Build new or upgrade?

hamhamham32

hamhamham32

hamhamham32

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2011
Posts
18
Hello!
I have bought a phenom II processor a foxconn mobo and 4gb of ram to start a budget build im not sure whether I should buy a case,psu and harddrive or just add these things to my current old system as an upgrade. Or build the new one from scratch and upgrade the old one with some ram so it's usable/sellable? (I'm going to get the graphics card last)
What would you do?

My old spec is:
AMD ATHLON 64BIT 3700 1MB
1024 MB DDR400 PC3200
ASUS A8N-E: DUAL DDR, S-ATA, x16 slot, 3 PCI etc
500W (Peak) Silent Dual Rail PSU + 120mm fan & quiet CPU Cooler
Radeon x800xt

New parts:
Phenom II 4x 940 black edition
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
4gb corsair
 
Last edited:
what psu have you got, in my opinion I would sell all of your old parts and sell all your new parts apart from the ram. The phenom II x4 is far inferior to the new intel i3/15/17 sandybridges, I wouldn't bother with it.

Well heres a good powerful build and looking at your old spec this would be far far superior, keep your old hard drive, case and dvd drive as the case is purely aesthetics and a waste of money.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £164.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £113.99
1 x MSI H61M-P23 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £44.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 ATX '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £35.99
Total : £371.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).



If you've got a good psu then keep it, how old is it, whats its make? If you have, then get a p68 and a 2500k, are you a gamer? Because if you are, that spec you have is shocking!


But if you are too lazy, then don't bother, the phenom II will do fine. You will need a new graphics card if you are a gamer as that one is an AGP! but if not then the onboard graphics is just fine. just use your old case, hard drive and DVD drive, no point in buying another one if it does the job.
 
Last edited:
My PSU is about 5 years old and i'm not sure what make it is!
I'm not really a gamer anymore but thats mostly because my PC couldnt keep up. I probably would like to get back into gaming.

I'm concerned that I might not be able to sell all the parts for very much at all and will end up throwing away what little money I have?

Arent my old parts pretty much worthless?

And my phenom II and mobo wouldnt be worth that much now either would they?

hmmm decisions....
 
if you already have the phenom II quad core that will be ok for your system, not line with the new intels but a decent update from your current system.

i'd look at a new gfx card and psu, psu first tho !!

what case do you have, will need to make sure it will fit a new size gfx card.

what size monitor do you have and what resolution do you game at, would look at something like a 6870 gfx card and a 650w psu from the likes of corsair/antec etc.
 
i'd look at getting a new case, fitting your phenom II into it , then upgrading the psu, then the graphics card.

have a look at:

BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case (£33)
Lepa W-Series 600W '80 Plus' Power Supply (£57)
ocuk ati 6870 (£128)
 
around 60-70 there are 80 plus bronze psu's which are slightly more efficient so maybe worth looking at them.

the one i detailed was due to it being a decent make and miniumum spec (600-650w) for a 6850/6870 graphics card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom