Seriously Thinking about Upgrading...

[J-Dude]

My old HPa1250n Desktop has been a reliable old girl, around since 2005 when she was just a 1 gigabyte machine with a 256 megabyte graphics card, but back then she was such a breath of air.

These days though, in the dawn of 64 bit systems, even lasting as long as she has, it's getting a bit overwhelmed. No problems with games, she's always taken all comers. Her 8800GT and dual gigs of DDR1 RAM have managed to allow for highest settings on tons of game, including Crysis of all things. And being so vested in 3D animation, she's never quite been short on power.

But I'm realizing she's carrying a lot of age now. Malware and odd install bugs have made it impossible to shut down without the aid of the task manager, and even then I have to watch the "shutting down" window for five minutes before the actual shutdown. Odd Internet browsing bugs occur every few weeks, forcing me to reboot in order to browse again.

I have a 250 gigabyte hard drive, and these days I'm on the threshold of 30 gigs of free space left maximum.

The 8800GT is the best graphics card I've ever experienced, but I'm certain the non PCI-Express 2.0 compatible motherboard is bottlenecking it's full potential. It still runs off DDR1 RAM, when DDR2 can be bought dirt cheap. I find the processor hits it's peak pretty quickly these days.

But to top all that, I can't even use anti-aliasing or motion blur in games without serious lag, and my Dragonball Fan-Film is stymied because my machine doesn't quite have what it takes to truly utilize the hardware hungry FumeFX plugin without crashing from running out of useable memory, a plugin crucial to producing the Ki effects among other things which are necessary for the whole thing to come together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


So, I'm thinking the glory days of this old bird are going to have to be over, it's time to find a new, affordable system.

I'm going to need a lot more than 3 Gigabytes of RAM, I want to get about 8. So despite my reservations, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and switch to Vista. Hopefully by now it's been around long enough that it's a lot stabler. My parents use Vista for their laptop and I've never encountered unusual problem with it, other than typical Laptop habits of having horrendous heating issues.

The processor isn't too big a deal for me. If it's around, twice the power of the 3800 in my machine, it'll perform admirably.

I'd love to buy HP again, and I've customized a rig for it costing around $850 on their site, but I'd rather be able to put something together and say exactly what I want and what I DON'T want.

For instance, I've no need for a new graphics card, mouse, keyboard, monitor or speakers, so any custom PC site I find which forces me to include these things in the price is an utter waste of money. This would have cut plenty off the end-price of the HP build.

But mostly, I'm hoping to find something that I can pay off monthly at a fixed rate (I REALLY have no intention of dealing with the utter scam that is credit cards) rather than pay it all at once, which would be difficult given my current means.

Would anyone have any advice, or perhaps a good PC building website where I can customize a machine that has what I want, hopefully at a reasonable, if not bargain price? Obviously I want the components to be of decent quality and not something bound to break, so not necessarily a site selling CHEAP PC's and parts, but the best buy for a good price.

In advance, thank you for your time.

 

[kam!]

I'd just order all the parts I need, and build a PC. You probably only need to switch CPU, RAM, MOBO and HDD's. Ordering just these parts should be pretty cheap compared to building a pc on any site and ordering it.

 

[J-Dude]

Well, I've been working on that a bit now. I've been looking up components with which to Frankenstein on Newegg, but unless someone knows a better build, it's getting rather expensive without even adding CD drives and cooling and things.

Meanwhile I've been customizing a PC via the HP website. I really trust their brand, and while I can only say "no" to a few of their things (can't say no to mouse, can't say no to keyboard, graphic card, etc) I have to say it's looking like a damned STEAL compared to what I'm trying to put together here, AND it appears to be even better than what I'd hoped.

The lowest graphics card choice it had was a 512 MB GeForce 210, though I'm not certain how it compares to my 8800GT. Hell, this rig even comes with DDR3 RAM as a standard.

And based on what I wanted and didn't want, the end-price was $919 for the whole hog.

This is the actual info about the build if anyone's not sure on this. I have to say this is pretty tempting.

