$500 Birthday Budget

MachineDogMachineDog New
edited March 2009 in Hardware
The time has come around again and as usual my family/extended family ends up giving me a total of around a $500 budget for my birthday to do what I wish with, I do not accept gifts unless in the form of oreos.

I'd like to ask what Icrontic would do with the money given that my current computing systems are the following:

550W Rosewill PSU
MSI CF-F v1 Motherboard (Does not support above 95W CPU)
Athlon X2 5600+ 2.8GHz
HD3850 512MB
6GB DDR2-800
70GB Raptor, 80GB second drive, 320GB drive for video storage, 500GB NAS

And my Dell Studio 1535.

I'm open to any ideas that are inside the realm of computing, my ideas were generally related to quad core CPUs, video card upgrades, and storage but I'd like to see some different ideas.

Comments

  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    What do you want to do that this computer doesn't do well enough?

    -drasnor :fold:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Let's start with a question, THE big question for any computer upgrade or new build:

    What do you want out of the computer? Comment on needs - gaming, photo editing, movie editing, music processing, office applications. If gaming, high intensity? Casual? How long to you want the computer to feel fast, or how long would you like to run it before a serious upgrade or new computer?

    Can you transfer your current operating system? What is it? Also, is the OS retail or OEM?
  • NYCDrewNYCDrew NYC(duh)
    edited March 2009
    I'm asking for the Flip Mino HD for my birthday, which is in two weeks. You can get one for these and still have $300 for other toys.

    http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_mino.shtml#scene=sceneMain
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    He's looking for a computer upgrade or rebuild, not a separate gadget.
  • MachineDogMachineDog New
    edited March 2009
    NYCDrew wrote:
    I'm asking for the Flip Mino HD for my birthday, which is in two weeks. You can get one for these and still have $300 for other toys.

    http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_mino.shtml#scene=sceneMain

    I bought an HD Camcorder last year actually, this is what I'm talking about thinking outside the box of the computer itself though. I'm a technophile so anything electronic works for me, I just figure the computer is a good starting point. I may try to build a media center box for the TV room/outdoors, although I'm unsure if I can build a decent one for the money. That's just an example though.
    Leonardo wrote:
    He's looking for a computer upgrade or rebuild, not a separate gadget.

    Sorry if I made it sound that way, I kind of tried to list what I currently have and see if you guys can help me come up with any ideas for anything in the realm of computing to purchase.

    Rebuild/upgrade wise I think if I were to go that route I'd purchase a Phenom 9650 95W and a 9800GTX+ and call it a day.

    On a side note, I so wish I could get a 3G phone (or even a usb kit for my laptop) but the plans are far too expensive.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    I stand corrected.

    I'll leave gadgetry to others.
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