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Ok, Tax Refund = Upgrade.... to what...


Oerwinde

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Ok, so I got like $900 in tax refund money, and I want to upgrade my computer. Right now I have a Dual 2.4 GHz Xeon system with a Geforce 4 Ti4600. My motherboard doesn't have any PCI-E slots so I want to upgrade to a system with that. So far, it looks like it will cost about the same to switch to a dual-core system rather than just upgrade my board to handle PCI-E, only the dual core boards are a lot better.

 

So basically, I have 900 bucks, and I want to know the best video card/motherboard/processor, or motherboard/video card combos I can get for that. I prefer nVidia cards for video mostly just to avoid the driver issues that come out with pretty much every game for ATI cards.

 

note: this is in canadian funds.

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Also, how much RAM do you have?

 

I have 2GB of ram.

 

These are some items that I've been looking at...

 

Motherboard

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17713

 

Processor

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17446

 

Video Card

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17948

 

That would run me 710 bucks plus tax. No shipping because I can pick it up locally.

 

I'm also using the comp for doing 3d graphics work, hence the intel chip rather than the AMD.

Edited by Oerwinde
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Um, keep a look out for the RAM.  That board uses 240 pin RAM and not the usual 180's.  Your RAM might not be compatible with that Motherboard.

 

That was the only thing I was concerned about. I need to find out what my ram is.

The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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If you motherboard is an older model then more than likely it is oneof the 180s.  The 240's are fairly new design.

 

And it looks like pretty much any new motherboard takes 240... geez, looks like I'm pretty much buying a brand new computer...

The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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What about a new sound system, or a kick butt monitor?  It doesn't seem like you really need a new mobo and vid card.  I'd splurge on the peripherals.

 

Well I have a 19" monitor, any bigger and it won't fit in my computer desk(has an enclosed monitor section) and I mainly just use headphones and I'm no audiophile so on board sound serves me plenty well. I need a new video card because the one I have now can't run new games. Only has Shader Model 1. I want to be getting NWN 2, so I need a new video card. I guess I could just get an AGP card, but they're more expensive than PCI cards and I'm going to have to upgrade my motherboard eventually.

The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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What I wanna know is how long ago did you file your taxes? Did you just put them in a little while ago or have you been waiting forever? I had my return back in ten days. Thank you e-file!

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Jaguars4ever is still alive.  No word of a lie.

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Don't forget to make sure that your power supply can handle it before switching to a dual-core setup.

 

I think I have a 450 watt power supply. I've been running a dual processor system, I'd think that would require at least the same power.

 

Anyway, I pulled out one of my ram sticks to see if it would fit, they will, but now windows won't load. Says my BIOS isn't ADMI certified or something.

 

EDIT: Yay, girlfriend and her chat rooms save the day, computer works again. And it s 520 W power supply.

Edited by Oerwinde
The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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What I wanna know is how long ago did you file your taxes?  Did you just put them in a little while ago or have you been waiting forever?  I had my return back in ten days.  Thank you e-file!

 

The closer to deadline you file the longer it takes to get a refund, for the sole fact that there are more and more incoming tax filings.

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What I wanna know is how long ago did you file your taxes?  Did you just put them in a little while ago or have you been waiting forever?  I had my return back in ten days.  Thank you e-file!

 

My mom has an accountant and because my Dad owns his own business it takes until right up near the deadline to get all the stuff in. So I just hand my stuff over to her and her accountant does all of it. So I didn't even sign my taxes until like 2 weeks ago.

 

Okie doke, so this is what I'm looking at:

 

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17713

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17446

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17948

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17915

 

And with the video card I get a free copy of AOE III.

 

That will run me 868.50 including tax. I need to burner to replace my junker CD burner, which A doesn't work, and B) I have like 30 gigs of cartoons I want to get off my hard drive but I don't want to delete them.

 

I have a 520W power supply, and according to my roommate, who is a 3rd year electrical engineering student, my ram is 240 pin(I have ramsinks on them so I couldn't read what they were)

Edited by Oerwinde
The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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Hard Drives are already humongous bottlenecks.

 

 

CPUs are good because they are all purpose, but that fancy dual core you have doesn't mean as much if it's wasting cycles waiting for your hard drive to retreive information.

Edited by alanschu
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You completley ignored my harddrive suggestion. A faster hardrive makes a more noticable difference than a faster CPU, trust me.

It does? A faster CPU would show faster results than a faster HD.

 

I saw no difference going from 2.2 ghz to 3.4 ghz, but I saw quite a difference in loading speed from a 7200 rpm HD to a 10,000 rpm one.

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You completley ignored my harddrive suggestion. A faster hardrive makes a more noticable difference than a faster CPU, trust me.

It does? A faster CPU would show faster results than a faster HD.

 

I saw no difference going from 2.2 ghz to 3.4 ghz, but I saw quite a difference in loading speed from a 7200 rpm HD to a 10,000 rpm one.

 

yeah, but 300 bucks for a 150 GB hard drive is a bit much. Especially since I'm already spending almost 900 bucks on the other stuff. To get the Video card, which is the main thing I need, I need to upgrade my motherboard, it costs just as much to upgrade to a dual core processor with a good motherboard as it does to get a crappy dual processor board, so I'm going with that instead of the dual processor board. I've needed a DVD burner for a while now, and they're cheap now. Add 100 bucks in tax and I just don't have enough to blow 300 bucks on a hard drive. I'd rather spend 150 and get a 300GB hard drive than 300 to get a 150GB one, even if it is faster.

 

I really don't have any problems with my computer's speed, its that my video card can't handle any of the new games coming out. Everything in Oblivion was just white blocks against a black background. I only bothered with the dual core system because the extra processing core makes rendering 3d images twice as fast.

Edited by Oerwinde
The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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Custom PC just did a report on the Intel Pentium D 805: "a fancy dual-core 3.6GHz-capable CPU for
The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

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