[hellsteel]

I found a pretty good looking pc for a great price. Alot of bad reviews on it, but im planning on upgrading the GFX card and power supply. Let me know what you guys think.

The specs are:
AMD Phenom II X4 910 Processor(2.6ghz), 8gig ram ddr3,1TB HDD (5400RPM),ATI Radeon HD 4350 (512mb), bus speed 4000MHz. soundcard AMD 785G Chipset. 300w power supply that i plan to upgrade.




and here is the link: http://www.bestbuy.c...b9de12c7230en02
(i have a coupon code so ill be paying about 500$ with taxes/shipping)which seems great. I expect to get a power supply after for about 30-40$ from ncix (canadian site) and maybe get a 100$-150$ new gfx card.

My other problem with this pc i see really is the power supply, and im not sure about the HDD 5400rpm seems slow, on my old pc i got 7200rpm, so im not sure if i would need a new harddrive or if it wouldnt even be noticeable... im sure the new one must be faster either way due to cache? anyways let me know what you guys think, also alot of people hate HP, but ive had one twice for several years, the only thing that pissed me off about HPS is the bios menues for OCing and my current one has no pci slot LOL... but this new one is "upgrade-able" with pci and pcie slots. Thanks

Edit: I will be using this pc for pretty much everything, watching movies/burning, video editing, and gaming. As far as gaming goes, i want to be able to play the new games but im sure it will be fine with the new gfx card which im planning on upgrading right away.

Edited by hellsteel, 21 March 2010 - 07:48 PM.

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The computer specs look pretty good except for the 5400RPM hard drive, that is a slower standard. Also, are you aware this computer is a refurbished model? aka used. Here is a quote from the link you gave me.

*Refurbished. Get serious about computing with this HP Pavilion Elite e9220y, a stylish, high-performance PC for your most demanding digital tasks. Powerful AMD processing and 8GB system memory give you the power you need to surf the web, edit photos, or game, while the huge 1TB hard drive and Wireless N keep you in touch with your digital world.

If you upgrade the video card you will need to upgrade to a more powerful power supply as high end cards require it. Depends on what card you buy, but I would always recommend a power supply that is 80 plus certified meaning it is 80% efficient even when under load like when gaming. This ensures a longer lasting computer and helps prevent the power supply from failing and taking other components down with it.

[Ferrari]

The computer specs look pretty good except for the 5400RPM hard drive, that is a slower standard. Also, are you aware this computer is a refurbished model? aka used. Here is a quote from the link you gave me.

*Refurbished. Get serious about computing with this HP Pavilion Elite e9220y, a stylish, high-performance PC for your most demanding digital tasks. Powerful AMD processing and 8GB system memory give you the power you need to surf the web, edit photos, or game, while the huge 1TB hard drive and Wireless N keep you in touch with your digital world.

If you upgrade the video card you will need to upgrade to a more powerful power supply as high end cards require it. Depends on what card you buy, but I would always recommend a power supply that is 80 plus certified meaning it is 80% efficient even when under load like when gaming. This ensures a longer lasting computer and helps prevent the power supply from failing and taking other components down with it.

[hellsteel]

Thanks for your suggestion, Yes i am aware its refurbished, it basically means it may of had an issue and someone took it back. Its a major company and comes with a free 1 year warranty, i like the idea that it is refurbished because now i know its better then factory inspected prior to being sold.

How much do those p-supplies go for? im planning on getting a 1 gig card radeon. And yea... the harddrive is like a laptopspeed, i dont understand why they used 5400 rpm thats my only big concern really.. how slow will that be? ive never had one that slow. - thx

And as far as value for my money, it seems like i need to change a few thingsbut overall its worth the money.

The card i plan on upgrading and powersupply, the harddrive im not sure if i need to? thats the only thing im cringing is having to upgrade that as well.

Edited by hellsteel, 21 March 2010 - 07:58 PM.

[Ferrari]

Can you link me to the card you plan on buying? I can recommend a PSU after that.

