Computer Build Help

OK, there isn't a lot of fat to trim off what you have, you pretty much picked the cheapest part in each category.

First you could downgrade the video card to a HD 5770 and save $84.

Second is there some reason you need a powered internal 8 port USB hub for $19? You have 6 ports out the back and headers for 6 more on the mother board (like 6 of the ones on the hub). Do you have a wireless mouse or bluetooth dongle you wish to hide (inside a metal box, not the best place for wireless signals)? I'm having a little trouble understanding this choice, for anybody.

So that's $103. I don't see any thing else that you can trim off that build, that they will let you, hence keeping the 700 watt (but costs the same as the 550 watt) PSU since it won't let me choose a smaller PSU.

Odd X, when I ran it, the 5770 was more expensive than the 5830. Go figure.

Case
iBUYPOWER CX-5B59 Mid Tower Standard Case Black/Silver
Processor
Intel® Core™ i3 530 Processor (2x 2.93GHz/4MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling
[Free Upgrade] Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator [SOCKET-1156]
Memory
4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand
Video Card
ATI Radeon HD 5830 - 1GB - Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA
Motherboard
MSI H55M-P31 -- Intel H55 Express Chipset Supported w/8-ch HD Audio, Dual Channel DDR3, Gb LAN, S-ATA, USB 2.0, 1 PCI-E 2.0 x16 MB
Power Supply
700 Watt -- Power Supply SLI Ready
Primary Hard Drive
320 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Data Hard Drive
None
Optical Drive
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 64-Bit
Warranty
Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Rush Service
Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days

$933

I also cut out the keyboard and mouse for some small savings. Unless your current ones are lousy, no need to buy those. One small upgrade I might actually suggest is to step the motherboard up a notch to the Gigabyte board. It's a small boost (I see $18) but it's got more expandability for the future. Two PCI vs one on the MSI and the ability to do Crossfire. The data transfer you can do yourself. You just need the drive back. Just add it into your system and you should be golden. Or they do sell external enclosures for drives and you can thus hook it up via USB if you prefer. I'm fairly certain you can DIY for well less than the tech charge.

Okay...here's what I'm thinking about doing...in fact I'm in the process. I'm going with Father Xmas' $750 build. Actually, with all the components plus standard shipping, the cost was less than $750.

I have picked up my computer and taken it to another tech that I have used in the past that doesn't charge major body parts for his services. I only took it to the first company because that's where I bought it. I left the Newegg shopping list with the computer.

This guy will charge approximately $60-70 for the rebuild AND the data transfer. If he can reuse my case for the rebuild, that would be a savings of $69.99 which offsets his fees. If he is able to use any of the current components - DVD drive, card reader, etc., that would be an additional savings.. if not, then I'll go with Father Xmas' build. The tech was not in at the time, but will call me when he has evaluated everything. I'm hoping beyond all hope that I can get it back by Tuesday.

So let me know what you think about this solution.

The keyboard and mouse I currently have are replacements to the original systems, so they should be just fine. If not, they aren't expensive to replace. The speakers I got with the system are still in the box, never used them - I use a headset since the system is in a common area of the house.

I also reran the ibuypower build and got the same result as Blast. Then you add the $65 shipping for a total of $998 plus it wouldn't ship until May 3rd.

I assure you, I'm not a ditzy blond but after reading my posts, it sure sounds like it. I'm just ignorant of today's computer technology as I haven't kept up with it like I used to.

And on a positive note - I won $50 today in the lottery that I can put towards the rebuild.

As long as you have a case that can take a full size ATX motherboard and PSU then fine. Otherwise ...

One of the problems with your iBuyPowerPC build is your choice of a Socket 1156 configurator. There simply isn't an inexpensive Socket 1156 CPU on the market.

Now I went with the Phenom II DDR3 configurator (Gamer Mage D235) and tried to get something close to my $750 build.

Case
NZXT Alpha Gaming Tower Case Black
Processor
AMD Athlon™ II X2 245 Dual-Core CPU
Processor Cooling
Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink
Memory
4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand
Video Card
ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P -- AMD 770 Chipset w/8-ch HD Audio, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 1 PCI-E MB
Power Supply
700 Watt -- Power Supply SLI Ready (because it's the same price as the 550 Watt and they won't let you get a smaller one with the HD 5770)
Primary Hard Drive
500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Optical Drive
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit
Keyboard
iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black (not deletable)
Mouse
iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse - Black (not deletable)
Warranty
Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Rush Service
Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days

$762

Funny thing is if you start with their basic configurator it'll end up costing you more.

Now then, I went to ibuypower and did the build on the Gamer Mage D235 as Xmas did, however, I was able to delete the keyboard and mouse for a price of $756 + $65 shipping = $821. Sounds like a sweet deal to me.

However, I have since talked to the tech. We discussed the Xmas' build and other issues. He said he can rebuild my current machine. He can replace the motherboard, CPU, PSU and add the 5770 card for around $400 and, if need be, he will replace the case, so the total cost may be around $500. These are items suggested to me when I originally posted for upgrading this system. And he can have it ready by Monday. Since this machine isn't extremely old, and all other components are in good working order, I hate to just can it. Downside of doing this is it will still have Vista.

