Time for an Upgrade

[Rob Lister]

Budget: 3000

Subtract: 1000 for new office furniture.

Work with me.

Need: new cpu, printers, monitors, keyboard, mouse, joystick (mine is too small), sound system, yada.

ETA: I'm currently hosting 4 other computers in the house. No router, only a switch controlled by the host [my] system. Clearly wireless is called for.

[Yalius]

How much work do you want to put into it? Mainly, building your own machine or a pre-built one?

[PixyMisa]

I take it you play games? What sort of games? Are we talking Crysis or The Sims? ;)

Also, any preference of Intel vs. AMD?

Anyway, here's what I'd get:

Gigabyte GA-MA79GP-UD4H motherboard $140
Phenom X4 920 $190
Gigabyte 512MB Radeon 4850 $155
8GB OCZ DDR2-800 RAM $80
Vista 64 Home Premium $100
Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB $130
2x Samsung 2233SW 22" LCD $400
Brother HL-4040CN network colour laser $235
Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers $80
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 90 or 100 or 110 ($25 - $35) (I like the EX 90 for its key arrangement)
Pioneer 216-DBK 20x DVD Burner $25
Netgear WPN824 Wireless Router $60

That leaves you $370 for the case & power supply and joystick and misc bits.

[dtugg]

I would suggest www.cyberpowerpc.com

I just configured for $1972

* CASE: ($20 off Mail-in Rebate) NEW! Apevia X-Jupiter Jr. 420 Watts Case (G Type Metallic Gray Color with Side-Window)
* Neon Light Upgrade: NONE
* Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans
* POWER SUPPLY Upgrade: STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY
* CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit
* COOLING FAN : INTEL LGA775 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
* MOTHERBOARD: MSI G31M3-L Intel G31 Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
* MEMORY: 8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
* FREEBIES: None
* VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
* VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
* VIDEO CARD 3: NONE
* MULTIPLE VIDEO CARD SETTINGS: Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor
* LCD Monitor: 22& quot; TFT Active Matrix LCD Display (Generic 22inch WSXGA TFT LCD Display)
* 2nd Monitor: 22& quot; TFT Active Matrix LCD Display (Generic 22inch WSXGA TFT LCD Display)
* HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (1.5TB (1.5TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
* Data Hard Drive: 1.5TB (1.5TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
* USB PORTABLE DRIVE: NONE
* Optical Drive: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
* Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR)
* SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD
* SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers
* NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
* MODEM: NONE
* KEYBOARD: PS2 MULTIMEDIA INTERNET CONTROL KEYBOARD (BLACK COLOR)
* MOUSE: Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse (BLACK COLOR)
* Extra Thermal Display : NONE
* Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: NONE
* Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
* Cable Wiring: None
* Rounded Cable: None
* VIDEO CAMERA: NONE
* PRINTER: HP Deskjet 6988 Printer
* PRINTER CABLE: None
* IEEE CARD: NONE
* USB PORT: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
* FLOPPY: NONE
* OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)
* FREEBIES: None
* Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner: None
* SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
* RUSH SERVICE: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS D