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[koam]

Okay my computer is dying and an upgrade is no use at this point because all the tech is outdated. So, I've decided to put my Athlon Thunderbird, that I built in 2001, to rest and build a new machine.

My goal: High performance, quiet, multimedia mostly, little to-no gaming machine.

Here's what I'm thinking of getting:

-ASUS GeForce 8500GT 450MHZ 256MB 800MHZ DDR2 PCI-E VGA DVI-I HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Passive Video Card

-ASUS P5B ATX LGA775 Conroe 965P DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI 6 SATA2 Sound Motherboard

-Crucial Rendition 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2-667 240PIN Dimm Memory (times 2 so 2GB)

-Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core Processor LGA775 Conroe 2.13GHZ 1066FSB 4MB

I have a case/psu already and a dvd writer.

Total Cost: $704CND ($636 USD)

Is this a good deal? Are the devices I chose compatible? Am i missing anything?

 

[AntoneM]

It looks good to me. I don't see any major problems.

Do you already have a copy of Windows? You might have to factor that in... unless

 

[Lo-Volt]

I was under the impression the 8500GT was less than desirable except for relatively basic functions. My limited reading on the subject suggests the 8500GT isn't really the newest architecture, and can only be expected to do so much compares to the 8600 or 8800 series above it.

Edit: I didn't see that you weren't going to be using your GPU for PC gaming, so forget I mentioned it. Also, 1GB isn't really the best option if you want to run Vista. May as well go for 2.

 

[RobotChant]

Are you going to use your old PSU? I like Seasonics high efficiency PSU, but they are expensive. Read reviews and find out the failure rates before you buy. Some of the Antec branded PSU have high failure rates, so watch out for them.

 

[adg1034]

Yeah- definitely try and get at least an 8600. An extra gig of RAM should be in the cards as well.

 

[Jade Knight 08]

OS (XP, Vista) cost money too, you know. Don't forget to add that to your total $.

 

[koam]

Actually, if you read the specs carefully, it *is* 2 GB of ram but I might buy an extra 2 sticks for $80 for a total of 4GB.

I have a PSU already, i'm hoping it's good enough, i think it's 450W.

As for the videocard, I currently have an ATI Radeon 9800Pro.. clearly this 8500GT must be better no? Like I said, I never play games. The only thing I really play is sim city 4 and i might give C&C3 a go too. Also, it's important to me that the videocard is fanless.

I have Windows XP.. should I upgrade to vista? I've heard nothing but horror stories and also, I hear that Vista is considerably slower than XP. If I upgrade to Vista, would I be able to use my Vista CD on my laptop as well? I heard that vista only lets you install on one computer and that's it.