i think i mixed she "Blue" and she "wife" in my previous reply after i reread that hahaha
Blue died, it's time to bring her back to life.
- Thread starter digitalwanderer
- Start date
LOL! I could see me saying that, but I did mean my wife and it was the first time she's ever been impressed with an upgrade I did for her. It was from the emergency backup 9800GT to a 6950 and it just blew her away!
I remember laughing about it at the time, but a few months back when my Pro Duo died and I had to use the emergency backup 9800GT I saw what she meant. Video playback has come a loooong way.
I'm looking around now at systems for around $300-350 that are either decent as is for her. The only problem with that is that I HATE proprietary mobos/PSU and such, it's why I really prefer to just build my own so I know standard bits will work in it and allows me to keep passing down the upgrading.
Besides, I'm starting to think the lil ATX setup I got for her is sort of cute as well as pretty practical for upgrading. The only thing I might do is get a better fan for it that glows green, Blue had a green lighting scheme which made my wife also very happy. (Yes, it originally had an all blue lighting scheme...but she likes green and when she got it and I had to upgrade her case fans I figured what the hell) Only problem with that is I've finally grown to hate LED fans as I've never found them to be anywhere near as good in quality as you can get with the standard black ones, but who knows maybe that's changed. I'll ask the guy at MicroCenter if I end up there, their staff is great and love it when their customers know what they want and why and can understand their recommendations and can even put up a pretty good argument for them. The last guy who helped us saved me from making an awful mistake on his M2 drive, I almost bought one that was the same speed as a SATA one and the nice gentleman explained to me why the Intel SSD6 that was on sale that week for only $10 more was actually an amazeballs improvement, and he was quite correct. I like those kind of sales associates, and they're bloody rare to fine, but they seem to be pretty typical at MicroCenter.
(Yeah, MicroCenter is a bit of a Mecca for me.
)
I remember laughing about it at the time, but a few months back when my Pro Duo died and I had to use the emergency backup 9800GT I saw what she meant. Video playback has come a loooong way.
I'm looking around now at systems for around $300-350 that are either decent as is for her. The only problem with that is that I HATE proprietary mobos/PSU and such, it's why I really prefer to just build my own so I know standard bits will work in it and allows me to keep passing down the upgrading.
Besides, I'm starting to think the lil ATX setup I got for her is sort of cute as well as pretty practical for upgrading. The only thing I might do is get a better fan for it that glows green, Blue had a green lighting scheme which made my wife also very happy. (Yes, it originally had an all blue lighting scheme...but she likes green and when she got it and I had to upgrade her case fans I figured what the hell) Only problem with that is I've finally grown to hate LED fans as I've never found them to be anywhere near as good in quality as you can get with the standard black ones, but who knows maybe that's changed. I'll ask the guy at MicroCenter if I end up there, their staff is great and love it when their customers know what they want and why and can understand their recommendations and can even put up a pretty good argument for them. The last guy who helped us saved me from making an awful mistake on his M2 drive, I almost bought one that was the same speed as a SATA one and the nice gentleman explained to me why the Intel SSD6 that was on sale that week for only $10 more was actually an amazeballs improvement, and he was quite correct. I like those kind of sales associates, and they're bloody rare to fine, but they seem to be pretty typical at MicroCenter.
(Yeah, MicroCenter is a bit of a Mecca for me.
)It may be a personal thing, but it's highly inaccurate. You may have vad had a problem with a previous PSU, but you shouldn't asume it was wattage related.
No, it isn't. At the time I was running an FX-9590 and an R9 295x2 on an Asus Crosshair Formula V with at least 4 hard drives, under load I was pushing the limits of my PSU a bit.
EDITED BITS: I'm still using the Corsair 850w PSU right now in Bubbles, it works fine and the rails are still all rock steady.
EDITED BITS II: I used to bluescreen when I'd use too much juice, that's why I got the 1300w PSU for my son when I gave him my 9590/R9 295x2 for his birthday and it never gave him a lick of trouble with crashing until it just died.
EDITED BITS III: Oh, and I am a total idiot and forgot that either my current mobo or my daughter's in the basement might have an IDE port. If so, the total cost would be $217.61 which seems damned hard to beat imho.
EDITED BITS IV: Fuck me, my mobo has TWO ide connectors on it. Good gods I need to upgrade!!!
Last edited:
Blazkowicz
Legend
Wow I used to looked for a mobo with two IDE connectors and had to settle for only one.
There was also later one, just one motherboard with 990FX or 890FX chipset (don't remember) which kept one IDE port. Sadly I couldn't afford it because it was semi high end (but has a lot of stuff like the advanced IOMMU stuff)
Anyway, on AM2/AM3/AM3+ the weak spot is often the VRMs, i.e. the motherboard's built-in power supply for the CPU. It's bad for using a powerful CPU on the cheap small motherboards.
The Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 you linked to, they made an effort and put a heatsink on the VRMs. It does appear to support 125W (and so won't crumble with a 95W FX) so it looks like the best in its category but a 970 board might be better still.
I don't want to bore you (or myself) to death again, and in fact choice of green fan and keyboard may be more important than the CPU.
If you want something cheap and lower power you can also look for FM2+ socket and Athlon X4 845. Oh, microcenter doesn't have it nor other Athlons. Perhaps they got rid of what they had in FM2+ successfully (there's still A10 and a dual core A6)
There was also later one, just one motherboard with 990FX or 890FX chipset (don't remember) which kept one IDE port. Sadly I couldn't afford it because it was semi high end (but has a lot of stuff like the advanced IOMMU stuff)
Anyway, on AM2/AM3/AM3+ the weak spot is often the VRMs, i.e. the motherboard's built-in power supply for the CPU. It's bad for using a powerful CPU on the cheap small motherboards.
The Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 you linked to, they made an effort and put a heatsink on the VRMs. It does appear to support 125W (and so won't crumble with a 95W FX) so it looks like the best in its category but a 970 board might be better still.
I don't want to bore you (or myself) to death again, and in fact choice of green fan and keyboard may be more important than the CPU.
If you want something cheap and lower power you can also look for FM2+ socket and Athlon X4 845. Oh, microcenter doesn't have it nor other Athlons. Perhaps they got rid of what they had in FM2+ successfully (there's still A10 and a dual core A6)
Really? I have a gtx670 and a gt730 upstairs and I cant notice a difference
Well as my wife put it, "Wow, the AMD card sure does video better than the nVidia one does!".
I was teasing.
Infinisearch
Veteran
You still getting a new case for her? I noticed it dropped off your list.
I noticed the SATA speeds sucked on the one I was looking at so changed it to the above.
Yeah, the Coolermaster 130 is still included in that price..just forgot to list it. I did remove the keyboard since she may be coming with and I'd rather she pick out her own.
So it's:
AMD FX 8320E Black Edition PileDriver 3.2 GHz Eight-Core AM3+ Boxed Processor
ASRock 970M Pro3 AM3+ mATX
Toshiba P300 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Desktop Internal Hard Drive - HDWD110XZSTA
Cooler Master Elite 130 mini-ITX Computer Case - Black
Cheapest/bestest I can, $217.61 after taxes.
I don't think I can find a better deal that would fit with the bits I got. (A PSU and a GPU)
Right now I just got our grill opened and going for the first time of the year so I can grill her a birthday steak, and I have surprise ice cream cupcakes in the freezer to surprise her in lieu of cake.
She knows her upgrade options, now she just has to decide.
Infinisearch
Veteran
BTW did you check if her power supply is still good? It would be a shame if you bought all those parts and came home to a busted PS.
Also if you want her to game a bit, the 7970 should be enough but why don't you splurge a little and go for the FX8350 instead? For the sake of longevity that is.
Also if you want her to game a bit, the 7970 should be enough but why don't you splurge a little and go for the FX8350 instead? For the sake of longevity that is.
That term "why don't you splurge a bit" absolutely KILLS bargain PC repair hunting!
Because it's more? Because the 8320e should do her just fine for a while and I'm sure my son will upgrade someday and she'll get his FX8350? Because you have NO IDEA how important a low price for all this is to make it happen since my wife has issues with spending money on computer hardware?
I guess bottom line is so I could say to her, "Okay, I'll put it in terms that are simple to understand since you're tired and hate technical talk. It will be the fastest computer you have ever used in your life and it will be almost on par with Justin's PC." (Justin is my son with the 8350 and R9 2x295)
Her response, "For $217? Really?"
Me, "And 61 cents, yes."
As I noted earlier, the reason I hate prebuilts is the limited upgradability. I do plan to add an SSD to this rig later down the line, but I don't really see any at MicroCenter right now that strike me as a bargain.
These are their SSDs, am I wrong?
I figured it out, it's this one I should get...isn't it?
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT INFINISEARCH!!!!
So after your post I thought about what I would do if I were to "splurge a bit" to improve the system. Little things that my wife would like or make it more pleasant for her. So I added an ASUS DRW-24B1ST Internal DVD R/RW Burner for those occasions when she might need/want one, and I started researching the stock cooler and found a video of the thing running and I can't STAND 80mm fans and that one sounds particularly 80mmy so I'm looking at either a new fan for the stock cooler or a better cooler too.
Which brings me to a question....
I'm pretty sure there is a difference between case fans and CPU cooling fans, but I don't think I ever really understood why. I was looking at this Enermax UCTB8 T.B. Silence 80mm Twister Bearing Case Fan to make it a lot better sounding for $8, but would this fan work on the cooler as well as the stock fan?
BTW-An extra $20 for the DVD, moar for the cooler or fan, and I picking up fresh thermal paste since mine is all old and a bit grungy.
