Buying new desktop - questions on upgrade

[PcDad]

I currently have as my main computer, an HP M8830F. It has a 2.2ghz AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core, 32bit WIN7, 4GB DDR2 Ram, 300W power supply. The main HD is a 7200rpm 320GB and there also an internal 7200RPM 1TB drive and 750GB HP Media Drive. I have a four bay enclosure with one 7200 RPM1TB and two 5400RPM 2TB drives in it connected via esata.
I use it to store pictures, music and pictures and to convert years of VHS-C and HI8 video tapes to digital format.
I am looking to replace it with a new pc and am going to either buy a package or have a friend build one. The range I am trying to stay in is $700-$1000 (not including monitor keyboard and mouse). Iwill be running dual monitors, would like a minimum of 16GB RAM, USB 3.0 and room for three hard drives internally
Have you any suggestion on what to go with? Processor, motherboard, graphics card, RAM, power supply, etc.
Thanks!

 

[jasonalwaysready]

welcome to tech forums.

so this wont be a video game machine that you want to have play BF3 on ultra settings?

perhaps:

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Newegg.com - Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
not sure you need 16 Gb ram. i doubt few people come close to using 8 Gb.
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDS118-04 - CD / DVD Drives

you dont really need a video card, but if you wanted one you could get:
Newegg.com - XFX HD-667X-ZHF3 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

case is personal choice, but with all your hard drives, youll probably want a full tower. this one seems nice:
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Compucase Case with USB 3.0, Black Interior and Four Fans-1x 230mm front RED LED fan, 1x 140mm rear fan, 1x 230mm top fan, and 1x 230mm side fan

total is 723 (theres an additional $35 of MIR to take away from that)
probably come down more if you can get some combo deals
it will be another $100 if you need win7 64 home

 

[PcDad]

Thank you for the welcome and your suggestions. I should have mentioned that I do not game.

My main reason to upgrade is to come closer to current technology and at the same time run dual monitors. The video card suggestion does not allow this does it? I am looking to upgrade from a single Samsung SyncMaster 2320 to dual 23" monitors (brand not decided).

I currently have a NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT video card.

If I buy all the components, will there be any wiring/cabling that is not included that I will have to buy?
Once I put it all together, is it as easy as loading the OS and assosiated component software?
Basically, it putting together a new pc plug-n-play or is it muchmore complex than that?
My experience is has been removing and installing hard drives,RAM, eSata card, software. I would like to do it myself if possible. Thanks.

No, I won't be using the sytem for gaming. I do want a video card as I want to run dual 23" monitors. The card suggested doesn't do that does it?
I currently have a NVIDIA GT 8500 now.
With RAM so cheap, whay not pack the system with it?
With all the components above, will I need additional wiring/cabling?
Thanks!

 

[jasonalwaysready]

yeah, glossed over the dual gpu: you still dont need a lot of power. that card has multiple outputs, so depending on what your monitors have for plugs, you can get some plugs to change the connection type.

ram is cheap, but it would be like buying 5 go carts when i can drive 1 maybe 2 at once if i go macguyver or mr bean style on it. really... if you want to buy it, you can get a 4 x 4 Gb set for a hundred bucks or so, but i dont think that you need it. im assuming that a lower price is also an objective here?

you should be all set for cables, even more so assuming that you can reuse your current hard drives.

crap, i forgot a hard drive (prices have gone up and i saved it for last). the floods have kicked up prices so youll probably want to get an ssd with your other large mechanical drives for the storage.
this one is well liked:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227759

or:

Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
or for a few dollars more, get 1.4 orders of magnitude more storage in the mechanical: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

[PcDad]

Yes... a lower price is definitely an objective. So how much ram is reasonable and what is overkill?
I upgraded ram in my laptop from four two eight since it was so cheap... no better reason I guess.
So I don't need two DVI outs for two monitors?
I was toying with gaeeting an SSD for the OS and using other drives for programs and data being on other drives. Currently I am using a 7200rpm 320GB for the OS and programs and have two 1TB WD Caviar Blacks for music, photos and video and two 2TB Samsung for HD movies. Basically the 1TB and 2TB are duplicate drives. WOW... hard drives sure have gone up.... I only paid 79.99 each for my Samsungs and about the same for the black drives.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, blame the flooding in Thialand and the people getting scared and mass buying hard drives.

