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Hey all,
After leaving my tower in my mom's garage for awhile while I was moving, I had the joy of trying to boot not getting so much as a POST. I'd been meaning to do an upgrade anyway so rather than spend weeks trying to figure out which part needed replacement, I just sold everything as-is except the case. I haven't built a system in awhile though so I'm pretty behind on what's good now and I'd appreciate any advice.
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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I might do some light gaming but it's pretty low priority, probably just some WoW and Starcraft 2. I will be doing a lot of finance type office work though, so means Word and probably a couple large Excel spreadsheets, a dozen or two tabs in Firefox, a Twitter client, and some brokerage software that easily eats about 100mb of RAM. So I don't necessarily need speed but I need to have a lot of stuff going at once. Also I'd like to run Windows 7 but have no experience with it so I'm not sure how much it will affect things.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
My budget is in the $300-500 range. I don't need an amazing rig, just a good work horse, so price important. I can probably get free shipping somewhere but I guess tax would be included, yeah.
3) Where do you live?
California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
I need a motherboard, CPU, hard drive, optical drive, RAM, video card, sound card, network card, power source unit, and I think that's it. So pretty much everything. I don't necessarily need things that I can get on the motherboard -- i.e., sound, video, and networking -- assuming the onboard stuff isn't horrific. I'm willing to skimp on that stuff for now though and upgrade down the road if the onboard stuff is acceptable.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
All I'm working with is a Lian Li PC-75 case. I also have a keyboard and mouse.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a Dell G2410. It's a 24" LCD, 1920x1080, with VGA and DVI-D hookups.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Sometime by the end of the year
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Nothing fancy, just whatever keeps the cost down but won't also be obsolete in a year.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have Windows XP but would like to upgrade to Windows 7.
----
I appreciate any advice, I just don't have the time anymore to research everything that's out on my own. Thanks guys.
After leaving my tower in my mom's garage for awhile while I was moving, I had the joy of trying to boot not getting so much as a POST. I'd been meaning to do an upgrade anyway so rather than spend weeks trying to figure out which part needed replacement, I just sold everything as-is except the case. I haven't built a system in awhile though so I'm pretty behind on what's good now and I'd appreciate any advice.
----
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I might do some light gaming but it's pretty low priority, probably just some WoW and Starcraft 2. I will be doing a lot of finance type office work though, so means Word and probably a couple large Excel spreadsheets, a dozen or two tabs in Firefox, a Twitter client, and some brokerage software that easily eats about 100mb of RAM. So I don't necessarily need speed but I need to have a lot of stuff going at once. Also I'd like to run Windows 7 but have no experience with it so I'm not sure how much it will affect things.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
My budget is in the $300-500 range. I don't need an amazing rig, just a good work horse, so price important. I can probably get free shipping somewhere but I guess tax would be included, yeah.
3) Where do you live?
California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
I need a motherboard, CPU, hard drive, optical drive, RAM, video card, sound card, network card, power source unit, and I think that's it. So pretty much everything. I don't necessarily need things that I can get on the motherboard -- i.e., sound, video, and networking -- assuming the onboard stuff isn't horrific. I'm willing to skimp on that stuff for now though and upgrade down the road if the onboard stuff is acceptable.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
All I'm working with is a Lian Li PC-75 case. I also have a keyboard and mouse.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a Dell G2410. It's a 24" LCD, 1920x1080, with VGA and DVI-D hookups.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Sometime by the end of the year
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Nothing fancy, just whatever keeps the cost down but won't also be obsolete in a year.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have Windows XP but would like to upgrade to Windows 7.
----
I appreciate any advice, I just don't have the time anymore to research everything that's out on my own. Thanks guys.
