A cheap upgrade, worth it?

[Ulyaoth]

Well, since I estimated my expenses for college badly(I've already spent over $1000 in a week) so I can't really afford the better computer I want. So I'm trying to think it a cheap upgrade would be worth the money.

For reference, right now I've got a Athlon 2400, 768mb RAM, and a Radeon X850pro. I have a 430w power supply, I mention this because I'd prefer to not have to change that because it'd be getting more than I wish to spend.

I was first thinking of a cheap Athlon, like a 3800 or something like that really cheap, or maybe spend a bit more and get a mid level X2 that might last a bit longer. couple that with 2gb of RAM and a 8800GT, would come out to around $250, but I was worried that might be a lot to spend for a cpu that it seems can't really even play demanding games out now, so no future, which seems stupid to me.

Then I thought, I don't have to spend a lot for Intel, maybe a bit more, but could still stay cheap. I was thinking, a wolfdale, a 5200, maybe even a 7200, then the same rest of it, 8800GT, 2gb RAM, I'm just not sure if the intel would need more power, and if anyone knew any cheap motherboards to suggest for intel, preferably $70 or so and under. That'd come out to, oh, around $350 if I go the 7200, not too bad, but probably the most I'd want to spend, and would it be a good price to performance ratio? Compared to the E8400, Radeon 4850, 4 gb of RAM I was going to get before, is it about the same price to performance? I was going to spend about $800 on that. If I went Intel I'd probably overclock too so more value from that I guess.

So, would this be worth it or should I just wait until I can afford a completely new computer? I mean I could now if I felt like not having much money in case I need it, but also I kinda didn't think I'd get much value out of the higher grade one I was thinking of since I don't play games as much as I used to, and I can't think of much new coming out anyway other than a few things that wouldn't require much. Also I have a bunch of games now I never got to play too well that I'd like to be able to actually enjoy, like Civ 4 for example.

 

[WildFire]

e7200 $120
gigabyte ds3l $85
2gb ram $35 basically, just order from whatever company you feel most comfortable with...gskill, mushkin, ballistix etc
9600gt $95 -- a little slower then an 8800 gt in shader intensive games but ~$20 less but still great performance


total $335ish


also, that motherboard is and cpu are actually extremely good overclockers. you could probably get the cpu to like 3.2 or 3.4 ghz on air just by changing the fsb this upgrade would make the pc basically feel amazingly new.

hope this helps

oh just remembered...i believe that the 9600gt and 8800gt both require a minimum of a 450w psu, however, if you have a good (efficient) 430w psu, it should work fine but that's only if you're on a REALLY tight budget.

there are quite a few 500 and 550w on newegg for about ~50-100 right now, some pretty good deals.

 

[Ulyaoth]

That Gigabyte is actually what I was thinking of originally for my other build, I just ended up wanting a more expensive DFI board, but that should do fine from what I hear. The RAM I figure I'll go Gskill, a few dollars more but no mail in rebate, I hate mail in rebates.

And the psu is an Antec, I thought they used to be great but I've heard they've gotten worse lately, I got it just a while ago so I didn't want to have to replace it before I had to. I mean, like I said, I have money, I just wanted to try and do it cheap. I guess better to spend another $80 than risk frying the parts. so that'd make it $400 about, still not bad, half what I was going to spend for I don't think much less power.

And I just checked and 4gb of RAM over 2 is just $20 more, so maybe I'll just get that.

 

[Cutlass]

Amy processor upgrade, you have to make sure your motherboard supports it first. Find out what will work with that and go from there.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Judging by the fact that you have an Athlon 2400, you have an old socket (like Socket 939). I doubt you can find any decent processors for that nowadays.

WildFire's suggestion seems to be the best if you have everything besides those 4 components.

 

[Quintillus]

If you're already spending much more than you thought you would be, I'd hold off on this and see what the expenses look like after a few months. $1000 in a week at college seems like way too much, even considering about $500 of that probably was textbooks. Unless a lot of the rest of that was for clothes, I'm not sure where you're spending it all. Even if you have to buy all your food that's an awful lot.