 

[harSens]

That's quite expensive. You should be able to get that processor at 150 euro, a motherboard at 75 euro (if you don't want fance stuff like SLI, DDR3, hardware raid etc), a 1TB harddisk at 75 euro and the memory at 200 euro. Since we're typically ripped of with hardware prices in Europe and VAT in the Netherlands, that probably boils down to $500 for you.

 

[J-Dude]

That's quite expensive. You should be able to get that processor at 150 euro, a motherboard at 75 euro (if you don't want fance stuff like SLI, DDR3, hardware raid etc), a 1TB harddisk at 75 euro and the memory at 200 euro. Since we're typically ripped of with hardware prices in Europe and VAT in the Netherlands, that probably boils down to $500 for you.

No kidding?

Well I'm all ears as to how and where I could get that equivalent for the prices you're talking about. The problem for me is in finding the right equipment, which is also compatible with each other. Then, if I'm putting all this together myself, there's the question of whether or not I have the power. I have a 600 watt PSU, but with this kind of upgrade, I'm not even sure if that's enough anymore.

Then there's the fact that I'm buying the Vista OS on top of that, not exactly cheap.

But I guess my main concern is the case. I'm just not sure if it's equipped or not to give good air flow to this kind of hardware. My current PC only has three fans, one over the CPU, one for case intake, and one built into the PSU which has different speed settings. Overheating was what killed my old 7950GT, and I've taken good care monitoring and adjusting for heat levels since, but a 2005 case with 2009 technology inside it, I just don't know what constitutes a good design, or whether the case is even big enough. It barely houses the 8800GT lengthwise.

 

[harSens]

I'd say the case is fine, especially with 3 fans. It kinda depends on how good your power supply is though. You might need to double check for the size of your motherboard. If start to like building your own computers, a silent case and silent, powerful and efficient power supply is a good investment though.

I guess Vista adds another 100, get a version with an upgrade coupon to Windows 7. Since you're replacing most of your computer, you should be able to get a OEM version. You might be able to get a cheaper version if you're a student or if you're upgrading from XP?

To be on the safe side you could just go to your local computer store and have it build into your case by them. That'll be more expensive though. You can probably take advantage of their economic situation and haggle a bit

 

[kam!]

<a href='http://img12.imageshack.us/i/orderxyz.jpg/'><img src='http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3262/orderxyz.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/>

$644+Vista + optional cpu cooling

 

[J-Dude]

These components are sounding great, and I'm compiling my own cart/wish list with all those items (only getting the single hard drive though; One Terabyte should do me pretty well for the time being). Also picked out a 750 watt PSU of the same brand as my current, which has been doing me very nicely.

I intend to use all the outmoded components in my little brother's computer, so he'll be needing an appropriate PSU for all that anyway, namely my current 600 watt. He runs a dinosaur of a machine, so this will be QUITE the upgrade for him. His case is huge, so he'll have no problem fitting it all.

I can just use my disc drives and stuff with the new components, so it all seems like it's coming together. But considering my old hard drive with my Windows XP will be going to my brother, I'm not sure how simple upgrading is going to be for cheap.

I like the idea of starting fresh. Like with all machines, mine has inevitably taken on some barnacles over the years, odd system things, so carpet-bombing that hard drive into fresh empty oblivion will do both me AND my brother good, but he only has a 100 gig drive and an old as Hell 20 gig we've had for ten years, so I'll be making my system and data's new home on the Terabyte drive. I'll continue a constant external drive backup until I'm sure the drive is stable though, as I've heard things about Terabyte sized drives being prone to dying. I'll continue backing up obviously, but less frequently from then on.

Still, I'm trying to find cheaper avenues to get to Vista. Amazon.com seems promising, tons of their stuff is new, yet with marked down prices. I'd like to make sure I'm getting the real deal though. One review I saw on Newegg for full Vista said the disc he got was for a 32 bit Vista (which I wasn't aware even existed) and had to pay extra to be shipped the 64 bit DVD.

Just being cautious is all, but considering how much my computer and what I do with it is to me, I want to make sure I'm getting exactly what I hope for.

Also, Vista users, I keep hearing about Vista being death for video games, easy and constant to crash. Is there any truth to this, or is this merely from folks with hardware that barely meets system requirements?

