I'm done working on my old computer, want to try to build my own.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Hey guys, so a long time ago I posted in here that I was trying to change the OS on my old computer from Vista 32bit to Windows 7 64 bit. Well, I started getting a blue screen despite doing everything correctly and I freaked out. Unfortunately this all happened right before I left to go back to uni a few months ago.

Good news is, I found out the problem (it was corrupted RAM I mishandled before I installed, everything went back to normal when I took it out).
Bad news is, my ******* air canister decided the angle of spray was too big and splash coolant all over the remaining RAM, causing my computer to break once again, giving a loud obnoxious buzzing sound.

At this point, my computer is about....4, maybe 5 years old now. I want to change everything out except for my hard drive which has save files from my games and build it myself. From what I can tell, building it yourself saves a lot of money than trying to buy a prebuilt that usually has an extra $1,000 slapped on to it.

Question 1. Is a GTX 520 worth saving? Because that is the graphics card currently in it.

Question 2. Should I keep my PSU? It's 750W, but I don't know how reliable it will be with newer and possibly more demanding components. I do not know what quality it is, but do PSU's differ much in quality?

Question 3. Right before I cleaned out my old computer with the air canister which decided to hate me, I finished the installation of Windows 7 on the computer. Will I have to buy a new copy of Windows 7 for my new computer if I am replacing everything but the hard drive? Or will everything work fine if I just transfer the hard drive over to the new computer I build?

Thanks for any advice you guys give me.

[Furunculus]

1. No:
http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gt-520-oem/specifications
get something with at least 192/640 (nvidia/AMD) shaders*

2. Depends:
750W is plenty......... provided! Does it say "80+" anywhere?
Good quality PSU's will last for years, and work at their stated spec, cheapo ones cannot say the same.

3. Yes:
Provided you bought a retail copy.
OEM versions are only intended to be installed once, but M$ support may be sympathetic.......





* http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/25902-amd-cape-verde-rumoured-specifications

[Tellos Athenaios]

Depends: if you intend to replace/upgrade the card anyway, now is as good a time as any. If not, and especially when low on funds, reusing it is a rather good idea
As Furunculus said.
Yes.

[Furunculus]

are you a doppel for Lemur? :p

[drone]

EDIT: Forum ate the formatting?
You are missing the "/" from the LIST endtag

[a completely inoffensive name]

So just to clarify, you guys are saying I do or do not have to buy a new copy of windows?

[a completely inoffensive name]

Never mind, I see I bought retail, not OEM, so luckily I do not have to buy another copy.

[Tellos Athenaios]

are you a doppel for Lemur? :p

Careful, now!


You are missing the "/" from the LIST endtag

Ouch.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Never mind, I see I bought retail, not OEM, so luckily I do not have to buy another copy.

IIRC that means you actually have a licence for 3 PC's... should there be a return of the air cannister episode...

[a completely inoffensive name]

Awesome, that's more money that can go to the other components. I am not planning on playing any ultra realistic triple A titles. Because I am cheap, I stick with older games I have not yet played. The most difficult thing I plan on running would be Deus Ex:HR and maybe ME3.

What tier of video cards should I look at? Should I go for the top tier just to stay ahead of the curve?

[Tellos Athenaios]

What tier of video cards should I look at? Should I go for the top tier just to stay ahead of the curve?
No. You definitely don't want to shell out for the latest & greatest if you are cheap -- those cards cost as much as a half decent work PC.

There are a few “sweet spots” -- just upwards of $100,- mark is usually last generation's pretty good to very good, this is essentially the bang for the buck segment. Round about the $100 is essentially the place where reasonably up to date manufacturing meets price pressure due to newer models which means that it is essentially the stuff you used to pay $250,- for only a year ago.

Another place is about the $250 mark, which is usually where the respectable middle tier cards are priced at. Past that pricing gets steadily more extravagant for diminishing returns, especially when you factor in power consumption. So if you want to buy now and be able to play games well into the next 5 years or so, then the $250 spot is where it is at.

Below $100 you tend to end up with the ancient/outdated or the stock that failed to shift, or with the shortcuts to make the price point. (Like replacing GDDR5 with GDDR3 in a reference design.)

In your case I would go for the “about $100” segment for cards. Pretty much anything in there should outperform your current 520 by a wide margin, at roughly similar or better power levels (from the newer manufacturing processes).

[a completely inoffensive name]

Well, at this point I think my laptop has a better graphics card than a 520. I will post what card my laptop has in a few hours, because I want something one level above that so I can get D3:HR to run smoother. I can't seem to find a place that compares laptop "integrated" graphics cards with standard GPU's.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Ok, so my laptop has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730. How does this compare with desktop ATI cards?