So after your post I thought about what I would do if I were to "splurge a bit" to improve the system. Little things that my wife would like or make it more pleasant for her. So I added an ASUS DRW-24B1ST Internal DVD R/RW Burner for those occasions when she might need/want one, and I started researching the stock cooler and found a video of the thing running and I can't STAND 80mm fans and that one sounds particularly 80mmy so I'm looking at either a new fan for the stock cooler or a better cooler too.
Which brings me to a question....
I'm pretty sure there is a difference between case fans and CPU cooling fans, but I don't think I ever really understood why. I was looking at this Enermax UCTB8 T.B. Silence 80mm Twister Bearing Case Fan to make it a lot better sounding for $8, but would this fan work on the cooler as well as the stock fan?
BTW-An extra $20 for the DVD, moar for the cooler or fan, and I picking up fresh thermal paste since mine is all old and a bit grungy.
Case coolers need to push as much air as they can. Cpu coolers will move less air but at a greater force (as they often encounter obstacles such as radiators) . So case coolers have higher CFM stat while cpu ones should have higher (static) pressure stat. The differences should not be dealbreaking anyway.
Cpu fan also sounds quieter for the similar size and speed.
Or maybe I simply keeps getting bad quality case fan.
Or maybe I simply keeps getting bad quality case fan.
Just got back. I left over 7 hours ago. :|
But I'd say it was a success, had to makes some changes as the case wouldn't fit the motherboard so we got a bigger case and a decent cooler for it along with an additional case fan...Blue is going to glow blue again!
My wife picked out the keyboard she liked, and it popped my brain...but she likes it and that's the important bit.
It ended up being $320 and we got about $30-50 of mail-in rebates do to, but first I gotta go put something together....
Thank you for all your help so far, some picts of my adventure this afternoon.
We reach the promised land!
Too many hours and stops later we arrive home and I take an obviously staged loot pile shot!
And to top it all off? This morning when I took Rascal out I found my first 4-leaf clover of the season, I plan to tape it to the inside of the case for luck.
This was my break from getting home and unloading things and starting building, wish me luck and muchly speed!
But I'd say it was a success, had to makes some changes as the case wouldn't fit the motherboard so we got a bigger case and a decent cooler for it along with an additional case fan...Blue is going to glow blue again!
My wife picked out the keyboard she liked, and it popped my brain...but she likes it and that's the important bit.
It ended up being $320 and we got about $30-50 of mail-in rebates do to, but first I gotta go put something together....
Thank you for all your help so far, some picts of my adventure this afternoon.
We reach the promised land!
Too many hours and stops later we arrive home and I take an obviously staged loot pile shot!
And to top it all off? This morning when I took Rascal out I found my first 4-leaf clover of the season, I plan to tape it to the inside of the case for luck.
This was my break from getting home and unloading things and starting building, wish me luck and muchly speed!
Her PC is up and running, but she's still not quite Blue yet...still gotta tweak her in. But there was a slight wrinkle in the build that I hadn't forseen....
....her PSU was bad. Put her new PC together with her old PSU and it didn't do anything when I turned it on.
Got uhm, aggravated? Pulled my 850w from Bubbles and tossed it in and Blue liked it just fine, so I threw the 290x in too since I knew any PSU I found wouldn't be able to handle it. She's enjoying it now, I'm glad. Even if it's not quite done, (still gotta install a bunch of drivers/tweaks/wallpapers), she's got Firefox installed and synced and is happily cruising the web.
It took too much time though! And then I had to go steal my daughter's 430w and figure out how to use it to power Bubbles. (Bubbles currently has 7 drives in her, 6 of which are SATA power conncectors and the PSU only has 4....oh and it only has one IDE line and I needed two for the 7950 so I have the WEIRDEST wiring job of connectors and splitters hooked up to get everything working. (And decided to live without a DVD burner or front fan for a bit... <sigh>)
Long day was long, but successful before it was over. Oh, and I'm typing this on Bubbles so she's up and running again too.
....her PSU was bad. Put her new PC together with her old PSU and it didn't do anything when I turned it on.
Got uhm, aggravated? Pulled my 850w from Bubbles and tossed it in and Blue liked it just fine, so I threw the 290x in too since I knew any PSU I found wouldn't be able to handle it. She's enjoying it now, I'm glad. Even if it's not quite done, (still gotta install a bunch of drivers/tweaks/wallpapers), she's got Firefox installed and synced and is happily cruising the web.
It took too much time though! And then I had to go steal my daughter's 430w and figure out how to use it to power Bubbles. (Bubbles currently has 7 drives in her, 6 of which are SATA power conncectors and the PSU only has 4....oh and it only has one IDE line and I needed two for the 7950 so I have the WEIRDEST wiring job of connectors and splitters hooked up to get everything working. (And decided to live without a DVD burner or front fan for a bit... <sigh>)
Long day was long, but successful before it was over. Oh, and I'm typing this on Bubbles so she's up and running again too.
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