So, as my computer starts to get more quirky, I'm thinking it's time to replace or upgrade - I've always been partial to the latter. Seeing as it's been 5 years since I built it, I guess it's time.

Here's what I have now; hopefully I get it all correct as I've made some changes since my initial build and am not away from home right now:

13-131-225 MB ASUS P5K-E P35 775 RETAIL
19-115-017 CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R
20-161-042 MEM 1Gx4|WINTEC 3AXT8500C5-2048K R
17-103-940 PSU ANTEC|NEO POWER 500 500W RT
11-146-035 CASE NZXT|HUSH BLACK RT

My video card isn't in there as I upgraded it a year or two ago and don't remember what the new one is. I think it's 512 MB, or maybe 1 GB - it wasn't expensive. For hard drives, I don't even remember what HDDs I have, but there's a 640 GB HDD and a 120 GB SSD IIRC.

So I guess I'm just thinking of replacing the MB/CPU/Memory, and hoping to stay with the same case, PSU, DVD drives, HDD/SSD drives. Any reason I need to replace any of those other components? Oh, and I should probably replace the video card - the struggle for me last time I replaced it was finding something with 2 DVI outputs, as I have 2 monitors that don't have HDMI, but maybe there's a better way around this.

My main uses for the computer are pretty run-of-the-mill. Outlook, Excel, Chrome, usually with plenty of tabs. I like to play DVDs on one screen while I work; preferably Blu-Rays. Any gaming I do is usually a few generations old, if not something from the 80s (hello MAME!) - I won't be taxing the system with the latest greatest games.

I'm down in the US now, so I was thinking of stopping by Fry's in the next couple of days and picking some stuff up, or I could order online when I get home later this week. When I build or upgrade, I usually aim for that sweet spot price point a little below the latest and greatest stuff, but I'm open to any suggestions.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Intel Core i5-3330
ASUS MB Z77 S1155 MATX/P8Z77-M
Kingston 8GB 2133MHz DDR3 CL11 DIMM (Kit of 2) XMP Beast Series

i'd just go with an i5 and a compatible motherboard. if your current ram is DDR3 you don't even need to replace it (and you certainly don't need to spew on anything above 1600mhz if you do)

It's DDR2, off to eBay with that. Still some market for the Q6600 to get a little more back. Just going to rattle off what my approach was in upgrade spots like this:

*First, new Intel processors launch in June or so. I don't know how big an improvement they figure to be on the desktop side of things.

*If your case is set up in such a way that you could swap out the power supply easily (without a big tear-down), then you could roll with the same power supply. However it's not the most quality model Antec's built and figures to be fairly old... just for the sake of convenience you may want to replace it while you're doing a rebuild.

*Buying today a typical i5-3570 + 8GB DDR3 kit (1600 fine) + Z77 motherboard around $120 is the standard upper-midrange combo.

*Provided your HDD and DVD drives have SATA connections and not old ribbon-cable IDE stuff you're okay carrying those over. Case fine too.

*For a video card, you could find something that has DVI + HDMI and use an adapter to convert the HDMI to DVI. Unless you're on a tighter budget a DisplayPort + DVI + HDMI card would be a very safe bet for the longer term.

DVI ports are not a problem. Amazon makes very nice cables with a HDMI plug on one end and DVI on the other.

Thanks for all the help so far, everyone. Good to know an HDMI-DVI conversion is no big deal. Sounds like a separate video card rather than on-board video is still the way to go? If so, what sort of specs should I be looking for that would be a good match performance-wise with the i5/Z77 combo? IE something that is also "standard upper-midrange".

If I were to replace the PSU, any recommendations?

You don't really need a video card with your gaming requirements so long as the outputs are right and you're not pushing any high-res monitors. In some cases motherboards will only let you use one digital output at a time but this problem is less common today. If you wanted something a little better as far as video power this is a pretty good reference. $180 or so would be about upper midrange but that sounds to be well in excess of how you'd use it. So figure out if you want to play some better games or just want to scale it back.

The PSU depends somewhat on whether you go with a video card and what kind, but with no card or a more modest one the Antec EA-380D is a super-standard choice. Cheap, well-known, reliable. Cards needing more power could force you to step it up a bit.

With a Z77 and an i5-3750k, you have the option of spending another $30 on a decent CPU fan and overclocking up well beyond 4.0GHz on the processor. Not necessary but it's a sizable improvement over the stock speeds on the chip for not much extra, cost-wise.

Excellent, thanks again. Possibly my last questions before I go shopping tomorrow...

What brands should I be looking for on MB and memory? I see Fry's carries a lot of Patriot memory, for example.

Video cards, not sure how important brand is there when the chipset is the same, but I'm looking at the lower end on that Tom's Hardware link - Radeon HD 6670, HD 7750, HD 7770. XFX models are pretty cheap, but is that something I'll regret? Is it worth paying more for something like Diamond or Asus?