EDIT: Wait, a website said it is close to a Radeon 5570, which is going for generally less than $100 on Amazon. I guess you are right TA, I think picking something a little over $100, would be just about right for me and my cheapo games.

[Furunculus]

Awesome, that's more money that can go to the other components. I am not planning on playing any ultra realistic triple A titles. Because I am cheap, I stick with older games I have not yet played. The most difficult thing I plan on running would be Deus Ex:HR and maybe ME3.

What tier of video cards should I look at? Should I go for the top tier just to stay ahead of the curve?

what you want is enough power and features to play modern games the way they are meant to be played, at a reasonable resolution.

to give you an example:

you want to be able to play games like Deus Ex HR and Shogun in DX11 mode, with settings on medium and a resolution of 1920x1080, and still get an average of 40 frames per second (minumum above 30 hopefully).

this will require an AMD card such as:
1. in old money a VLIW5 6850 with 960 shaders
2. in new money a GCN 7770 with 640 shaders*
available from £110 upwards

from nvidia the equivalent would be:
1. in old money a GTX460 with 336 shaders
2. in new money a GTX560 with 336 shaders
available from £110 upwards


http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/25902-amd-cape-verde-rumoured-specifications

[Lemur]

are you a doppel for Lemur? :p
Hmmm. General agreement with what's been said so far. I'd hang onto the PSU for sure, unless it's incredibly old and/or inefficient. I've got a 750 PSU (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermaltake-Toughpower-750-W-W0116RU-Power-Supply/369) that has lasted through two builds, and it's still humming along.

I've reached the point with my rig, however, where I've frozen all upgrades until I'm ready to do a complete rebuild. The next step is to replace the CPU/mobo/RAM, and I'm going to hold out on that as long as I humanly can.

[Furunculus]

Hmmm. General agreement with what's been said so far. I'd hang onto the PSU for sure, unless it's incredibly old and/or inefficient. I've got a 750 PSU (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermaltake-Toughpower-750-W-W0116RU-Power-Supply/369) that has lasted through two builds, and it's still humming along.

I've reached the point with my rig, however, where I've frozen all upgrades until I'm ready to do a complete rebuild. The next step is to replace the CPU/mobo/RAM, and I'm going to hold out on that as long as I humanly can.

i too have a 750 PSU (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/911), powering two harddrives and an SSD, four DDR3 dims, a 200W GPU and a 125W overclocked CPU, and i could put another GPU in there if i wished.

i see it being used for many years to come, and i imagine yours can too.

[a completely inoffensive name]

what you want is enough power and features to play modern games the way they are meant to be played, at a reasonable resolution.

to give you an example:

you want to be able to play games like Deus Ex HR and Shogun in DX11 mode, with settings on medium and a resolution of 1920x1080, and still get an average of 40 frames per second (minumum above 30 hopefully).

this will require an AMD card such as:
1. in old money a VLIW5 6850 with 960 shaders
2. in new money a GCN 7770 with 640 shaders*
available from £110 upwards

from nvidia the equivalent would be:
1. in old money a GTX460 with 336 shaders
2. in new money a GTX560 with 336 shaders
available from £110 upwards


http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/25902-amd-cape-verde-rumoured-specifications

Thanks Furun. I will be doing some research into those cards. I got a while before I have time to actually build it, so I'm gonna be doing my homeowrk.

[Furunculus]

7770 reviews now out:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5541/amd-radeon-hd-7750-radeon-hd-7770-ghz-edition-review/14

:)

[naut]

Radeon 6870 for under $200 over here. Very good deal, even with the 7000 series out. Right time to be building a new rig. Until nVidea brings out their next card I'd stick with AMD, they are doing it right in the GPU market.

Currently, in terms of CPUs, I cannot, with good conscience, recommend AMD. Unless you go back to a Phenom II x6 1090t Black Edition. Bulldozer sucks. Period. The best Bulldozer is around $200 and at that price point Intel's i5-2500K is superior.

[Furunculus]

Radeon 6870 for under $200 over here. Very good deal, even with the 7000 series out. Right time to be building a new rig. Until nVidea brings out their next card I'd stick with AMD, they are doing it right in the GPU market.

Currently, in terms of CPUs, I cannot, with good conscience, recommend AMD. Unless you go back to a Phenom II x6 1090t Black Edition. Bulldozer sucks. Period. The best Bulldozer is around $200 and at that price point Intel's i5-2500K is superior.

as an owner of both an AMD GPU and a 1090T i agree completely.