Help building new pc $700 budget or upgrade

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by solidmac, Apr 9, 2009.

  1. solidmac

    solidmac Member

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    right now this is what i currently have:

    AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.6ghz
    2Gb DDR2800 ram
    NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT evga
    ASUS M2A-VM motherboard

    my pc makes a loud fan sound and im not sure if its the stock cpu fan or the gfx card but if anyway to make it less noisy would be help full

    as far as i know i can upgrade to the BE 5400+ and easly get 3.1ghz after oc. The gfx card handles every game i throw at it except crysis with smooth fps.

    my current budget is about $700 and i dont know everything when it comes to hand building my own pc at home. only thing i can know how to properly do is upgrading ram and gfx but who cant do that? lol
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2009
  2. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    An 8800GT and an X2 5000+ isn't a bad platform to start off with, but the motherboard will cause issues trying to upgrade to higher grade stuff.
    With a budget that high, you may as well start with a new baseline. You can keep the existing RAM if you like, but 4GB would be recommended for future reference, and you would be far better off with 2x2GB of new RAM rather than 4x1GB mismatched, and RAM isn't expensive.

    What PSU do you have?

    You can get something like this
    Core 2 Quad Q9550
    Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR
    2x2GB Corsair Dominator PC2 8500

    For about $460, and around $420 after some mail-in rebates. That leaves plenty to upgrade the PSU and/or case if necessary, and on top of that you could potentially upgrade the graphics, IF you need to.

     
  3. solidmac

    solidmac Member

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    well i was stupid it being my first pc and bought the cheapest case they had that brought a 350w supply.... so im guessing i need to buy a whole new tower with board and cpu and upgrade the ram when i feel like right?

    if so i would like a case that doesnt have LED lights or the option to turn them off, also has to be very sound tight under $100. thanks in advance
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2009
  4. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Hmm, does the case have to be that cheap?
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146051&Tpk=NZXT Whisper
    This is an excellent soundproofing case, though it is very large. You can easily disable the lights on it if you like.
    For a Power Supply, a Corsair HX 520W or VX 450W would do fine, and are again, quiet. You would do well to get a better CPU cooler to reduce noise. As long as you leave automatic fan control on, this shoul be very quiet:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

     
  5. solidmac

    solidmac Member

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    do i need a case that big? i would like it to be a mid tower that is priced at $100 or less with the psu already in place i think the cpu fan upgrade is all the noise reduction i need and a much better sealed case than the one i have now.

    will cables be a problem? or will i have to use the old ones from my previous build?
     
  6. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    A PSU that comes with a case WILL be terrible. No exceptions, you need to buy a decent one, especially if you want it to be quiet.
    All the cables you need will come with your motherboard, Power Supply and case.
    The Antec P182 is another quiet option. The NZXT Lexa Blackline is a reasonably quiet case for a lot less money, but not everybody likes the styling (Personally I love it, it's my file server case)

     
  7. solidmac

    solidmac Member

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    i think im going to go with the antec 180 it makes my whole set tuck right under the budget with 4 $ to spare!!! woot woot

    so im going to get

    Core 2 Quad Q9550
    Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR
    2x2GB Corsair Dominator PC2 8500
    the 450 corsair psu
    antec180
    and the cpu fan you suggested

    seems like my current psu is 580 and not 350 like i thought (opened the case to clean and it cought my eye)

    the loud fan is my cpu fan so i guess i will skip the psu for now

     
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2009
  8. Shamb1es

    Shamb1es Regular member

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    What you have isn't a bad machine at all. It's a solid middle range PC that should still chug away for a decent while yet. I'd recommend saving your 700$ to build a new machine in a year or two. I'd throw another 2 GB of memory in there and replace the noisy fan and then down the road have a machine that's outclassing what you have rather than spending money on parts now that are only a modest step up.
     
  9. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    What brand is the PSU? Just because it says 580 Watts doesn't mean it will handle this setup. There are a lot of terrible units out there that would go bang if you hooked a setup like this up to them, and they could easily destroy some of your other components.
     
  10. solidmac

    solidmac Member

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  11. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Yeah ditch it. You'll be lucky if it manages 280W before sparks fly and smoke billows out the back of it.
     
  12. solidmac

    solidmac Member

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    i guess u win there new psu it is. not saying that its a bad brand but are there any other options than corsair?
     
  13. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    IMO Corsair are about the best, but Seasonic, Silverstone, Zalman and Nexus make good units.
     
  14. shaffaaf

    shaffaaf Regular member

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    OCZ, PC Power & Cooling, Enermax, Antec, bascially the good case manufacturers mainly produce good PSUs.
     
  15. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Even though OCZ, Corsair, Seasonic and PCP&C don't really make cases...
     
  16. shaffaaf

    shaffaaf Regular member

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    I didn't say they do... But corsair is making hidh end cases aswell :D
     
  17. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    They've started, but have you seen it on sale yet?
     

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