I'm upgrading my PC...

[Slamman]

MSI I've not looked at in my particular board search, but the Asus when used for gaming DID work in some instances, My earlier ECS board was tested among a few boards using the nVidia 8800GT, which is a good games card. Reviews I've read tend to side one way or the other in terms of what a card excels at when Benched

[LCstuntman]

 

As far as upgrades, def. go for the 1TB option (it's free and you'll definitely need it if you're going to be editing high-def movies). I'd recommend upgrading to GigaByte MA770T-UD3P simply because I've used tons of Gigabyte boards without any issues whatsoever. I've been less satisfied with Asus boards and from what I've read MSI isn't the best either. Plus, it's $6 more so why quibble? Window 7 Home Premium 64 bit is perfectly fine for your needs.

 

I just looked at the hard drives again and found out that the free 1 TB was a sale that ended today! Damn

 

But I'll definitely get a Gigabyte board and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

 

 

Also make sure you get a case you like if that's important to you. Random thought: what I really like about CyberPower versus Dell, HP, Gateway, etc is that they include a 3 year warranty! I looked into that for my laptop (2 additional years) and it was $469!!!

 

I think the default case looks great, and I noticed the warranty too, that's an awesome deal!

 

 

One last thing that I want to make perfectly, absolutely clear: this will NOT be a gaming machine. The graphics card selected (4350) will provide the hardware video acceleration you need. It will not, however provide a good gaming experience. In fact, it's only marginally better in gaming than what your current PC provides. If this is not a concern, feel free to proceed. If you'd like to be able to game, I'll be happy to show you some good cards that will do just that but remember it will cost more money. That said, if later down the road you ever want to upgrade your graphics card you're able to upgrade to any PCI-E card you'd like. that's the beauty of building your own PC's.

 

 

Thanks for the warning - it would be great if you could show me some good gaming video cards, since I'll probably get into that eventually.

 

EDIT: (super off-topic and random) Wow, I just noticed that on practically every post of mine I put the IV logo as the post icon. I need to get out of that habit

Edited December 29, 2009 by LCstuntman

[Slamman]

Use your own case if you can. I looked at cheapies that are new last night, did not like them. And the big and spendy ones are well? Too spendy! There are some interesting custom cases, but Good Lord are they HUGE!!! I like the T5026 eMachine case because it is actually lighter then previous eMachine cases, and looks about the same. I saw some nice HP machines at MC last night too, just to mention ones with OK specs, They were just under $600 to $800 range

[Fozzy Fozborne]

@Slamit comes with a case included there's. No way to deselect it.

 

@LC A good value gaming card would the the GTS 250 which is $130 and will let you pla even newer games at reasonable settings. This Gigabyte card is only $125 after MIR. Like I said it's a bit of an investment but at least it's an option. Also, shame about the hard drive. If you can wait to order the pc, they have that sale A LOT.

 

One more thing! Before buying it type "cyberpower coupons" into google. They have a coupon code for $30 off which people say is legit, They also have 10% off which works for certain systems.

[LCstuntman]

@Fozzy: Ok, I selected the GTS 250 1GB (the other one was a 512MB, but I assume 1GB is better).

 

As I don't have all of the money at the moment, I have to wait around a month anyways, but at least now I know what I want However, when I do have the money I'll wait for another good sale, as it does seem to happen really often - today theres another one, a free 800 watt power supply.

 

As for the coupons, I found some here, but I don't know if they are legit or not; haven't tried them yet, mainly because I'm an idiot and can't find where to type them in

 

Thanks for all your help I'll keep you posted when I get the money together

[Slamman]

I checked Microcenter's PSUs, the modular variety are the cheap ones, 500 watt for about $25 to $35 range.

The nomenclature for all these graphics board is downright confusing, I was at Best Buy the week before and they have a whole shelf of current graphic card options, and prices go up to $350 USD or so.

My 9400GT has 1GB of Ram, found out later that doesn't help it game much better

[Fozzy Fozborne]

Yep the 1GB option is worth it on higher-end cards such as the GTS 250 but not so much when the card won't use it. When shopping for graphics cards there are two main things to look at: core [name of graphics card such as GTS 250, 8800GT, etc.] and the memory. If you don't have enough memory (such as a 250 with 256MB of RAM), you'll run into performance problems before you would with larger memory. Like I said with lower-end cards, too much RAM is basically unused or worse: they put more, slower RAM in a card which can even negatively affect your performance.

