Hi! I asked this same question a few months ago and was told to wait until the i5 came here. Well, now it is here and I want to get rid of my old noisy PC 
I bought a GTS 250 512MB and CoolerMaster Extreme 600W a few months ago and now I am upgrading my system, a 4 year old P4 based. I will mainly use it for gaming and image processing. My current PC can't even give me 100 fps in CS and I won't use my gfx card with it as there is no point to it. Besides, it might not fit into the small cabinet.
I will keep the following from my current system:
-GTS 250 512 MB
-PSU CM Extreme 600W (contrary to its name, it is just passable, it seems)
-LG 19" LCD display with max resolution@1440X900
-160 GB SATA HDD. I might junk the old 80GB though. Will add a new HDD, of course.
-Logitech keyboard and mouse.
My budget is around 25-30k, which should be sufficient
Preferences - I prefer Intel but if the price advantage for an AMD is sufficient, I will go for it too. I am thinking of the following:
- CPU - i7 and its motherboard is still expensive, so I will have to go for the i5. Or should I wait even more?
-A compatible motherboard. Not sure how much it will cost and if I should go for a cheap one or a better one. NO OVERCLOCKING for me!
-A good but cheap cabinet without a good PSU.
-4 GB DDR3 RAM, but if necessary I can settle for a 4GB DDR2 RAM as well.
-A good 500GB/1TB HDD.
If necessary and if budget left, I could also go for:
- A new and cheap DVD-R drive
- Decent speakers (1-1.5k only!) (I have a good Philips headphone for my games, BTW
)
- Any other component you think I should buy?
-Please note that the PC will be running in a high temperature, high humidity and high dust environment for a large part of the year.
BTW, will my PSU be sufficient to run a system like this? I think it will be, but still...
I know that this is a long post, but I don't want to make a mistake with this one. I am regretting buying the CM 600W extreme PSU. All suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to make drastic changes to any of my mentioned preferences
I bought a GTS 250 512MB and CoolerMaster Extreme 600W a few months ago and now I am upgrading my system, a 4 year old P4 based. I will mainly use it for gaming and image processing. My current PC can't even give me 100 fps in CS and I won't use my gfx card with it as there is no point to it. Besides, it might not fit into the small cabinet.
I will keep the following from my current system:
-GTS 250 512 MB
-PSU CM Extreme 600W (contrary to its name, it is just passable, it seems)
-LG 19" LCD display with max resolution@1440X900
-160 GB SATA HDD. I might junk the old 80GB though. Will add a new HDD, of course.
-Logitech keyboard and mouse.
My budget is around 25-30k, which should be sufficient
Preferences - I prefer Intel but if the price advantage for an AMD is sufficient, I will go for it too. I am thinking of the following:
- CPU - i7 and its motherboard is still expensive, so I will have to go for the i5. Or should I wait even more?
-A compatible motherboard. Not sure how much it will cost and if I should go for a cheap one or a better one. NO OVERCLOCKING for me!
-A good but cheap cabinet without a good PSU.
-4 GB DDR3 RAM, but if necessary I can settle for a 4GB DDR2 RAM as well.
-A good 500GB/1TB HDD.
If necessary and if budget left, I could also go for:
- A new and cheap DVD-R drive
- Decent speakers (1-1.5k only!) (I have a good Philips headphone for my games, BTW
)- Any other component you think I should buy?
-Please note that the PC will be running in a high temperature, high humidity and high dust environment for a large part of the year.
BTW, will my PSU be sufficient to run a system like this? I think it will be, but still...
I know that this is a long post, but I don't want to make a mistake with this one. I am regretting buying the CM 600W extreme PSU. All suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to make drastic changes to any of my mentioned preferences
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