I would love to be able to do both and use the old machine as a back up. I have $850 available to do one or the other, but not both. Am thinking I may get the old one fixed and put the rest of the money away for a new system later.... or vice versa, get the new system (while the price is what it is) and upgrade the other one later.

I do have one question on Father Xmas' $750 build. According to ibuypower, the minimum power supply needed for the Radeon 5770 is 600 watts, but the one in your build is 430 watts. Why the difference? Is that just the preference of ibuypower, or is the 660w required by the card?

Anyway, that's where I am. At least I have narrowed it down with you guys help.

Oh, Blast - about the $50 - come to Virtue and get it!! You already know my global.

I'm assuming the difference is between a noname PSU and a higher quality efficient one. The key is the number of watts at 12 volts. Inexpensive PSUs may be able to deliver more watts overall but the question is whether or not the wattage is available at the right voltage. Wattage at 12 volts is the key since that's what the CPU and video card desires. It does no good to be able to deliver the rest of the wattage at 3.3 and 5 volts if today's modern system will rarely use as much as 50 watts between those two voltages, closer to 30 watts.

The Seasonic in my parts list can deliver 360 watts at 12 volts. A lot of inexpensive PSUs in the 450-550 range can barely deliver 200-250 watts at 12 volts.

I knew there was a logical explanation, just didn't know what it was.

Hello guys. Well....got my computer back today. He replaced/upgraded most of the stuff Xmas suggested. I had him put Windows 7 on it, which increased the cost by $100 - I figured I may as well do it now, plus the fact that Vista still wouldn't start which makes me wonder if the motherboard was actually bad. He did replace the case because he said it was just too tight - case cost $60. Total cost was $620. I kept my harddrive, DVD, and card reader.

Now.... and I feel so stupid about this. He found that the HD was partitioned which he said that Acer usually does. He installed 7 on "C" and left the rest of my stuff on "D". So when it boots up, I have a choice of 7 or Vista, but of course Vista doesn't boot. He said files may have been corrupted when the mobo went out. But I'm kinda thinking they were already corrupted since it wouldn't boot up - which is the reason I took it in in the first place. So who knows which went first.

So here's my stupid question for the day.... how do I use the programs I have on the "D" partition? Can I transfer these programs to the "C" partition so that the launch from 7? I thought it would be a simple thing of going to "D" and opening the exe file...but nooooooo. I thought I could just create a shortcut of CoH (the cohupdater) on my desktop and it would automatically go to "D"...but noooooo. When I did that and clicked it to start CoH..it started downloading the game... 2.8G of it. The same thing with the "test" cohupdater. And to my way of thinking, this download will not include all my personal files in CoH. Or is this not a download at all and it is copying from "C" to "D"?

Now, if I just copy them to "C", I'm concerned that not all the stuff that makes the programs run will be accessible.. such as registry files, dll files... etc.

Should I just take it back to him and let him transfer the stuff and reformat that partition? Since 7 is such a clean install on the "C" partition, I would kinda like to keep it that way and not gunk it up with files that change daily, but "D" needs cleaned up and Vista removed.

And I'm bummed cause I missed out on the first day of the anniversary celebration - didn't get my temporary title.

Generally best just to transfer the important data and reinstall. Some programs will work under your present circumstances but many will not or if they do will lose all personalization and such or perhaps run but have issues. So many programs have extra files elsewhere plus registry entries and other fun stuff that it's almost always better to just reinstall fresh and move on. CoH isn't as bad and if you have him just copy the folder to it's proper spot on 'C' it generally should work. But I'd still do a repartition job and data transfer. As for Vista not starting, it's more likely the hardware changes are the cause than any corruption. Windows doesn't take well to major hardware surgery, particularly motherboard swaps. Unless the new and old boards are identical or fairly similar, Windows will tend to spaz out and not work. It's generally easier to just reinstall at that point. It's certainly possible there's some corruption but the surgery is the more probable cause.

Thanks Blast. I was hoping to be able to transfer the stuff without having to reinstall everything. Since the Office documents are just that - documents and data files, once I reinstall Office, all I would need to do is copy the databases/documents, etc. - is that correct? Since the program itself would install all the stuff it needs to run, it should be able to access the data. Same thing with my photos, vids, etc. - just install the program and copy the data files? Can I do the same with my CoH - just copy my personalization files - screen shots, AE arc, saved costumes, etc.?

But I did have a thought when I finally went to bed last night - not sure it would work though. If I were to change the location of the cohupdater from c: to d: - would that work? Just a thought.

I stayed up until CoH downloaded cause I couldn't wait to get in and see everything. OMG - I had no idea what I was missing. This is the first time I have seen water shimmer and reflections in it. I was awestruck. I set it on the highest graphics setting and went to zones where Rikti raid was happening...wow..just wow. Lag was nearly non-existent. Zoning was quick and painless.

Needless to say....I is a happy camper.

Data is data. It typically needs no special treatment. All your documents, pictures, spreadsheets, music, databases, etc. will be fully accessible once you have reinstalled the appropriate programs to access them. There shouldn't be any issues there at all. You should likewise be able to copy over all your CoH customization stuff and provided you put it in the same spots on 'C' it should all work fine. I do think you should be able to do as you suggest with the updater and make it work but I won't guarantee that. CoH doesn't have to be installed in it's default location and I don't think there's any big special stuff to it but I've always just put it where it wants to go and left it there. Makes life easier.