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Need Your Expertise On Upgrades
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Posted by: Operative47
Hello,
I recently went to a compusoft store in Alberta looking to do hardware upgrades on my current system. After picking out some hardware they gave me a price quote which came to a total of $2,830.20 canadian. This is the hardware that was on the list:
Compusoft order:
Video card - eVGA 7950 GX2 1GB PCI-E $699.00
hard drive - Seagate 500GB SATA2 $369.00
Sound card - Creative SB X-Fi XtremeMusic $169.00
( heard it doesn't work well with gaming )
CPU - AMD64 AM2 X2 4200+ $279.00
motherboard - Foxconn nForce 590 SLI $299.00
Power supply - SPI 700W EPS 24/8pin PS $199.00
RAM - Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 533 PC-4200 $349.00
Black Antec 10 bay full tower $89.00
Hardware assembly - labour $69.00
O/S and device driver install - labour $138.00
Sub total: $2,670.00
GST: $160.20
TOTAL: $2,830.20
After that I came home and compared prices & hardware at tigerdirect.ca and ncix.com. In doing so I found cheaper prices for some of the same stuff plus better hardware ( I think?) for my FPS gaming needs. At tigerdirect.ca the order was as listed:
TigerDirect.ca order:
Seagate / Barracuda 7200.10 / 500GB / 7200 / 16MB / ATA-100 / EIDE / OEM / Hard Drive $266.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.20GHz / 1MB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket AM2 / Dual-Core (Windsor) /
Processor with Fan $247.99
Asus M2N32 WS Pro NVIDIA Socket AM2 ATX Motherboard / Audio / PCI Express / PCI-X / SLI Ready /
Dual Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA / RAID $444.99
Crucial Dual Channel 2048MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) $339.99
BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual GPU / 1GB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV /
Video Card $666.99
Thermaltake / ToughPower / 700-Watt / ATX / 140mm Fan / SATA Ready / SLI Ready /
PFC/EPS / Power Supply $203.99
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE $44.99
SUBTOTAL : $2,215.93
S&H : UPS WorldShip CA.... $4.95
TAX: $135.60
TOTAL: $2,356.48
Compusoft - Black Antec 10 bay full tower $89.00
Compusoft - Hardware assembly - labour $69.00
Compusoft - O/S and device driver install - labour $138.00
TOTAL $2,652.48
And at ncix.com
NCIX.COM ORDER
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Windsor 2.2GHZ
2X512KB 89W 90NM Retail Box
FREE GROUND SHIPPING FOR THEIS ORDER!
In Stock 18458 1 $230.78 $230.78
Foxconn C51XEM2AA-8EKRS2H ATX AM2 Nforce 590 SLI 2PCI-E16 1PCI-E4 1PCI-E1 2PCI
SATA 1394 Motherboard
2-5 Business Days 18644 1 $239.00 $239.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.5MS Hard Drive OEM NCQ RoHS
5YEAR MFR Warranty
In Stock 16408 1 $279.30 $279.30
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI 7.1 Surround Sound Card
In Stock 17424 1 $33.40 $33.40
SPI R-FX700-GLN 700W ATX SLI 700GLN 20+4PIN 12CM BB FAN APFC RETAIL BOX C2D
This item is a special order item. Additional delays may occur depending on supplier availability.
You can cancel this item for a full refund before it ships.
5-10 Business Days 222248260 1 $167.24 $167.24
EVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 500MHZ Dual GPU Video Card 1GB 1.2GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E
Dual DVI-I HDTV Out
In Stock 18724 1 $693.75 $693.75
Shipping and Handling: $30.78
Shipping Insurance (1.5%): $24.65
SUBTOTAL: $1,698.90
No PST - Outside BC residents
GST(6%): $101.93
YOUR TOTAL:
All quoted prices are in CANADIAN DOLLARS $1,800.83
Compusoft - Black Antec 10 bay full tower $89.00
Compusoft - Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 533 PC-4200 $349.00
Compusoft - Hardware assembly - labour $69.00
Compusoft - O/S and device driver install - labour $138.00
TOTAL: $2,445.83
So my question to you is what is my best and safest option, is all the hardware compatible with eachother, and which of the 2 motherboards do you think is better? Keep in mind that I'm a novice in hardware knowledge and am a FPS gamer whose hoping that these upgrades with last me 3-4 years *fingers crossed*.
Posted by: goranpaa
Oh man! Quite a list.
But a small advice is to skip the AM2 stuff. You wont gain much from the AM2 over Socket 939 anyways.
