HP Z600

A few months ago I picked this up used for $575. It was a bit beat up and had crap graphics but I loved the board. It has two quad-core Xeon CPUs (the server equivalent of i7 chips). Been dropping in hardware as time permits. Got a used EVGA GTX 660 TI and now it is screaming fast:

Nice !!

Got 7.7 / 7.9 / 7.9/ 7.9/ 5.9 on the Windows Experience Index... just need SSD and it will be perfect lol. It has a 10,000 RPM SATA but SSD is so much better now.

What's that work out to in bogomips ?

specs:

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=3718663&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c01709707-13%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

I put Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on it today at the highest possible graphics, this game is like being in a movie on this machine. Awesome...

Damn it man, I'm jealous.

I'm giving up on the idea of retiring the PC for a console system.
Looks like I have to decide where to spend the money.
I figure it isn't worth upgrading this socket 939 system any further. The quit making that tech back in 2006 and now the CPU upgrades cost a fortune. 
I could upgrade to Core Duo or AM2 and still be stepping up.

I hate the thought that a new mobo means a new CPU and RAM at a minimum.

Try used, let someone else drop $3000 lol. Get a nice board with an i7 or Xeon and start from there.

Sell your old pc to someone else for $200 while it is still worth anything, and they will be the one laughing at you like you laugh at the guy who spends $1000s.

It's a food chain lol. If you stay two years behind the current best tech available you can have nice stuff without paying full price.

Yup.
I usually buy stuff behind the curve but this time I fell way back since unlike in the past, this current system is still keeping up but just barely.

I have a video card in my Amazon wish list.
A 460GTX for under $100 - is that behind enough for ya? lol

l got a GTX 660 TI for $150 used, look harder.

If you have a microcenter near your home they have pretty good deals, lot better than the big box stores and safer than ordering second hand stuff from Ebay.

http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntt=GeForce+GTX+600+Series

We used to have CompUSA but they are gone now and we don't have any good places in Pittsburgh.

I'm in no hurry.

I rather spend that $$ on a new gun or some band equipment but it seems like for the same money I'd pump into this old system I could upgrade to a new MoBo/CPU and be way ahead.

Check out craigslist.  Once in a while there is someone out there wanting to upgrade and has what you want for a good price.  I looked around for a couple of months then one day 2 cpu's showed up, e8400's for 40 apiece.  Cheapest I found on ebay was around 100 bucks.  I also found an Radeon hd7770 gpu for just under 80 bucks.  Right now I am trying to find a Q9450, Q9550 or 9650 core 2 quad but E-bay wants way too much.

Good idea OneOldMan.

Phase one is complete - condensing two hard drives full of crap into one hard drive full of less crap.

I see opensuse is dropping 12.2 support this month so I'm downloading 13.1 and will put the upgrade on the now clean hard drive.
I wanted to set up a Raid 1 mirror set but it seems like the Nvidia controller on my MoBo won't do that with drives that are already in use.
My OS might let me do one drive at a time and I could ping pong the good data from a drive not added to the array yet but I thinking about just getting some new larger drives so I'll put RAID on hold for now.

If I can find a decent used PC used like OOM said, that would kill a lot of birds with one stone.

Hey - how about this one?
It's been years since I shopped for parts so I'm really out of the loop on prices.

From ad on Craigslist:

$400
MSI Motherboard 790xt-g45 (SLI) "This Board SELF OVER CLOCKS with a flip of a switch.

8 GIG DDR2 800 6400 Heat shielded or ill take 50 off for a 4 gig kit of G.skill 800 6400 shielded
EVGA GTX 460 Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclocked-External-Mini-HDMI-01G-P3-1373-AR/dp/B003VWZEBY

500 gig hard drive 5400 rpm Slave Both Sata

Processor AMD Phenom IIX4 Black Edition at 3.0 GHz.

Case Thermaltake Armor Case HEAVY DUTY or for a additional 75 ill throw it in a alienware area 51 case

5400 RPM is way out of date, I have a 10,000 RPM now and it is out-of date compared to SSD now.

Also DDR2 is out-of date, current standard is DDR3.

That is like a $200-$300 used system, but if you you like to haggle go for it. Probably awesome compared to your current system.

lol - true

Current system has 7200RPM drives but only DDR (first gen.)

Been spending my time tweaking the OpenSuSE 13.1 install and playing Counter Strike:Source - damn that game is addicting.

Yeah CS:Source was a tough habit to break lol, I can still hear the music from the start-up menu.

What was the original Graphic card or cards that come with the machine?

Money went to a new keyboard (not the computer kind).
PC upgrade on hold since I've been playing on the PS3 more lately.