Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mudbunny Sep 01, 2009 13:53:03	Our work union contract is finally singed, and I will be getting 2 years of backpay soon. So, with that money, I am looking into upgrading my desktop. I am not looking into buying a system on the bleeding edge, a year or two old is fine. Thus, I am looking for a decent MoBo/chipset combo with a halfway decent video card. Also, a bunch of USB ports would also be a bonus. I live in Ottawa, and will be buying stuff from www.pccyber.com more than likely, so links to things on that web page would be great. If you could provide a link to a review, that would be even more awesome. [Edit to add]The budget is about $750. I am very comfortable building it myself. I built my current one (MoBo, chip, RAM, videocard, drives, Power Supply, etc) from scratch. My current power supply is about 3 years old, so I am pretty sure it will be fine. I also don't need any drives (hard or optical) as those were purchased recently. I would be looking into getting the MoBo, RAM (about 2 GB would be nice), chipset and videocard. If possible, I would add some additional USB ports.[/end edit]
#2 EscherEnigma Sep 01, 2009 13:56:25	What kind of budget are we talking about?  You can put together a new comp that's not cutting edge but a nice gaming rig for about $800. Also, how comfortable are you with doing all the work yourself (putting the processor in the board, mounting the board in the case, hooking up all the connections and so-on)? I have no idea what your expertise/comfort level is, and that would dictate some suggestions.
#3 mudbunny Sep 01, 2009 13:59:53	*headpalm* That would help, wouldn't it. Looks sheepish The budget is about $750. I am very comfortable building it myself. I built my current one (MoBo, chip, RAM, videocard, drives, Power Supply, etc) from scratch. My current power supply is about 3 years old, so I am pretty sure it will be fine. I also don't need any drives (hard or optical) as those were purchased recently. I would be looking into getting the MoBo, RAM (about 2 GB would be nice), chipset and videocard. If possible, I would add some additional USB ports.
#4 EscherEnigma Sep 01, 2009 14:32:35	/grumble I had a post but the forums ate it somehow. Anyway.  Not sure if it's a fit for you or not, but when I was building my rig near the beginning of the year I went with an Asus P5Q SE Plus motherboard.  With a 3.6ghz dual core chip in it, 4gb or ram and a GeForce 9600 video card it seems to do a damn fine job on the games I play (namely Fallout 3, Mass Effect, World of Warcraft and Civilization IV).  For the most part I can have the video settings at or near max (though for some raid content in WoW I'll turn them down).  For my graphics programs (Paint.Net, Corel  Painter 4, Open Canvas, and now Paint Tool Sai) it handles them wonderfully, though Paint.Net can slow things down if I don't save and quit every hour or so, but that's on account of Paint.Net being a vicious memory **** that will eat your harddrive whole if you let it. Anyway, thats what I did for a similar budget (I think I may have actually been working on less then you are) back in January, so I hope that gives you something to compare against.