The DDR 2 is faster yes. But have higher latecys instead. And as AMD cpu's always have benefitted from low latency RAM....well.
Then it's better to go Intel Conroe right away. Preferably with a E6600 CPU. And the Asus de luxe mobo for Conroe. Cant remember the model unfortunatly.
And are you sure you wanna shell out that kind of money on the videocard when the Direct X10 vidocards soon coming up? They will be released when Windows Vista is out. And the cards of today, will be more or less obsolete when this happends. Othervice I think you picked pretty good stuff.
Posted by: Operative47
The guys at compusoft said the Socket 939 stuff is old and hard to find so my best bet is going with the AM2. are they wrong?
Posted by: rabidgecko
i dunno if the prices are a problem for you, you could probably pick up some better prices if you are willing to buy online and wait for the shipping. some good sites, that are canadian are
www.tigerdirect.ca
www.ncix.com
www.vibecomputers.com
but if you are happy with what you see there thats ok.
Posted by: goranpaa
Hard to find!? Probably they where eager to sell you the AM2 stuff. lol. And s.939, is just the genaration older than AM2. So it's not a dinosaur really.
Here is a good s. 939 rig. Hd, videocard and so on is up to you.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813123246
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819103546
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820145574
Posted by: Operative47
It not really so much what makes me happy, whats more important to me is will all this hardware work well together and will it produce good results for games 2-4 years down the road?
Posted by: Operative47
 Quote:
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Originally Posted by goranpaa
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Those are all american prices right?
Posted by: goranpaa
They work well together. I have used this stuff for a while now. And I could'nt be happier.
Games like F.E.A.R is'nt a problem for ex.
And 2 years is realistic with any high end pc. But 3-4 years is more on the unrealistic side as the developement of hardware is pretty fast nowadays.
Posted by: Operative47
I can see myself replacing the video card and CPU 2 years down the road, but what about the motherboard?
Posted by: goranpaa
Motherboard and cpu may live a little longer. But if you wanna be really sure to keep up even better? Then go Conroe.
The E6600 with decent RAM and a good mobo will beat the shit out of the AM2 FX 62
Posted by: Operative47
So I should go with a a Conroe Motherboard and CPU? Why is Conroe so much better that the motherboards I picked out?
Posted by: goranpaa
The architechture and the new chipsets.
Posted by: goranpaa
For maybe the first time Intel have beaten AMD when it comes to gaming PC's.
But of coarce the table can turn when AMD release their quad core cpu. No date set yet.
Posted by: Operative47
So I'm gonna have way better performance with the new Intel Conroe motherboard & CPU, than with the AMD products?
Posted by: goranpaa
Yepp. But make sure you pick a good mobo. Some brands making the mobo's for Conroe is kinda flaky. From what I heard, Asus is one of the best.
Posted by: goranpaa
Here is the best mobo according to different polls and such for a really good Conroe mobo.
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Posted by: goranpaa
I just read, that you can't run SLI on the Conroe mobo's even though it have 2 PCI E 16X slots. But you can run 2 Radeon crossfire cards. The Intel chipset wont allow SLI setups.
Posted by: Operative47
goranpaa,
You seem to know what ur talking about when it comes hardware, but I find this whole thing very confusing because there so much to chose from, different prices, buy online, don't buy online, intel, AMD, sales guys telling me half truths, ect...
The more I learn the harder is to make a good decision. Even so I have to fight on and learn more, I am going to try and come up with a Intel based system and AMD based system which I think will take me about a week to make a decision on. So for know I should let this topic die and resurrect it when I have a better idea of what I want, and when that day comes I was hoping that I could PM and get your opinion agian?
Posted by: goranpaa
Specs on the P5W DH Deluxe.
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?...=3&l2=11&l3=248
Posted by: goranpaa
Yeah, I know it's a "maze" picking the best stuff. Read up on tests etc. And just give me a howl when you wanna ask about something.
Posted by: goranpaa
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Operative47
Those are all american prices right?
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Sorry! I missed that question. But you're not from the U.S. then?
It could be good to know. In case you want me or any other guy here finding good prices for the hardware, when you have found the right stuff.
Posted by: rabidgecko
yea just don't forget that newegg doesn't ship outside of america, as I have found out and i'm sure you have found too goranpaa. those other sites i listed, if you want to buy online usually have a decent selection and better prices than instore, so if you do decide to buy online, those sites aren't a bad choice. But if you prefer to get everything all from one spot, not a internet store, that's ok too. Are you planning to build this PC yourself or have it built for you? Sorry i just wasn't clear on that.
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