Help D3k0y upgrade!

d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
in Hardware
So I have finally got around to where all my personal bills are gone, and I can actually start this thing called a "savings account". However I would like to upgrade my PC before I do so. As it stands now my computer while not terribad, is well below average. I don't meet the minimum requirements for most games released now a days, and pretty much anything I pick up (including Minecraft for Buddha's sake) has to be dropped to the worst settings possible before I can even begin.

Currently my system (foregoing the model numbers and such) is running something (mostly guesses since it is pretty old) like this:
Intel Core 2 Duo - 2.1ghz
Nvidia 450 GTS
3gigs of ancient RAM, I want to say PC2 667?
500gig 5k HDD, I don't use a ton of space, so this size is adequate but I think it is dying
750w PSU
Motherboard is a P550 something, no idea.
Case is some massive beast I got from CB and one of his review, a Hurricane or something. More than big enough to hold all the stuff so it is fine.

Either way, most of my stuff minus my GPU were acquired well over 4 years ago. I would like to keep the total purchase under 800 bucks, and I have no problem with incremental purchases. I do know however that I need to upgrade my CPU at the least, but that also requires a new Mobo, and might as well throw some more RAM in there with it. I do have a backup external HDD, but I can't boot from it, and like I said, I think my current HDD is going out.

I did a quick price check once over on Newegg and found some parts that might work, but I figured I would ask you guys since you tend to know a hell of a lot more than I do.

2xCrucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT4G3D1609DS1S00
Model #:BLS2KIT4G3D1609DS1S0
Item #:N82E16820148544
$44.99 -$5.00 Instant $79.98


GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Model #:GA-Z77X-UD3H
Item #:N82E16813128544
$169.99 -$20.00 Instant $149.99

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
Model #:BX80637I53570K
Item #:N82E16819116504
$229.99 $229.99

Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Model #:ST2000DL003
Item #:N82E16822148681
$119.99 -$10.00 Instant $109.99

Subtotal: $569.95

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    You have room for a GPU in your budget. Might I be able to shill you on a Radeon 7850? Wait until Oct. 22. ;)
  • WinfreyWinfrey waddafuh Missouri Icrontian
    I have that ram in my computer right now and it's good stuff.

    Everything else looks pretty good too.
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    Oct 22nd is my birthday =)
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Do you "need" that storage room? I'd jump for a 128GB SSD any day over that much storage and get storage drive later.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Tushon said:

    Do you "need" that storage room? I'd jump for a 128GB SSD any day over that much storage and get storage drive later.

    Seconded, but a 256 GB SSD would hold a lot. See how much stuff you have on your HDD now, and get just enough for that, then later get a storage drive. I use my external for almost everything stporage-wise, use my HDD (waiting for SSD prices to drop some more) for dual-booting, and it is a 500 GB HDD. If I used only Windows, I would be using a 256GB SSD now.

    One more thing, might get a Windows 7 Professional DVD for the new stuff, if you do not have Windows 7 now(drivers, and SSD fixes). Newegg had them at $119.00 last I looked, special deal I passed on myself since I have enough licenses already.

  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    I also recommend getting an SSD for a boot drive at least.
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    An SSD is in the works for the upgrade, but it is something I planned on getting a bit later depending on the budget. I have about 400 gigs of stuff on my HDD right now, and like I said it seems to be on its way out. For example when I power up the computer I can audibly tell that the HDD isn't spinning up, and it gets stuck on a black screen after the mobo load. So I do want a SSD, but I want to make sure I have a chance to move all my stuff to another drive first.

    Then eventually have a large HDD for storage, and a speedy SSD for booting and games.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Well, OK, but an external storage device makes sense. You can take a USB 3.0 external storage device and get surprising throughput from it.

    I have a nominal 2.0 TB Seagate external HD that is USB 3.0 rated and it does about 175 GB of compressed weekly full backup and system image (the external drive holds a lot of older - archive - data also, and I backup that data frequently or write directly to the external where I can set data paths to the external Seagate) from my laptop in about 1/2 hour (most recent and biggest backup took 38 minutes and some seconds) in the background while doing other things in foreground (multitasking in Win 7 is neat). Windows is satisfied the backup is good.

    That is a laptop (which can only have one HD and DVD drive, or two HDs and no DVD, intenal to it), granted, but the Seagate external can read as fast as it writes. I have proven this proven this by test restoring successfully from backup many times-- about 24 min for that to restore 174 GB. I do full restores to test. Your chosen new motherboard has USB 3.0 ports.