I don't like that it has a 5400RPM drive either. Programs will open up slower, installing programs will take longer, something like video/photo editing would notice it quite a bit.

[hellsteel]

http://www.ncix.com/...manufacture=XFX


XFX Radeon HD 5770 1gb - kinda set my heart on it or i may go a cheaper build with a 512 but either way im going to need more power. im also planning on Ocing my gfx but not my processor.

As far as hard drives go, what can i do? how much is a fast one 7200rpm? (200+ gigs is fine) and with my old HDD what am i going to do with it? will it make my cpu slower if i use it as a secondary hdd? sorry for being a noob but ive never tried it.

Edited by hellsteel, 21 March 2010 - 08:07 PM.

[hellsteel]

I just dont like buying a cpu and not using the 1tb harddrive, im curious if i can make it a secondary, and just put stuff in it like storage, and maybe buy a faster one as primary to load my main games/apps faster?

[Ferrari]

Thank you. That card requires a 450watt power supply or higher. Also, it has dedicated power, so you'll need PSU that has at least 1 6pin PCI-E connector. I recommend this one by OCZ. HERE

But I wonder, if you are going to spend the money on a $190 card, a $80 PSU, and then a 320gb SATA 7200 RPM hard drive that costs $50 or more, you may want to consider looking and seeing if there is a better computer out there for that kind of money. On top of all that, you'll have to reinstall Windows, the drivers for the computer and then update windows if you change hard drives. Probably about 3-4 hours of your time or so, with possible headaches.

Total spent above is about $820. What about a pre-built gaming machine like these... HERE They are sold at Newegg Canada, so you can purchase there. You might still want to upgrade the graphics card, but I think it's more what you are looking for.

[hellsteel]

Cool thanks for the reply. Reinstalling windows is fine, i have a win7 ultimate disc here, i was planning on formatting it anyways due to all HP pre-installed junk, i also have driver softwear to do it all for me, as far as gfx driver ect i can pre-install them fine. Ill check into it thanks.

[hellsteel]

Ya i checked into these pcs, the processor and stock ram is worse on all those pcs unless im gonna OC the i5 i suppose. mmmm the thing is if i go that build im going to upgrade the gfx either way, only change will to not get new HDD and p-supply, but in that case wouldnt it be better getting a better processor +8gig ram + newcard =cheaper for the hp one, vs buying a abit better card and good hd.

The reason why im thinking going Factory pc is because it includes everything, and nothing can beat the price technically. On newegg the pc i posted here is about 530$, i plan on getting gfx and + power supply. if the HDD is only 50$ wouldnt you think im better going 8gig ram + better processor rouite + the flash drives and goodies it had prebuild in?


Oh and i dont mean to spam my own topic , but what about a second HD question, Would having a second HD slow my pc down? if i put a primary 7200 and a secondary the one it came with? - thanks alot.

Edited by hellsteel, 21 March 2010 - 08:34 PM.

[Ferrari]

You are welcome.

[Ferrari]

if i put a primary 7200 and a secondary the one it came with? - thanks alot.

It would only be slower for whatever files or programs you put on that second hard drive. A common practice is to have a fast main drive for your OS, programs, and favorite games, and then use a second slower drive for file storage. Like, documents, pictures, videos, etc.

Just having the slower drive installed on your computer will not make it slower because the OS and all of your programs will be installed on the faster main drive.

[hellsteel]

I think im going to go this routie then thanks alot for your help i appreciate it.

Spending a extra 200-240$ is fine, since i do video editing holding storage on a second drive is kinda what i wanted anyways, And the gfx card i wanted , is better then the budget pcs i was viewing so i think overall the best build for me is getting the new p supply from newegg, and the gfx card. Ill also get that 50$ hdd you suggestion

I appreciate it : ) it seemms like ill have apretty nice pc. Massive storage + speed

Thanks.

edit: my main concern before was wasting that hdd, but since i can use it , without effecting performance im satisfied

Edited by hellsteel, 21 March 2010 - 08:45 PM.