PSU - so, with a configuration like:

Z77
i5-3750K
8 GB RAM
Radeon HD 6670/HD 7750/HD 7770
1 HDD & 1 or 2 SSDs
Blu-Ray Player

Should I be going higher than a 380? If so, is it the Antec EA line I'd want to stay with? I was thinking I'd skip the PSU, but now that I see they're only about $40-60, it's probably a wise replacement. Any way a higher power rating hurts me other than a few more dollars up front? Do they only use the power they need? IE, running the same hardware, does a 650 W unit, for example (not that I'd get a 650), use the same power as a 380 W?

Memory shouldn't matter too much, it is more about specs. Patriot is fine.

I have two XFX 6670 (the one's with 1GB DDR5) that I got for about $55 each after rebate. They work fine for my purposes (just driving lots of displays), but I don't know how good they would be gaming as I don't game much.

PSU: From what I can gather (getting yelled at by others for buying too much PSU) the 380W should be sufficient, but probably wouldn't hurt to go as high as 500W. Are you going to overclock or add any higher end video cards at some point?

I don't do any gaming, so I doubt I'd be getting higher end video cards in the future. Overclocking I suppose is something I should consider to get more bang for the buck, but never have bothered with to this point.

Also, if I pick up another SSD, are there any brands or specs I should be on the watch for? Bought my first one a couple of years ago basically on price alone, and I don't know if some of the odd symptoms I've had could be an SSD issue.

Damn, thought of one more question - 3570, or 3570k?

So, I'm looking at something like this now:

$120 MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 LGA 1155 Motherboard
$210 Intel i5-3570 3.4GHz Boxed Processor
$55 Patriot DDR3 8GB 1600MHz (2x4GB)Modules
$50 Antec Earthwatts EA-430 Green PSU 430w ATX Power Supply
$80 XFX Radeon HD 6570 2GB

But it's not like I'm attached to the idea of getting a video card if I'm not going to see much benefit. Probably the most taxing video task I do right now is playing Blu-rays on one screen while working on the other, or opening the occasional GIF-laden 2+2 thread, heh. One less component to spend money on, generate heat, and possibly fail, is fine with me. But I don't mind spending the money if it will make a significant difference.

don't know if it's still the difference with the 3xxx series, but with the 2xxx series intels the k only mattered if you intended to overclock

PSUs run the most efficient at around 40-70% fwiw; your system will peak around 180-250W depending on what GPU you're gonna use (Radeon HD 7xxx are the most efficient cards afaik), if any, and idle would be around 100-150W I guess so there's really no point in getting a 500W PSU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus...certifications

Obv your system will need like 15-25% more Watts if you overclock (rough estimate). As sixfour mentioned you should look to get a "k" CPU ("k" means unlocked multiplicator) as they're basically designed for (under- and) overclocking.

As for GPU power consumption, the PCIe slot itself supplies 75W max, any additional 6pin PCIe connector supplies another 75W, and 8pin connectors supply up to 150W each. Just so you can calculate actual system requirements.

I personally wouldn't be too happy with that MSI board, first of if you really don't ever consider plugging a second graphics card you don't need two PCIe x16 slots (even if you're going to you'd be limited in card length due to the SATA ports), but my main concern would be the SATA connectors; there are only two SATA3 con's where I personally would want 4. Also it looks like the board only supports 1333MHz RAM (faster RAM is downwards compatible though).

Samsung 840 SSDs seem to offer the best value you can get for your money. Doesn't even need to be the 'Pro' variant imo.

I'm on the same quest of upgrading/replacing my five year-old machine (see bootom of this thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/48...ation-1311571/) and had the same question:

As mentioned before the K version has an overclocking option AND the superior graphics chip (HD 4000 vs HD 2000).

The other difference is that the non-K version has some features (vPro, VT-d, TXT - whatever that is...) which the K-version doesn't.


For me - as I don't plan to install a discrete Graphics card initially and 'don't mind' having the option to overclock - it's the 3570k for now.

(We'd need a new CPU cooler though if we're going to overclock, from what I've heard.)

So thanks again everyone for the help. We were only in Oregon for one last day, and I wanted to make any major purchases there to save the sales tax, so I went with what I was most confident of, and I can always buy other components once I get home and have had more time to think it through:

$120 MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 LGA 1155 Motherboard
$230 Intel i5-3570K 3.4GHz Boxed Processor
$60 Patriot DDR3 8GB 1600MHz (2x4GB) Modules

Considered a higher-end MB - the salesperson there was recommending something better if I wanted to overclock; not sure if that was just an upsell or not. Also wouldn't have minded 2 more SATA3 connectors. In the end I decided overclocking was sounding like too much money for something I didn't really need, as they were also recommending expensive cooling options. If I decide I want to overclock down the road I'll look into it more and see what I really need; if the MB holds me back, so be it.

They didn't have much PSU selection in stock, so I decided to forgo that for now - I have a working 500W, so maybe I'll just keep going with it until it quits.

