Just decided to get back into the groove of chumping. Just going to throw a $400/450 upgrade your way for now and the humble casual box of the week for those who just want it easy. Feel free of course to ask questions or add your own chumpiness to the thread.
$400/$450 Upgrade:
- Phenom 8750 black edition(2.4GHZ) Tri Core + Asus AM2+ MATX Motherboard $167 Combo
- Phenom 9850 black edition(2.5ghz) Quad Core + Asus AM2+ MATX Motherboard $238
- Saphire Radeon 4870 512 MB GDDR5 (Uber fast) $190 ($20 rebate if you want)
- Kingston 4gb (2 x 2GB kit) $37
- Total $394 or $445 pre tax pre shipping.
Extreme performance for a middling budget upgrade.
Options for those who need a reduced price/other parts.
I wouldn't cut the CPU down, its an excellent deal and you want to be somewhat future proofed here so your best bet would be a couple of lower end GPU choices.
- HD 4830 by HIS (640 SP, 512 mb ram etc) $110
- HD 4670 by Gigabyte (No power connector required $75 ($20 MIR if wanted)
- HEC 500W (5 star rating) 2x6 pin power or HEC 650W (No ratings) 1x6,1x8 PCIE $50
Lastly, the Casual CHUMP of the mix. Cheap and easy 101.
- AMD Phenom X3 8450(2.1GHz)
- 3GB DDR2
- 320GB SATA
- Super-Multi drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM)
- ATI Radeon HD 3200
- AMD 780G
- Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (English / French)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16
- $390
To make a real man out of this system, you need to either select the HD 4670 and leave everything else alone or if you want more grunt you have to select the HD 4830/4870 AND the $50 PSU or one which meets the required specifications of your choosing.
Tease.