And concerning how Vista is a known resource hog, is 8 Gigabytes going to be the jump (from 2 gigs on XP) I hope it is?

 

[*****powered]

If you dont care about Price Google Maingear, They can build you a Sweet Top of the line model that should Last you a loong long time. the Ephex their top of the line was about 8 grand Few months back could be even less now, i've been saving up cash for a new computer cause mines Been pulling threw and its 10 years old custom build of my own design, Looks like it might be a lot less now, Cause the starting price used to e 5k, but now its only 1k, for the system uncustomized http://maingear.com/products/desktops/ephex/ High space inbetween for link since i wasn't sure if it links allowed, should be, but my mines blank lol

 

[J-Dude]

If you dont care about Price Google Maingear, They can build you a Sweet Top of the line model that should Last you a loong long time. the Ephex their top of the line was about 8 grand Few months back could be even less now, i've been saving up cash for a new computer cause mines Been pulling threw and its 10 years old custom build of my own design, Looks like it might be a lot less now, Cause the starting price used to e 5k, but now its only 1k, for the system uncustomized http://maingear.com/products/desktops/ephex/ High space inbetween for link since i wasn't sure if it links allowed, should be, but my mines blank lol

I care plenty about price, I work part-time at a movie theater. Jesus man, the lowest I can customize that sucker to is still $1800.

Nah, I like the Newegg option best so far. I just need enough to have a working machine and be significantly stepped up from where I am now. My graphics card is still beautiful to me, it's only everything else that's out of date. Stepping up to a better motherboard will speed things up in general, but with a quad core twice as beefy as my current dual core will also be an improvement I can feel. Upping to DDR2 is also going to be fun, but especially with six gigabytes of the stuff more than I had, effectively quadrupling my RAM at least (I say at least, because I know DDR2 also adds an edge to overall speed). All this, plus the fact that the motherboard will be compatible with PCI-Express 2.0, as opposed to 16x like my current board. I can hardly wait to see what happens once my 8800GT can finally spread it's already considerably wide wings in full. I just hope Vista's resource needs don't rain on the parade.

 

[J-Dude]

Hmm...

I must say I'm a bit torn.

I've found Vista Ultimate for an amazing price on Amazon and have heard good things about it, but I also hear great recommendations for Windows 7 (is it even out yet?).

And yet I also hear XP 64-bit has Vista's advantages without the hassle of Vista. And yet I feel exhilarated at the idea of upgrading to a newer OS.

Eh...

And I'd go for Windows 7 too, but being such a new OS, it's BOUND to start out with crippling bugs once it's released to the public. The same happens with any software pretty much.

Just not sure which direction to take on this.

 

[kam!]

[...]Also, Vista users, I keep hearing about Vista being death for video games, easy and constant to crash. Is there any truth to this, or is this merely from folks with hardware that barely meets system requirements?

And concerning how Vista is a known resource hog, is 8 Gigabytes going to be the jump (from 2 gigs on XP) I hope it is?

I have Vista 64bit and have 0 issues with gaming. Everything runs fine maxed out (at 1920x1200) with framerates always above my monitors refresh rate (meaning >60fps).
I've never encountered serious issues so far.


As for RAM, I have 4 gigs and I'm fine (though I never really use RAM heavy programs like picture or video editing, so 8 gigs might suit your needs better)

 

[J-Dude]

Sounds good.

Yeah, I think I'll go for Vista and see what W7 turns into. I'd rather not be present running a newly retailed system. If it gets some patches later and the general feeling is positive towards it, I'll upgrade later on. This will be good for applications too, since W7 will have zero compatibility issues once I'm settled in on Vista.

Now I just need to get past the first few weeks of school so that I no longer have to worry about anything vampiring my money...

 

[*****powered]

Windows Seven isn't out yet, But Most Vista's if you buy it Now comes with a Windows Seven Free Upgrade coupon, That way u dont have to pay for it, and u don't have to get W7 right when it comes out you can wait a while to get it, and yeah i care about price too, i work part time 15 hours over 3 days for 7 bucks, <.<;; it'll take me forever to save my money up again, i should just build the pc myself, like i did this one instead of tryin to get maingeared,