# Upgrading question.



## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

I am looking into upgrading an older computer, and looking for some advice on parts. Basically, it will be used for day to day tasks, and gaming. Had been playing WoW, which isn't really to demanding, but I'm looking into playing Rift and will definitely need to upgrade. I actually recently got divorced and she got the comp, so I am starting over with a friend's desktop from a few years ago. I don't have it here yet, so I'm not 100% sure on the parts, but it's at least a few years old and wasn't particularly amazing then. Most likely runs Windows XP, and was at best a middle of the road comp.

I'm really just looking to upgrade without dropping a ton of cash, and use what parts I can off of the old comp. Case, power supply if it's large enough, optical drive, peripherals, monitor, etc. From what I've been kicking around, I think if I upgrade the GPU, CPU, RAM, and a mobo for it all to go in. I used to be fairly knowledgeable about all of this, but it's been years since I really kept up with all the details, so I was really hoping to get some suggestions, or just confirmation that these parts will even work together and there isn't some glaring compatibility issue I've overlooked.

This is what I'm looking at so far:

Mobo: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA78LMT-S2 AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

GPU: Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1366-TR GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor - C3 Revision HDZ555WFGMBOX

RAM: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM

I'm hoping to keep this under/at $400. Doesn't really matter to me where the parts come from, as long as it is a reliable site. Newegg is just what I am used to. Any and all advice would be appreciated. As I said, it's basically just going to be a rig to play Rift. Doesn't have to play on Ultra or anything either. Mid-High range is fine by me. Any suggestions of parts that would be better or as good but cheaper would be awesome. Thanks in advance.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Chances are if it's an oem pc the power supply isn't good enough. For a card like that you want a quality unit around 600w+.

Also , if it's an oem you'll need an OS as the stock os will not function on another motherboard.


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

That's what I was worried about. The power supply I mean. Didn't even think of the OS. So is a 600w+ power supply just preference or what? The specs say a 450 minimum, just wondering in my noobishness.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

The manufacturer puts a really really low bad requirement on power supplies. Far to low end to effective power the machine for long , you would want somthing like this for the hardware you listed

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

Well that is problematic, and puts me a ways over budget. Hmm. Have to do some digging and see if there is maybe a slightly less amazing one, lol. Aside from the lacking power supply, do the components look like they'd at least work together?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

If your going to be using an amd chipset board you may also want to go with an ati card over nvidia. Other then that looks ok


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

Yeah, the only reason I went Nvidia over ATI is that there have been a lot of problems running Rift on ATI cards. That's about all this upgrade is for, and if it was just going to cause headaches I figured I could spend the extra for an Nvidia card. I will keep an eye out and see if they resolve those issues by the time I am ready to buy and build. Any specific ATI card you would recommend that is comparable?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

5870/6870 would be a good choice or lower 5800 series too.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

If you plan on keeping and using your new power supply for more than 3 years I would strongly advice getting the Corsair TX-750 *V2* / it will be the smartest $20.00 you ever spent!


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## Elvenleader3 (Jan 1, 2010)

I know that NVIDIA is normally priced a little bit higher than ATI, so maybe switching to ATI will give you the room in the budget to get a better PSU.


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

Well, got my hands on the old computer and it is just not going to happen. I'd end up just gutting it and replacing everything, and the case isn't much to look at, so now I'm just building a tower. Budget is about $600. Been working on this for the past few days. Currently my build is as follows:

*CPU:* AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor 

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX 

*Motherboard:* ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard 

Newegg.com - ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard 

*Video Card:* MSI N460GTX Twin Frozr II SOC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card 

Newegg.com - MSI N460GTX Twin Frozr II SOC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card 

*RAM:* G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS 

Newegg.com - G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS 

*Hard Drive:* SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 

*Case:* COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 

*Power Supply:* RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply

Newegg.com - RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply 

*CD/DVD Drive:* Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner LightScribe Support - OEM 

Newegg.com - Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner LightScribe Support - CD / DVD Burners 

*Operating System:* Windows 7 64 bit 


Checked back into the whole problems with ATI cards thing, and they seem to have been resolved, so they are now an option again. But, I looked at that 5870/6870 that were recommended earlier, and they are just a tad more than I am looking to spend on just the GPU. That GTX 460 is like $139 after rebate. $159 before, which is fine. the ATI card I found in that price bracket was the Radeon HD 5770, but when I looked at some comparisons, the 5770 seems to repeatedly fall short of the GTX 460.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Ok your build's powersupply, motherboard ,and hdd are not very good at all.