 

To be honest with you, the free 800 watt powersupply is a waaaay better sale than the free TB hard drive. Also keep in mind that if you're going to replace your old PC with the CyberPower, you can take your hard drive out of your HP to supplement storage. If you're keeping both, obviously this isn't an option.

 

The good thing about waiting is that prices can decrease rapidly, especially if one of the part makers releases something new.

[Slamman]

He's giving/selling the old one to a friend. By core, the GPU we speak of is similar in the CPU, the Central Processing Unit is the heart of your motherboard, it processes the key data, the FSB or Front Side Bus is how that data enters and leaves.

The North and South Bridge control various sections the motherboard handles, the drives, or memory and CPU on the North end. nVidia creates a hybrid chip that does both. The future evolution in motherboards is to do away with the seperate chips, you'll note them by their fancy heatsinks. In the old days, the Southbridge was bare!

 

Core is the GPU in this case, Graphics Processing Unit of course. PSU is Power Supply Unit, however, Unit sounds odd, I never referred to them as PSUs until recently but everyone will know to which part you refer, if they are a system builder.

I also referred to the new way of selling Windows OS in unmarked, generic packs, these are reduced cost versions intended for those building systems. You can buy these at MicroCenter for one example, and MC sells online as well as actual stores. Though I doubt you'll get the close-out bins we find in the actual stores.

[LCstuntman]

@Fozzy: Wow, never would have guessed the 800 watt power supply would be a better deal than the hard drive. I'm curious now, is it always better to have a high-watt PSU, or is it possible to have such a large power supply that your computer doesn't even use all of it (like for example if you have a 1000 watt PSU, but you computer maxes out at 600 watt)? I just don't want to waste any money buying an unnecessarily high-watt PSU.

[Slamman]

I think beyond 800 is overkill, but there are some. With audio components, high power is a good thing, for instance, large transformers are hailed in audio reviews.

Some here feel branding plays a big part, but I've used generics as well, the main thing I want is fuses one can remove when they blow!

[Fozzy Fozborne]

@LC, the reason for large power supplies is that there is no issue with overpowering your computer (it only uses what it needs... a bit like having a huge fuel tank in a Honda Civic). Also, having a higher-wattage supply running at lower wattage is more efficient than maxing out a lower power supply. Once a power supply goes over 80% or so of its max capacity you start running into a massive loss of efficiency and you can end up causing more wear and tear on the supply than you would otherwise. Also a higher wattage supply now will help in the future when you want to upgrade.

 

I personally don't use generic power supplies because I've seen what the interior of a "500 watt" power supply looks like. Here is a pretty good article detailing the differences.

 

Also consider the upgrade from 500GB to 1TB is $42 and the upgrade in power supplies is $130.

[Slamman]

I've taken a few apart myself, the plain-jane silver boxes, they are not all that dissimilar. I've never spent much on one either though, but my first PSU is an eMachine (OEM) and it's a mere 70 watts running a Pentium 3/Celeron at 900Mhz! That's impressive, still working.

I also have a 350 watt that would work on an AMD or P3 board of the era. The Pentium 3 computers ranged between those most often. Some had no fuses, while still others were soldered in and crammed into a small space, often becoming a chore to just refurbish

[LCstuntman]

@Fozzy: Oh, ok. Is the CyberPowerPC brand PSU the one you were referring too with "generic power supplies", or do you mean the ones that don't even have a manufacturer listed at all? Also, what wattage do you think will be appropriate for my needs?

 

@Slamman: 70 watts? hahaha

[Slamman]

The original eMachine eTower 700, which was Celeron, but runs P3 chips as well, I think it even supports PC133 Ram sticks, I can't recall if I breached their supposed 256Max, but it runs without a hitch, and it was my first PC. 70 watt PSU on that has a downward fan integrated like Gateways, so it's hard to do any retrofitting upgrades in either of those machine brands.

I'll refer to generic with unknown brands as well, but the case could be just model numbers on a label.

 

I'd say shoot for 600 on up, 500 is fine for boards that aren't over clocking and are not going to be maxed out with new hardware demands

Edited December 31, 2009 by Slamman