PC Upgrade

Mister Man

Si I built my PC about a year ago on a really tight budget. At the time, I didn't plan on doing any gaming. Just Photoshop was the only thing for it.
So now it's time to upgrade
Currently it has:
AMD Athlon x3 435 2.9GHz /w stock cooler
4GB Of ram @ 800MHz I think
ECS Elitegroup motherboard (I know...Everyone thinks ECS Sucks, but really, it's not bad at all. I don't overclock)
80GB Harddrive
Some crappy PSU
No graphics card currently.

So I was thinking, new graphic card, Radeon HD 6850, WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Green Hard Drive - 2 TB, Advance 8808GM GAMMA PC Tower (Current tower is a bit small for my liking) Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Fan, LEPA N500-SA-EU 500 W PC Power Unit.
Thank totals @ € 274,50 Inc. VAT & 30.99 for shipping.

My budget is around 400 MAX is 500, so what would you recommend for a new build. I want to of course run Photoshop, along with other Adobe programs really well, I want to be able to play games, and I want to be able to edit HD Footage if I ever need to (All though not a must)

My monitor is a 19" Acer, and I want to attach my other screen (Also 19") at the same time (Not as the two monitors as one...If that makes sense? lol)

Do I don't need, Monitor, software, Keyboard/mouse
Thinks I don't need, but might want: New Case, Harddrive (Have int & Ext ones as is)

So anyone fancy throwing together a build for me?

jme2010

Maybe look at a 460 instead of the 6850 for stuff like cuda and physx if that suits you more.

Dont buy anything with "green" in the title, may aswell say "shyte", try looking at SSD's.

Get a good PSU. Do not skimp on the psu or your brand new GPU and all the other bling will die :P

If your cpu is AM2/AM3 try a new mobo and get a 8 GB kit of DDR3

As for a case look at the Fractal Design R3's they are the nicest looking cases out there. If the R3's are pricey try cooler master. They're nice and sturdy with lots of features.

deconduo

SuperFlower Amazon 450W
Spinpoint F3 1TB
Sapphire HD 6850
CM Hyper TX3
Cooler Master 690 II LITE

€295.79 + €30 shipping.

Much better PSU and case than you picked. Also a much faster hard drive, though not as large.

Mister Man

jme2010 wrote: »

Maybe look at a 460 instead of the 6850 for stuff like cuda and physx if that suits you more.

Dont buy anything with "green" in the title, may aswell say "shyte", try looking at SSD's.

Get a good PSU. Do not skimp on the psu or your brand new GPU and all the other bling will die :P

If your cpu is AM2/AM3 try a new mobo and get a 8 GB kit of DDR3

As for a case look at the Fractal Design R3's they are the nicest looking cases out there. If the R3's are pricey try cooler master. They're nice and sturdy with lots of features.

Want to explain what Cuda and Physx is for me? =P I've heard of it, but no idea what it is!
Yea, I thought that too when i seen the "Green" in the title. SSD's are a little out of my range & needs for now, maybe in the future.
I know, Should go for a good PSU. That's the main reason I don't have a GPU in my current system!
The CPU is a AM3, I don't see much point of 8GB of ram for me. 4GB is doing me fine for all programs right now. Would it really be needed? Considering the price of 8GB & New motherboard?
Any links for the Fractal Design R3? Can't find it on Pix, or hardwareversand.

@deconduo How long do they normally take to ship. The last time I ordered from them, they took a good long time! I priced my items of Pix with 1-2 day shipping

jme2010

4 GB may be cutting it close for HD video editing/rendering but Im not sure. Theres not much difference in DDR2/3 at the moment so you may be fine with just sticking an extra stick of ram in there for luck.

Cuda is a feature of nvidia that reduces the load on your cpu:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/what_is_cuda_new.html

Physx is the relistic simulation of cloth and debris in realtime:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_new.html

Some adobe applications can use physx too I've heard.

massy086

i would sell your current set-up on adverts lets say 200 and put the 400 to it and build a new pc

Mister Man

jme2010 wrote: »

4 GB may be cutting it close for HD video editing/rendering but Im not sure. Theres not much difference in DDR2/3 at the moment so you may be fine with just sticking an extra stick of ram in there for luck.

Cuda is a feature of nvidia that reduces the load on your cpu:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/what_is_cuda_new.html

Physx is the relistic simulation of cloth and debris in realtime:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_new.html

Some adobe applications can use physx too I've heard.

I will consider the extra ram, although, HD Editing won't be a big deal from me.

I'll do some research into Physx with Adobe and see what I come up with

There's no point in selling off this one when theres parts I can use from it.

