Thread: Upgrading my Computer

Kevin, for what do you plan to use the computer primarily? If it's not mainly for gaming, you don't need to spend more than $30 USD (I haven't bothered to look up the current exchange rate) on a graphics card. You might even consider an integrated GPU like the Intel GMA 950. Of course, if it's going to be a gaming computer, feel free to spend more on a dedicated card.

You might want to consider an AMD Athlon 64 processor because they tend to run cheaper than their Intel counterparts. Newegg.com has some really good deals on dual core Athlon 64 CPUs.

4GB of RAM might be overkill if you won't be doing a lot of resource intensive work (or play), but go for it if you can get a good deal, especially if you're going to be playing a lot of graphic intensive games.

7200 rpm hard drive is nice, but do you really need 500GB? I've never used more than 60, but of course you know yourself much better than I do.

I already commented on the video card, and the rest of your post makes sense. Enjoy your (lucid...) dream computer!

Yes a bit of gaming, but mostly 3D design. Graphic intensive programs such as 3DS Max as well as games. 3Ds Max, and the few games I play, are extremely RAM intensive. 3Ds Max itself I may often need to run multiple instances of, which can be murder on the computer. As for harddrive space, I can easily use 500 gigs. I find it extremely difficult to work on my 60gig computer as I have a lot of documents, large programs, a few large games, many movies, and most importantly, a hell of A LOT of music.

Can't edit my post anymore, which is annoying, as I've got an update:


Building a new one for sure.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Socket LGA775, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache, 65nm

RAM: Mushkin EM2-5300 DDR2-667 1GB EM Series CAS 5-5-5-15 (991381 (1024MB))(x4)

Harddrive: Seagate Barracuda (ST3500630AS) 7200.10 SATA NCQ 3.0Gb/s 500GB 16MB Cache (OEM)

Video Card: BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 nVidia GeForce 8800GTS Chipset (580Mhz) Shader Clock (1350Mhz) 640MB (1.7GHz) Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-Express Graphics

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Socket 775 Intel P965 Express + ICH8R Chipset Dual-Channel DDR2 533/667/800 8xSATA 8-Channel Intel High Definition Audio Gigabit Lan Firewire Dual PCI-Express Graphic Slots All-Solid Capacitor Silent-Pipe Design Quad BIOS Support Core 2 Duo Processor

Power Supply: OCZ (OCZ600SXS) StealthXstream 600W Gamers Power Supply

Heatsink: Zalman CNPS9500-Cu-LED Heatsink with 92mm Ultra Quiet Fan *For Intel Socket 775 and AMD Socket 754/939/940

DVD Writer/Drive: LG GSA-H62N(Black) SATA DVD-Writer 18x DVD+R/-R 8x DVD+RW/6x DVD-RW 10x DVD+/-R9 Dual Layer 48x CD-R 32x CD-RW OEM

Case: Thermaltake Soprano VD6000BNS VX ATX Midtower Case No PS Black Mirror Finish

Case Cooling: Thermaltake A2309 iCage with 12cm Fan

Keyboard + Mouse: Bytecc MCK-8800 Wireless Multimedia Pro Keyboard W/Optical Moused PS/2
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The only thing I don't have yet is an OS. I don't know whether to choose Vista Basic Home, Vista Ultimate, or just stick with XP. So I still have another $100-200 to tack onto the price, which is at right now $1,610.26 CDN. With tax, thats $1835.70 CDN. So I'm easily pushing $2000.

You could always go with one of the many GNU/Linux distros or even FreeBSD. That brings the additional $100-$200 down to $0. You could still play Windows games with Wine or Cedega (the latter of which costs money but you can compile it from source code for free).

Replace E6600 with Q6600 (should drop to $266, which is probably like $300CAN on July 22nd).

I was debating for the past month weather or not to upgrade from an E6600 to Q6600, but that's just a complete waste of money for me. I've had my E6600 for a year, and it's an amazing processor, but if you are going to build from the ground up now, get the Q6600 instead, since it will be cheap(er) soon.

Yeah quad cores are useless for most people, but it's going to cost less then I paid for my E6600 a year ago... so you might as well. The extra power never hurts