That is considering my own college spending habits - I've spent less than $50 this year excluding books. It certainly is possible to spend less.

Provided your computer supports it, a RAM upgrade to 2 GB may be worth it - that's usually pretty cheap and gives a large performance boost - just make sure you get the correct type of RAM. But spending $300 for an all-around performance increase seems like a poor choice until you figure out what your spending will be like - you may find you have much more important things to buy with that $300 late in the semester.

 

[WildFire]

That Gigabyte is actually what I was thinking of originally for my other build, I just ended up wanting a more expensive DFI board, but that should do fine from what I hear. The RAM I figure I'll go Gskill, a few dollars more but no mail in rebate, I hate mail in rebates.

And the psu is an Antec, I thought they used to be great but I've heard they've gotten worse lately, I got it just a while ago so I didn't want to have to replace it before I had to. I mean, like I said, I have money, I just wanted to try and do it cheap. I guess better to spend another $80 than risk frying the parts. so that'd make it $400 about, still not bad, half what I was going to spend for I don't think much less power.

And I just checked and 4gb of RAM over 2 is just $20 more, so maybe I'll just get that.

the DFI lanparty boards are really the only good DFI boards i've heard of lately. the asus p5q boards are exceptional, especially for the price.

agree about the mail in rebates, but if you are lookin for 4 gigs now, make sure to get 2x2 instead of 4x1

for the antec psu, i have the antec 650w 80% and have yet to have any problems with it antec, corsair, bfg, thermaltake are all great brands to buy from when you need a PSU (as are others I may have forgotten)

 

[Ulyaoth]

I was planning on a X38 lanparty for my original build. The P5Q I was looking at first for this upgrade, but the gigabyte is good, if I do get these parts I'll get that. The 4gb is 2x2, same exact RAM otherwise, just $20 more.

About the psu, I just checked and it has 32A on the 12v rail, and I read somewhere the 8800GT only needs 30A, so think I should be fine? Because if I need a psu then I'm only missing a case from just buying a slightly less powerful version of what I was going to get before anyway, so that's why I kinda wanted to stay away from having to buy a new one.

About the spending, the $1000 is counting books, about $500 in books(saved $300 buying online rather than the school bookstore, yay), a $400 payment for random school fees, $100 in gas, and some random other costs.

I mean, it's not like this is the last bit of money I have to my name I'm spending, I've got a few thousand in savings, it's just I'm cheap, and I set aside a certain amount that I'd want to keep my money at at least. If I really wanted to go spend all my money I could buy myself a voodoo or one of them HP blackbird things, just, first of all, I'm trying to save money for a car a little later, and that'd be kinda irresponsible and like I said before, I'm just worried I'd be wasting money getting a whole new expensive system just for games that I don't get to play all that much anymore.
Though then the problem is I need to use autocad for school and I tried it already on this computer and it's a bit laggy. I could deal with it but I'd like a new computer within a few months. Maybe I will wait at least a month or so, see if any new deals come out or to get the rest of my work money.

 

[WildFire]

nehalem (the new intel processors) are coming out in I think december of this year... if you could wait that long it might be worth it to do a full upgrade using those newer parts. only problem is, since it'll just be coming out it'll be more expensive...unless you wait for the 2nd generation nehalem like most people plan on doing

and yeah the psu should be fine.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Or you could just get the current generation that will be cheaper.

The first Nehalems coming out are not going to be mainstream either. Mainly for higher end and thus much more expensive.

 

[Ulyaoth]

AMD isn't working on anything are they? Or was Phenom supposed to be their thing and once Nehalam comes out they'll just be completely out of it?

Anyway, isn't Nehalam going to be really expensive? If I wait that long maybe I could just go and get a quad core extreme cheaper then. Would they drop that much? Are the first ones even going to be that much better than core 2?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

The first ones are going to be for the high-end market with mainstream parts arriving in 2009.
So if you want a PC now, go ahead and get a C2D. If you wait for the next big thing, you'll always be waiting.

