PC killed by Sunscreen. Upgrade time.

[SilverMane]

Howzit guys,

I'm completely new here, and I must admit, I know absolutely nothing of hardware and software when it reaches the realm of PC's.

I was chilling by a mate the other day and he stood on a bottle of sunscreen, which promptly burst and sent it's contents through the back venting of my PC, leading to the mass death of a majority of the components inside, much to my horror.. Wasn't a big loss, as it was a couple years old off the shelf model, but quite the way for it to go.

So now I have to replace/upgrade and due to my lack of knowledge it is abit hard. Essentially, I want a nice build so that I can last a good couple years before I upgrade again maybe. I don't intend to start learning hardware at this moment..

So my mate organised my this potential list.

intel core2Quad 2.66Ghz
leadtek Nvidia geforce gts250 1gb ddr3
2x 2gb corsair ddr3
gigabyte ddr3 ich7 chipset motherboard
gigabyte odin 470w psu

And for that he is charging me 6250 Rand, or according to XE, 840 Dollars,
or 538 Pounds. I don't think he intends to rip me off, as he has connections with the suppliers, so maybe SA prices are high/low.

Anyways, on another forum I had recommendations for these parts.

i7 860 2.8GHz quad-core CPU
AMD Radeon HD 5000 series (particularly the 5850).

I've also learnt that my PSU is apparently not of the highest quality.

So yeah. That about sums that up. Are my other commentors rightabout replacing those parts? Apparently I would need a new motherboard then as well. Which they also recommended.

To be honest I'm abit overwhelmed by the amount of options, and I just aim to get the best bang for my buck, and the ability to game well occasionally and record alot of music...

Thanks guys, sorry if its a info overload.

[123456]

GTS250, go with i7. Get at least a 600W PSU... 470W? LOL

[SilverMane]

So I should disregard the advice of getting the other graphics card? I actually think that the supplier doesnt stock AMD.

Thanks for the quick response.

[saphalline]

That is an interesting way to kill an old computer. But your friend is so silly! Only portable computers like laptops and netbooks need sun screen! Unless your desktop is in a four-season porch?


First of all, being a few years old, there is nothing from your old computer that would be useful in a new computer. The CPU, mobo, RAM, vid card, and PSU would all be too old to be compatible in a new system. Your hard drive, even if it is SATA, would also be too old & too small & too slow to use as a new OS drive. Little things like optical drives and mice and keyboards can be reused, but if you need to buy them new they are dirt cheap anyway (relative to the cost of an entirely new computer). In short, you will essentially be building a completely new system with no old parts.

Secondly, you should know that your Windows license from your old system was tied to it - particularly the mobo. Such is the fate of an OEM off-the-shelf system. Remember that to stay on the legal side of the fence, which of course we adamantly require on these forums, you will need to buy a new copy/license of Windows. Put that into your budget.

Thirdly, "the ability to game well occasionally" should be compared to your old hardware before you let yourself be talked into a $300 vid card! A 3-year-old OEM system could not have been very good at gaming, all things considered. The Radeon HD 5850 is a very good vid card, but I suspect it would be roughly 30 times as powerful as your old vid card; drastically more so if you were using onboard video. While that is indeed a nice upgrade, I imagine that buying a $100 vid card and getting 12 times the performance of your old vid card (not including the performance increase you will see from the rest of your new system) would be more than enough for you in addition to being $200 cheaper.


As far as the system that your friend quoted you, I would venture a guess that it blows your old system away just by being mentioned in the same sentence! However, it includes an odd cacophony of technologies that span 3 years. An old C2Q & the ICH7 combined with DDR3 and a GTS 250? Even if you are in SA, there should be more efficient ways to spend your money on an upgrade.

All in all, I would say that you should not let anyone talk you into a $400 CPU or a $500 vid card or 8GB of RAM. Any modern system with decent specs will seem like a whirlwind compared to your old system, so keep it light. Any modern CPU under $150 will be vastly more capable than your old one, any modern vid card under $200 will let you play Crysis on medium settings, any 750GB or larger hard drive will be at least twice as fast as your old one, and 2GB to 4GB of RAM is more than enough for anyone who surfs the web and plays games only occasionally (no matter which OS you use!). There are a few components where you do not want to skimp, such as the PSU, but otherwise it sounds like your needs are meager.