ram has really come down in price, like this kingston ram, good make to. Get two and it would be around 60$.

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820104072

crossfire

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814103079

video card, this is what i have, but for some reason they don't have it available, last seen it for under 200$

what i have.

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814187056

if your planning on going radeon, there latest cards are cheap to.

motherboard for radeon

crossfire

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813130223



i hope this helps

[Pronam]

I couldn't agree more with Thor. AMD has the best deals. I personally should stay away from msi-boards.. I've found that the ones from asus are far more reliable, especially if you want to upgrade in the future. You should wait with the video card as their prices are very variable...but ATI-cards are my favs... Although you could say to wait with everything as processors are very variable as well...perhaps more than video cards..processors have their socket, so you'd have to decide pretty much soon as they are difficult to upgrade. You should stick to your own advice and not get any pre-build pc's. There is always a downside and especially those from dell always seem to be difficult to upgrade somehow. Be sure to get a decent case as well , they are more important than most people realize.

[Thor.]

Actually amd is very easy to upgrade, the sockets stay the same for that processor, like the phenom line of processors the socket stays the same.

[Vagrant0]

Wattage on power supply is 150w for 3.3v and 5v, 450w total output.

For upgrades/replacements in the future, I was thinking more along the lines of just videocard, ram, and power supply when it starts to crap out (like the original one for the case did). I'd prefer not to fool around with processor or any other major components.

Why AMD over Pentium? Been using a Pentium for last few years after my AMD started having issues, was reinstalled wrong (human error) and fried without much of a problem, despite the fact that it is now ancient technology.

For videocard, You're saying that I'll need to buy 2, and have them setup for crossfire? Havn't done that before since most of my cards have been AGP. Have been away from the information on this stuff for awhile, anything I should be aware of?

[Nexus Set]

You may be interested in this.

The $800 Killer Gaming PC

Had my eye on it since early this year for rig replacement parts. I think it's a pretty decent build.

[Thor.]

Vagrant0, on Oct 5 2009, 01:49 AM, said:

Wattage on power supply is 150w for 3.3v and 5v, 450w total output.

For upgrades/replacements in the future, I was thinking more along the lines of just videocard, ram, and power supply when it starts to crap out (like the original one for the case did). I'd prefer not to fool around with processor or any other major components.

Why AMD over Pentium? Been using a Pentium for last few years after my AMD started having issues, was reinstalled wrong (human error) and fried without much of a problem, despite the fact that it is now ancient technology.

For videocard, You're saying that I'll need to buy 2, and have them setup for crossfire? Havn't done that before since most of my cards have been AGP. Have been away from the information on this stuff for awhile, anything I should be aware of?

Yes if your wanting to play Fallout 3 maxed its the best way to do it, i can quote a decent setup like above. If you are interested in going sli or crossfire, in my opinion in going that way its awsome .

Butyou would need a much bettter psu. I suggest you get something sli compatible and anything over 550watts, to be on the safe side check out my systems specs if your not sure on what to get, cause my amd quad hasn't fried on me yet, it won't even oc'ed, must need a decent heatsink for anything like that.

here is a psu, sli compatible. example.

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16817148022

and

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16817163109

intel has issues that have come across of over heating from a few clients of mine, not enough cooling his the main problem with intel, but amd runs much cooler i think from experience.

since i do builds. runs fine on stock fans.

here is a decent card think will run awsome in sli-the 260 in sli willl do the job just nicely. It also might not need sli, there has been good reviews on it, and they say sli not need in most cases. But if you want badass its the way to go. I thought of getting something like that before but changed my minfd and went on getting a 9800. Should of though, waits for the 300gt to come out

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814130434

crossfire already quoted you that on my first post.

[Vagrant0]

Thor., on Oct 6 2009, 01:25 AM, said:

So then you're saying that I would need to go with an entirely new system, from the case, to the cooling, to the powersupply, to everything else I mentioned needing new, in order to have something which will both last the next 3-4 years without needing any upgrades, and be compatible newer hardware when things become obsolete? Not sure if that would blow my budget or not.

The processor you linked in first response is AM3, but motherboard is only AM2+ AM2. I'm tempted to think that this might be a problem. The lack of IDE ports on all motherboards seems to suggest that I'm SOL as far as being able to use my current floppy/DVD drives (unless there is a conversion cable I'm not aware of). For the ram with that motherboard

Quote

(Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM3/AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only)

is a bit concerning. Wouldn't it be a better idea to go with a DDR3 standard (and compatible motherboard) so that a few years down the road I can upgrade without having to hit resale shops?
Something like
http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820104141
with http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813131397 or http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813130223
Or am I misunderstanding something?

Not sure on a videocard for either of those... kinda why I liked AGP, you just had to buy 1 and you were good. I would prefer to not have multiple videocards with my current case since that is one area that doesn't always get good airflow (since crossfire wasn't really done back then).

Sorry... I've been away from the technical stuff for awhile, being without money to spend and all.

[Thor.]

Yes thats true, but it doesn't matter if its ddr 2 or 3, but i would suggest get 3, just don't get the tri ddr3, amd doesn't support that yet i am afraid.

dual channel 4gb is your limit with ddr3, good choice.

Also so your going crossfire ah, well thats a good board for that, also good choice.

One thinga about asus is that its very easy to overclock your system, its must have, comes with a very cool app.

i hope i'm keeping this under 1000$, crossfire can be tricky that way .

[Vagrant0]

Thor., on Oct 6 2009, 02:47 AM, said:

Yes thats true, but it doesn't matter if its ddr 2 or 3, but i would suggest get 3, just don't get the tri ddr3, amd doesn't support that yet i am afraid.

dual channel 4gb is your limit with ddr3, good choice.

Also so your going crossfire ah, well thats a good board for that, also good choice.

One thinga about asus is that its very easy to overclock your system, its must have, comes with a very cool app.

i hope i'm keeping this under 1000$, crossfire can be tricky that way .

Ok, I'm confused now... Isn't crossfire when you buy 2 of the same card? Don't think that's practical in this case since it also means having to buy 2 more of the same cards later. Meanwhile hoping that they both happen to have the same quality and lifetime. I'd kinda prefer to have the simplicity of a single card if possible, even if it happens to be comprised of multiple cores.

With memory, wouldn't my limit be 8gb actually although I only intend to go with 4), given that there are 4 slots for dual channel? Have one pair, then another pair later.