ok i have had an little incident with my old pc. my ex girlfriend decided it would be a good idea to throw my Pc down the stairs. basically the Pc is dead ( i have checked over components) the Mobo has a crack in it the hdd dead and graphics card pcie connector is split. the only thing that survived was the RAM and the CPU (how i have no idea) anyway a friend has leant me his old core duo system and said i can use it and build up a pc and then give it back to him later. so i was wondering where the best place to start would be. i was thinking start graphics card ( dont know what to get ) and if i do i will need to change out his power supply. i am in Australia and starting budget is around $600-$700... ps his power supply is only 450 watt so i will need to upgrade that as well. thank you in advance for help.
Well, the first thing I would do is get a new girlfriend. When I am building a system I first decide what CPU I am going to base the system on. From there I choose my motherboard. Depending on the CPU if it has built in graphics or not will help me decide if I am going for a GPU right away. When choosing a power supply I always insure it is 80+bronze certified first, and then allow extra power for potential add on later on in my build. RAM is generally minimum 8GB and I also check what the CPU likes as far as voltage from the RAM goes. After that I choose a case I like that will fit all the goodies I have chosen for my build. Hope this has been at least of some help. Only kidding about the girlfriend.
i was thinking of starting with the graphics card and psu should i get a 660ti or a 670 and how much of a bottleneck would i get with the core duo ( ie is it worth starting with the graphics card and working from there then wait till the new haswell comes out or start with the mobo and a new cpu .. old cpu is a core i5 2500)
The i5 2500 is a nice CPU. You cannot really over clock it as it is locked but when you are just playing games I honestly don’t think it really matters that much. That CPU should be able to handle any graphics card you throw at it in the 1-2 GB 256 DDR5 range. With the CPU being a Sandy bridge it will default to PCI-E 2.0 no mater what board you use. Your power supply will be partly based on what the demands of the GPU are and again, go for extra power for that increased need later on when you decide to add something else to your system. The specs on this CPU show it has Intel HD Graphics 2000 so you can operate it without a GPU for now until you have checked out all the available cards out there and found the one that is just right for your needs.
what is youre plan to do? upgrade the core 2 duo, or building a complete new system?
p.s not realy cool what youre ex girlfriend did, i would never do something like that :s :P
plan is to slowly build up a rig using the core duo from my mate and as the base the core duo is a full system that i can use now and i was going to buy a GPU and swap out the one that he has in it ( nvidia 8600gt) then swap out the mobo and CPU ect ect ect. then finish with a case and a ssd and then rebuild the whole thing back into a new case and put all his original parts in his case and give it back to him .... if that makes sence, i am just not sure where the best place to start is, i was thinking GPU first (maybe a evga 670 4gb sc) then going from there but i am not sure
So I got your budget, if you can give me the games you play and at what resolution, as well as all the peices you need/ want and also the peices you already have. Then I can get started on helping you with your build!
WTF WAS YOUR GF THINKING? Could yo please explain why she through it down the stairs?
Dr. Jetix:the games i want/like to play are crysis3, watch dogs, metro 2033, far cry 3, mass effect 3 ect ect ect.. also getting into eve and planetside 2 the pieces i have are 8 gb RAM 1833mhz, 2500k and a spare 1tb mechanical drive. everything else has crapped itself so to speak ... i also have my mates core duo machine and it is pretty shit ( i am thankful that he has leant it to me though) but i will be building into it replacing a part piece by piece it should take about 10 weeks for me to aquire, at the end i will transfer all my hardware into a new case ( looking at the phantom 410) and rebuild his pc and hand it back .. at the moment i am only using a 1080P tv as my monitor but will be getting a 27" IPS monitor at the end of the build
GamingFTW: i was studying a diploma in Server Administration and she got pissed off that i was always on the computer and not paying attention to her and lets just say it snowballed from there.
If you use the case you allready have from youre friend, i found this for 725 dollars in australia.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/N1RO
you can also if the current pc has a harddrive too, then use that in the build, then you can schwimp on my list the harddrive, and takte that extra money on a 7870XT or a 7950 gpu.
let me know youre toughts
grtz Angel.
p.s the asrock 970 Extreme 4 isnt realy a good board wenn it comes to overclockting, but if you not gonne do any crazy overclockings, it do just fine on stock speeds.
Mistery he has said that he already has a few of the eprices already at his disposal. So a new build is not what he needs, but very good build though. haha
haha sorry im a bit over enthausiastic i guess, but i saw that budget so i tought its maybe not a bad deale this build so far, especialy wenn he can use the harddrive from his friends pc, and put that extra money in a 7950 card.. :)
but sorry :)
I put to very similar builds together, but there is a price difference and some parts are ofcourse different. The first includes a 7870xt and an SSD(120GB) for your OS and maybe some programs of your choosing come out to about $686.00 australian dollars of couse. Now if you were to remove the SSD it will come out to $577.00 Australian dollars. I will give you the link to the one with SSD so you can remove it and do with it as you see fit.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/N28L
For the second build I had taken out both the 7870xt and added a 7950 so you can get even better performance from games, the 7870xt maybe a better price to performance but the 7950 does beat it, though they are close. This build comes out to $677.00 australian dollars:
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/N27F
Now for both cases I made sure everything was compatible. For the case in both builds, I just went with that was something I approved of and was at a good price. A case is entirely up to preference though so if you want to change that out you can. I you want to throw a 7970 in there for the second build instead of a 7950 it will run about $70 to $100 more, but that again is your choice. If you have any questions let me know! Good luck and happy building!
Also Intel is not my strong suit when it comes to choosing motherboards so if you think there is a better board that fits into your price range and that you like better, you should totally go with that. I went with what had alot of features, good reviews, full ATX, and was at a great price point.
2 very nices builds Jetix. especialy wenn he uses his i5 2500 again.
if i get this right he allready hass memory and a cpu.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/N2CL
and put it in youre friends case.
sorry for my ealier post, i was a bit over enthausiastic putting a new build there, didnt read topic starts text good i guess ☺
You could probably throw an extra $40 to either build if your planning to overclock and get a corsair H80 to water cool your system.
ok a quick question if i had an extra say $300 on any of those builds ( thats a rough estimate) should i get a evga 670 over the 7950 ?? and yes mistery i have ram and a 2500k that still works and a 1tb wd hdd that was from an external
No the 7950/7970 destroys the 670 unless you need the CUDA for Rendering and 3D modeling.
ok thanks Dr.Jetix ... now to find a decent looking 7970 lol cause i love the look of the evga cards lol
for gaming a 7970 is the way to go. if you can afford it ☺
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/NkMJ
this msi looks allmost the same as a evga only diffrent color. i realy like the looks..
http://pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_877&products_id=22890