I'm happy enough with my ram, maybe add an extra 2GB or something if needed, harddrive is full of important programs/files etc, Case could be re-used, CPU has never showed signs of not being up to what I'm throwing at it, all and all, the current rig isn't bad, it's just I wouldn't mind a few changeds & Upgrades to it.

Saying that, I wouldn't be against changing/upgrading the above. The main thing for me would probably be the PSU & GPU. After that it's all a plus.

Mister Man

Question: Do NewEgg.com do shipping to Ireland now?

massy086

no if they did i for one would be a happy boy :D:D

dwighet

fractal r3 http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36379&agid=631

Serephucus

Mister Man wrote: »

Question: Do NewEgg.com do shipping to Ireland now?

They do if you register here.

Burgo

Serephucus wrote: »

They do if you register here.

So tempted :pac: have you used them before?

Serephucus

I've used them for a couple of smaller things. To be honest, between the 10% shoppers charge* and the customs taxes you have to pay, it's not always worth it.

* If the site you're shopping on won't take non-US credit cards (Newegg, for one), you can use MyUS's personal shopper service. Basically, you give them the money, tell them what you want, and they buy it for you.

Mister Man

Ok, so today is the day I'm going to order.
Here is what I'm thinking right now:

-XFX RADEON HD 6870 - 147Euro
-AMD Phenom II X4 840 - 82Euro
-Samsung SpinPoint F4 320GB - 34Euro
-Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W - 51Eurp

-Total 317.30Euro + 30 Shipping

Any one any suggestions? Should I change motherboard? I could have to change ram as currently it's DDR2 and AM3 sockets don't support DDR2 I believe?

Budget is around 500-550Euro now, to include shipping & PayPal charges if they have them.

dwighet

Mister Man wrote: »

Ok, so today is the day I'm going to order.
Here is what I'm thinking right now:

-XFX RADEON HD 6870 - 147Euro
-AMD Phenom II X4 840 - 82Euro
-Samsung SpinPoint F4 320GB - 34Euro
-Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W - 51Eurp

-Total 317.30Euro + 30 Shipping

Any one any suggestions? Should I change motherboard? I could have to change ram as currently it's DDR2 and AM3 sockets don't support DDR2 I believe?

Budget is around 500-550Euro now, to include shipping & PayPal charges if they have them.

Im using this Ram in my rig and cant fault it..
Just thought i`d throw it out there for ya..

Mister Man

dwighet wrote: »

Im using this Ram in my rig and cant fault it..
Just thought i`d throw it out there for ya..

Seems fairly well priced too, but any suggestions for a motherboard to go with it?

dwighet

Mister Man wrote: »

Seems fairly well priced too, but any suggestions for a motherboard to go with it?

Sorry bud....Its hard enough trying to keep up with the Intel stuff..Im not upto speed with AMD....

Give it an hour or so and the Tech Heads will sort you out.;)

If I may put my 2 cents in...Get yourself a board that you can overclock...I know you say you dont want to overclock but if you change your mind in the near future its at your finger tips and it does make a good differance...

its better to be looking at it than looking for it..;)

Krusader

Mobo

4GB RAM

farna_boy

If you don't need to upgrade now, I would probably hold off for about a month if you can. AMD are supposedly releasing their latest processors in June, which will be socket AM3+.

No one really knows what these processors are going to be like, but I would hold off if possible for the sake of a month. Even if the new processors are no good, the prices of the existing AM3 hardware may drop further (there was already a slight drop in the prices in preparation for the release, but the prices may drop more closer to the release date).

You would also be buying newer tech, if you do decide to buy AM3+ hardware, which is probably worth it given the shelf life of AMD processors and motherboards.

Just a thought.

Mister Man

Ok so here's what I'm thinking if I order from Hardwareversand.

As for the Motherboard you recommended, I think it's a bit much for me.
AM3+ Will probably bring with it, more expensive CPU's. As is, I'm happy with the Athlon i'm using, if anything, the quad core Phenom will be a bit of an overkill for now, but it should last me a year and a bit.

What does everyone think of that build?

-Also is this right "Bestellwert 453,04 € + Shipping costs + 3,99 € = Finanzierungsbasis 457,03 €"

3.99 For shipping? Or is that for Germany?

On a side note, anyone recommend a cheap AM3 Socket cooler that I could throw into the build?

Krusader

Mister Man wrote: »

On a side note, anyone recommend a cheap AM3 Socket cooler that I could throw into the build?

It's €30 for shipping from Germany and 3% surcharge if paying through paypal

Cooler:
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28326&agid=669