 

[WildFire]

from what I heard, there was going to be a high end, mainstream, and low end chip for the nehalem from the first launch?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

You are indeed correct WF. The mainstream though will start at nearly 300$ though, so it wont be very cheap.

 

[WildFire]

considering the current line of c2q are about $300 that is pretty amazing since they'll be blown out of the water by the nehalem line.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

C2D's start from 85$ though ( Wolfdale E5200 ). granted, the Nehalems are going to be massively faster, but they are going to be much more expensive.

The point here WF is that with a low budget, it doesnt matter how much faster a 300$ part is vs a 150$ part, you're still very likely going to have to go with a 150$ part.

 

[Aramazd]

AMD isn't working on anything are they? Or was Phenom supposed to be their thing and once Nehalam comes out they'll just be completely out of it?

45nm shrink and K10.5. It certainly not as major as Nehalem though.
New AMD CPUs are supposed to come out early next year.

Anyway, isn't Nehalam going to be really expensive? If I wait that long maybe I could just go and get a quad core extreme cheaper then. Would they drop that much? Are the first ones even going to be that much better than core 2?

The first will be for servers and high end PCs.

 

[WildFire]

C2D's start from 85$ though ( Wolfdale E5200 ). granted, the Nehalems are going to be massively faster, but they are going to be much more expensive.

The point here WF is that with a low budget, it doesnt matter how much faster a 300$ part is vs a 150$ part, you're still very likely going to have to go with a 150$ part.

i know most of the c2d are cheap which is why i was pointing out the c2q line (q9450 etc) which ARE the $300 chips.

and people that build low budget machines are generally stupid. much better off waiting til you have the money for a decent system or just buy a low end pc from a manufacturer. the whole point of building a PC is to, yes, get the best bang for your dollar but you shouldn't have a $400 cap.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Hey, well, I put it off, thinking I'd wait to see how Nehalem turns out, and I just looking at some benchmarks which were saying up to 50%+ improvement in speed, but they were all old and I can't seem to find any new ones for some reason so I'll just assume the early ones are true, which is pretty damn cool. Anyway, it seems my computer is definitely dead, it's been crashing anytime I try to play any remotely intensive game, and when I tried to use autocad it was incredibly slow and unworkable, so I need a new computer by the next semester, so I'm planning now to buy one after Christmas.

I put together something really really cheap this time
E7300 - $120
Asus P5Q SE - $97
Asus Radeon 4830 $120
4gb(2*2gb) DDR2 800 - $45
Corsair 650w psu - $110
total - $492

Anything you'd change? How's the 4830? I wanted to get a 4850 but it's still $160 at cheapest I think, does the 4830 really seem like a budget card? As in, is it like missing features and such that might make a big performance difference? Or is it just an underclocked 4850? And what about the mobo, it's only got one pci slot, so if I later want to maybe just stick in another card I couldn't, but everything else on it seems good.

I wanted the Q6600, but figured I could just save the $50 and get the E7300 which has a pretty good multiplier, is 45nm, and so should overclock pretty well on stock heatsink to make it pretty good. Was also thinking maybe of an E5200 which is only $83 but a little slow stock, lower fsb, and slightly smaller cache, but bigger multiplier by 2.5, so I'm wondering if maybe it'd be worth it for better overclocking, or would the lower fsb and cache make it worse even overclocked?

But, I also thought maybe with the massive performance boost the i7s give maybe, I'd consider just going all out and buying one, even if it'd end up costing twice as much between the cpu and mobo and DDR3, but it'd probably last me twice as long or longer I'm guessing even getting the cheapest one. Are there any plans for a price drop of them maybe sometime early next year, or another model coming out, or at least a cheaper mobo? I guess it'd probably cost me at least $900, which was close to my original plan anyway, but probably much faster and longer lasting so a much better value, probably a value over my cheap plan up there too, plus some room for improvement later on if some good deals on cpus should come out in 2 years if the thing happens to be getting a bit slow by then.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

it would be 900$ just for CPU/Mobo/Decent amount of RAM for a Nehalem system. Throw in the case, PSU and gpu and you're up to 1200$ easy.