Old v. New

Wang Chung · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:52 pm Post subject: Old v. New

Current PC:
- Extremely load and hot
- Rickety case
- Runs TF2 poorly
Specs:
- Intel Prescott P4 3.0 gHz
- 1GB DDR2 (533 mHz?)
- a bunch of hard drives
- NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (actually a pretty good card)

Long story short ... sufficient graphics card to play TF2 and most other games I'd like to play for the time being, but bad processor.

New:
- Lenovo Desktop
- Intel i3-530 (2.93 gHz)
- 4 GB of PC3-8500 DDR3 (1066MHz)
- 500 GB drive (7200 RPM)
- on-board graphics card, will just replace with my 9600 GT

I can get the tower for $600 through a company discount from my friend, including shipping. The parts listed are like $300, but that doesn't include the motherboard (because I don't know what kind it is), and a bunch of other peripherals and auxiliary equipment. Also keep in mind that I have no tools to build a PC at home .......... and I really don't feel like building one.

So just pretend like I'm too inept to actually construct a new computer. Cost-wise, is it worth it? I'm kind of questioning the value of his company deal. He told me he got like $300 off of an $800 laptop, but this one isn't nearly as much.
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is now -=|CT|=- Frothy Mixture

Brutus · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:46 am Post subject:

Dont have tools??? Screwdriver for power supply and mobo is it now... Everything else is knurled knobs and spin clip things in the cases now.

Sounds weaksauce to me. $600 goes a long way in pc parts nowadays...

mobo 100,
ram 100,
cpu(i5) 200,
ps 70, (reuse?)
dvd 30, (reuse?)
hd 100,
case, (reuse?)
vga (reuse).

$600

Then you know everything is top-shelf legit and reviewed - and modular for swaps later. Everything as good or better than above I am sure.
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Atomiktoaster · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 10:51 am Post subject:

The bigger problem is probably the RAM, not the CPU. Since you have a LGA-775 motherboard, you might be able to just upgrade the CPU to a quickish dual core and add a gig of DDR2. That'd probably cost about $100 and run TF2 fine.

Wang Chung · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 3:52 pm Post subject:

That thought hadn't occurred to me. However, I can't add any RAM because the motherboard has 3 slots and one is broken :/

But it looks like I'm probably not going to get it because the deal wasn't really that sick. If it was like $500 I would have but it's too much. Either way, I'm not looking to upgrade this current PC or tear it apart.
_________________
is now -=|CT|=- Frothy Mixture

Atomiktoaster · Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:18 pm Post subject:

You could still put in 2 1GB sticks, right? You'd be much better off.