4GB is enough for any gamer. 8Gb is overhaul, but still acceptable. Anything over that is a total waste of space.

Yeah, SSD's are great. Only, you can't put 100 games on it. Use your black drive to put the games on.

 

[Slaymate]

@ PcDad, please don't double post, if you have something else to add to the conversation and no one has posted a reply since your last post (within a 24 hr. period), please use the edit button (looks like a pencil) to add it to your previous post.

 

[PcDad]

A few followup questions to your suggestions...

This looks like a nice processor. Would this be overkill for a non-gamer?
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

In deciding on a motherboard, do I need to count everything that will need tobe plugged in? I hope to buy an SSD for the OS and will have 5 hard drives, 1 DVD/CD ROM drive, 1 memory card reader.
Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Will this PS be enough to power everything?
Newegg.com - Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Is there a good rule to thumb in picking the best performing RAM?
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

Can the case ever be too big? With all the extra fans, is it still fairly quiet?
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Compucase Case with USB 3.0, Black Interior and Four Fans-1x 230mm front RED LED fan, 1x 140mm rear fan, 1x 230mm top fan, and 1x 230mm side fan


Thank you for your help.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

its a very nice processor (which i have). it would probably be overkill for someone who doesnt punish their computer with work for some amount of time during the day.

that motherboard (which i have) but only has 6 sata connectors, 2 of them stated for 6 Gbps operation hd's, though i dont think they work differently or wouldnt work with just a regular sata device. to fit 8 devices, youll have to find another mb with more sata connectors, or find a hd swappable device. maybe something like this: Newegg.com - StarTech SATADOCKU2E eSATA USB to SATA External HDD Dock for 2.5" or 3.5"
maybe there is some sort of pci express sata controller that could work too.

that ps is good quality and will be more than enough for what you need. a chunk of the power that most people need is going into video cards, and you dont need a powerful one.

in general ram is ram. iver heard nothing but good things about the gskill ripjaws. good prices too.

the case would only be too big if you were trying to move it all the time or it was taking up some valuable room real estate. otherwise a roomier case is good. moreso if you have a stack of hard drives to stick in it.

 

[PcDad]

What kind of routines would qualify as "punishing"? At most, I will be watching HD movies, converting analog video tape of all formats to digital, and converting HD movies from MKV to mp4. I guess that I would pick a processor based on that and the desire for what ever I buy to not become obsolete too fast. I am also trying to keep costs down. If it's only 20 or 30 dollars between what I need and the I5-2500K, I might as well buy the 2500K.

Regarding the mobo, I took for granted the 6Gbps sata connector would be backwards compatible to regular sata drives. Perhaps that is something I need to determine.

I am currently using a Mediasonic four bay enclosure via esata cable Newegg.com - Mediasonic HF2-SU2S2 3.5" Black USB2.0 & eSATA Pro Box 4 Bay Enclosure for most half my hard drives. That might still be needed if I expand.

Thanks for the thoughts on the PS and RAM.

That's what I thought about the case. Reminds me of when I built my shed in the back yard... never big enough. That CoolMaster HAF 932 looks like a sweet case.

I am excited to finish my studying of components and moving to the ordering stage. I usually buy from Newegg and hope to find some of these item between now and black Friday. This will be my first computer build and after seeing the sum of the parts, I can't ever see buying a prebuilt one.

The other items I have not looked into yet would be an SSD for the OS and Office, etc. and looking into new dual monitors too. Most likely 23" ones that are rated well and reasonably priced.