You'll be able to overclock well enough with that. If you're pushing to extremes then yeah you can spend a lot more and buy $100 coolers. Not needed. You can probably get to a comfortable 4.0 GHz with a typical cheap 212 Plus cooler. Probably more. You don't really need to overclock at all, but since you've got a Z77 and a k chip you might as well, just come up with a better cooler than the stock one.

You probably don't need more than 2 SATA3 connectors. All you'd use those for are recent SSDs. Everything else like hard drives and DVD stuff can go on the SATA2 ports as usual.

That sounds like a good plan; I think I'll pick up one of those fans and install it at the same time as everything else.

Now that I'm home and have my thoughts together a little better, I think one other thing I might like to upgrade is my SSD. Mine is a couple of years old now, so I know it isn't SATA3, and the strange computer behaviors I've seen could definitely be HD-related. With all these upgrades I'm expecting to have to reinstall Windows, so I might as well do this while I'm at it.

If I were to buy a new one, what should I be looking for? My current SSD is 60 GB and nicely handles Windows, my program files, and my documents, with 20 GB to spare. Of course things like my music and pictures are on an HDD, and I think that's probably fine. I certainly could outgrow that size one day, so 128 GB might be wise. Are there any particular brands/models anyone would recommend? Is it reasonable to expect to find one at around $100, or is everything at that price going to be a letdown?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NHAF06/?tag=pcpapi-20

Samsung 840 120GB for 92.99 in the US.

Looks like it is 117.46 at Amazon.ca, so not quite as good of a deal: http://www.amazon.ca/120GB-2-5-SATA-...4448142&sr=8-2

I've never heard of the store, but it is <$100 here: http://www.directcanada.com/products...uacture=Others

The $80 range (in the US) is generally a great sale-price target for 120GB, at the upper end. Samsung 840 (not the more expensive 840 Pro) is a decent bet. The 830 is just as good if you can still find one anywhere. Same old tactic as always for US people, just wait until you see it on Slickdeals and snap one up quick.

SSDs went on a price slide for most of last year then just sort of froze. Maybe even increased a small bit. I wouldn't feel bad paying $90 for something in that range. Then again $150 can double that capacity with a good sale.

Excellent, thanks guys. Might just pick it up locally for the convenience:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=77...e&promoid=1334

$100 for the Samsung 840.

They also have a couple coolers that might fit the bill; not sure what the difference is between these two:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=41...e=COOLERMASTER

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=64...e=COOLERMASTER

it just looks like the evo is compatible with newer 2011 socket motherboards that nobody has a need to use. get the cheaper one.

OK, giving a little more thought to the PSU now that I'm going to buy a couple more components, and I see that at my local NCIX the 380D is significantly cheaper than the 430D - $46 vs $71. With the following configuration, should a 380D be sufficient?

MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 LGA 1155 Motherboard - using onboard video
Intel i5-3570K 3.4GHz Boxed Processor - overclocked to ~4.0 GHz
Patriot DDR3 8GB 1600MHz (2x4GB) Modules
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink

And if so, how much will it restrict me if I add a video card in the future?

When I was at Fry's, I got a comment that the EA line would have a shorter lifespan - or maybe they were referring to all of the "environmentally friendly" lines in general. Anyone have thoughts on that? They were also recommending a 650 W, so it's not like I'm putting a lot of stock in their advice anyway.

It's not all about wattage but a 380w could definitely limit you. I put a 380D in several computers including my Mom's, and I know offhand that's enough to run a GTS450 video card. You'll have cards available that will work, just forget any beast power-sucking monsters and dual-card setups.

As far as lifespan, I can't make any promises, here's NewEgg reviews, Amazon reviews to peruse. It's been my experience that Antec is an excellent company and has been around a while. If you run that PSU at heavy load then yes it can wear down but people tend to really overestimate what they actually need with PSUs.

Well, the 380D is definitely at a sweet price point - I see on Amazon it's also a big price jump even to the 430D.

I guess my only thought now is whether I want to go to a new PSU that is a little tight on capacity when I have a 500W already, albeit a 5 year old model that wasn't top end in the first place.

Is it usually an issue of complete failure with PSUs, or do they often have issues where they might supply just partial/weak voltage and cause other problems? If my only risk is it quitting one day, I may just take my chances and perhaps I'll find a different model is optimal when it finally quits. But if quirkiness is more than rare, I'll probably go ahead and get a new one - nothing I hate more than computer problems that are difficult to track down because of sporadic and mysterious symptoms.

Edit to add: My other option would be going with a lower end Antec:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=62...c&promoid=1305

But of course I have trepidation about a model named "Basiq". However, the line seems to get pretty good Newegg and Amazon reviews.

I have a 95W AMD CPU and a Radeon HD7850, never had any issues with my 385W Enermax PSU. When I measured the power consumption @ like 99% CPU/GPU load, iirc the whole PC peaked less than 250W. The PSU fan doesn't ever notably spin up.

Theoretically you should be fine to run a 225W graphics card with a 380W PSU, esp with a 77W i5. Also keep in mind the i5 will use even less power with its on-die graphics disabled.