    The main drive in the laptop is a 500 GB Seagate SATA 2 drive (think it is only SATA 2 instead of SATA 3). It has about 350 GB data on it right now, I keep my core data on Windows partitions so they get backed up. Linux has lots of programs on it-- I back up Linux a bout as often as I update it, to a different External than the Seagate (the Seagate I have objects to Linux Ext4 partitions, will write them then they "disappear.").

    I boot from a Win 7 recovery CD (Win 7 can make for you) to do restores. I have 16 GB of RAM in the laptop, which allows Windows to recover fast while keeping programs to recover from backups and/or system images) in RAM also. Windows does use a small RAM disk to run recover from, and will grab a big work buffer. Lots of fast RAM (up to about 8 GB, only some of which will be used with fast drives) makes recovery faster.

    A smaller 128 GB SSD is about $85.00-$90.00 on sale these days.

    My external ran me $129.99 on sale. I think with a 800 dollar max budget you can afford what you want plus an SSD of decent size-- 60 GB SSDs would boot fine, but some programs insist on running from a boot drive. Some games do, some applications do. And 60 GB SSDS are not as economical per GB right now as 128 GB SSDs are. So..... :)
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    That makes sense. I might look into doing that then. A lot of the data on my HDD currently is junk anyways, and I could probably clear a good 100-150 gigs of crap off of it.
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    Thrax said:

    You have room for a GPU in your budget. Might I be able to shill you on a Radeon 7850? Wait until Oct. 22. ;)

    Radeon HD 7850 Benchmark = 3,260
    GeForce GTS 450 Benchmark = 1,447

    Sold. Now just for the price.
  • SignalSignal Icrontian
    edited October 2012
    d3k0y said:

    A lot of the data on my HDD currently is junk anyways, and I could probably clear a good 100-150 gigs of crap off of it.

    This should help.
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    I actually already use that. Steam takes up more space than I expected
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited October 2012
    Yeah, I've started uninstalling games that I don't expect to be playing within the next month. It's so easy to get them back if I want them, that there is little reason to retain them all.

    ...Unless you just want to show off the size of your Steam e-peen library, but I don't know anyone like that... (ahem) @mertesn (/ahem) :D
  • BlueTattooBlueTattoo Boatbuilder Houston, TX Icrontian
    I don’t like green drives for anything except backups. Since you say that you don’t need the space, consider 128 (or even 64) GB SSD boot drive and 500 GB Hybrid second drive. I have a WD Black 1 TB second drive (used to be boot drive) but hybrids were not available then. Better performance that still might fit in the budget.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2012
    d3k0y said:

    Thrax said:

    You have room for a GPU in your budget. Might I be able to shill you on a Radeon 7850? Wait until Oct. 22. ;)

    Radeon HD 7850 Benchmark = 3,260
    GeForce GTS 450 Benchmark = 1,447

    Sold. Now just for the price.

    Starting today, if you buy from a participating retailer (www.amd.com/neversettle), you can also get a free copy of Far Cry 3 with your GPU. It releases on December 4. :) We also about to release a bitchin' new driver, Catalyst 12.11, that improves performance by 10-20% in pretty much every DX10/DX11 title.
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    edited November 2012
    Few modifications to the list. Namely the RAM and the Harddrive.

    I found a 16 gig kit (8x2) for the same price as the 2x 8 gig kits (4x2x2). I also found the same harddrive, but a 7200RPM instead of the 5900RPM I was looking at before, for 20 bucks less.

    http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/2G8KCW2SWVTDA/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o_C-2

    Everything was on Amazon and for less than it was on NewEgg. Plus free shipping, since I am a Prime member on Amazon.
  • d3k0yd3k0y Loveland, OH Icrontian
    Next question would be GPUs, which are a bit out of my budget, but I might be able to squeak it past the wife.

    HD 7850 (199.99)
    http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-mini-Displayport-PCI-Express-Graphic-GV-R785OC-2GD/dp/B007PJTNYS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352920092&sr=1-1&keywords=HD+7850+2GB

    vs

    GTX 560 ti (185.99)
    http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclocked-Mini-HDMI-Graphics-02G-P3-1469-KR/dp/B0050I1PI8/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352920119&sr=1-5&keywords=GTX+560+ti
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