Take a look at our 500/800$ amd build here

http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...evised-2010-and-updated-regularly-448272.html


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Putting a low quality PSU in that setup would be like putting dollar store oil in a Ferrari! I cannot stress enough the importance of not cheaping out on the PSU. It powers everything so why would you want unstable power going to the other hundeds of dollars worth of hardware. Your call, more now or alot more later when the Raidmax dies!

EDIT: Here's a review from someone that bought it from Newegg! 

Cons: Got everything connected and hit the power button and only the power supply and 1 case fan came on for about 3 seconds before it popped and tripped the breaker. Unplugged everything, and then tried applying power to just the power supply and it popped, sparked and smoked...DEAD.


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

I was actually thinking of switching the mobo out for this:

Newegg.com - MSI NF750-G55 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

And then maybe going the SLI route later when I had extra cash and felt like picking up another GPU.

Would the Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply be enough for that? I'd have gone with the one from the $800 build there but it had no feedback at all.

Lol, what's wrong with the hard drive though?


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

The 650TX would be a good choice for your posted system. The jury is still out on the actual value of SLI/Crossfire, but if you plan to go that route, I'ld like to see you in a 750TX or better.

I've never used Samsung branded drives, and cannot say anything against them, but you could do better.


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

I'm not 100% on whether Iw ould end up going the SLI route. I really only play MMO's, no FPS or RTS or anything else. Rift is what I'm aiming at being able to play on decent settings, and from what I've seen people are able to run it on max settings with just a 5770 or GTX 460, or at least claiming so. I will probably just go with the 650TX then. If by some random chance I would see the need to have a second graphics card I could always just upgrade the power supply as well, though I don't really see it happening.

So I'm back at looking at motherboards. If I'm not going the SLI route the one I linked seems unnecessary. Would like to find something between the cheap one I linked first, and the better one I linked second. Checked the one listed with the $500 build, but it has gotten a lot of bad reviews lately so that kind of turned me off to it.

I just didn't know what was bad about the drive. Are we talking size-wise I could do better, or a better brand for the money, or what?


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

Maybe one of these two?

Newegg.com - ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-880GM-D2H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

The first one looked better, and with the MIR it isn't much more expensive at all.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Both asus and gigabyte make good boards.

The drive is a samsung and they really aren't know for their quality. Stick with western digital.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

tpark88 said:


> Maybe one of these two?
> 
> Newegg.com - ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
> 
> ...





the asus linked here is a much better board


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

Alright, well I switched out the HD for:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Little more expensive but sounds a good deal more reliable. And then I had switched out the PSU for the Corsair one, and the motherboard for that ASUS one I linked.

PSU: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Mobo: Newegg.com - ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

Got me running a little higher on price than I would like, but for a more reliable, longer lasting computer it's worth it. And with all the MIR it will still only come to a little over $600 before S&H. One more question then, unless someone sees any problems with those upgrades. How hard is overclocking to do nowadays? And would there even be that much to gain by doing it with this system vs. the extra I would spend on extra cooling?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I would not spend the extra money on high end cooler just yet / save that for next year when you are bored and looking for a new adventure that wont cost alot; just make sure the memory you buy today is overclocking capable (you want low timing number and voltage capable of 1.65 volts)


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## tpark88 (Feb 16, 2011)

Alrighty, sounds good. Guess I am about ready to order then.

One other thing I was wondering. I wasn't getting a monitor with this, just planning on using an old one, and then upgrading later. But, I was also thinking about getting a smaller tv to replace the one in my room. Nothing crazy, I don't watch it much. Play the 360 in the living room. Watch a movie now and then and I watch movies with my son on it. So, I was wondering if I could just combine the two and buy like a 24" or something and use it as a monitor. Can that GTX 460 handle that, and if I did, is there a certain connection I need on the mobo for it?


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

YouTube - How to connect my PC to TV

yes the 460gtx can do this


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