First upgrade...ever?

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n00dlejester

n00b
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
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Aloha hardforumers.

So my last PC crashed and burned like the whore it was. It was old, really old. So I have to upgrade, but my buddy (our fellow hardforumer mavalpha has given me an interim set-up so I can buy my gear in pieces.

I've already bought a few pieces (RAM, new PSU, new DVD combo drive). Now the guts are what's needed. I'm a light gamer (I'll play a new release once in a while, no more than say 3 or 4 a year), and I just want something solid more than anything. I don't need the fastest, or the bestest...just good.

So with this in mind, I was thinking of getting the 5000 Black Edition, a motherboard of sorts, and a video card of sorts. My question is should I get this, or put in another 40/50 bucks and get a 6400? Also, what's a nice and solid mobo for AMD procs?
 
Not sure about the mb, but I recently bought the 5000 black edition for waaaay cheap, and have if oc'ed to 3.0 ghz without hardly breathing, just by raising the CPU multiplier from 13x to 15x in my bios, with an AsusM2A-VM, mb, not known for its oc abilities. I have an ATI 2600XT from a while back which works well for my needs. Very little gaming, but a lot of DVD and TV tuner watching, ripping and burning.

I think the ATI 3600 series is on par, if not a bit better than the 2600XT for a vid card.
 
What mainly do you use your computer for? If you are looking for a good HTPC set up that can play games decently, then look for a 780G motherboard. The 780G also is a micro atx bd so you can go with a small mid tower or a HTPC case. If you want a full size bd then look for a 770 or 790. You don't need the FX if you are not going to be doing any major gaming.
The 5000 BE is a good proc. With good cooling and a little jump in voltage they will hit 3.2 Ghz. If you do alot of video encoding or similar, you might want to look into a quad core. Newegg still has the 9600BE for 169. You can turn the TLB fix off, do search on internet and many links how to do it. The TLB fix does decrease performance. I have had mine for almost 3 mo now and I have been running this whole time wtih TLB fix turned off with out any problems. I have my 9600 OC to 3.0. I can get it up to 3.2 but have to turn the voltage up more than I want too.
Back to the 780G motherboard. I just built my mom a HTCP with an ASUS 780G board and a 5000BE cpu. I also installed a Diamond 3450 512mb ram video card. I have hybrid crossfire enabled. The performance is about the same as 2600 video card. My mom has a 32 in widescreen Sony Bravia N tv and my daughters have played Sims 2 with most settings on high and last night they played Mass Effect with the setting on Medium. Just to give you an idea of being able to play games.
 
My budget depends on what's worth it out in the market. I'm looking to spend no more than 200 on a proc, and no more than 200 on a GPU.

I do web-surfing, light gaming as stated earlier, I do a lot of research, and some work. I'll do some Illustrator and Photoshop work from home also.

I'm thinking get a 5000 BE, a good motherboard, and I'm spying the ATI 3870. I'm buying in pieces, and my next piece is going to be the proc. And since it's so OC-able, I'll just pump up this one instead of spending the extra cash on a 6000 or other.
 
It's a shame I just got a free gigantic Lian Li case. But it's sharp looking. I'm not sure that I'll get the proc before the beginning of July though...loan payments = teh suck
 
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