I built the computer I’m writing this on as a Christmas present to myself in 2008. It’s an Intel Socket 1336 i7 920 2.66GHz running XP Professional with 3(only 3!)Gb of memory. It’s got a pair of Western Digital 500Gb SATA hard drives and a Blue-Ray burner. The video card is a Diamond Radeon 1GB. Everything is in an ATX case with a 500W power supply.
It’s time to upgrade. I want some USB 3.0 ports, audio that works, and (Jeremy Clarkson voice) MOOORE SPEEEED!
What can I get with a $500 budget, especially if I’m willing to re-use the existing hard-disks, Blue-Ray burner and possibly the video card?
I’d like to switch to Windows 7 Professional. Not all that fond of Windows 8 at the moment.
Oh, I’m running a pair of LG Flatron W1942T monitors that I plan to keep using.
Am I better off shopping for a pre-assembled system?
EDITED TO ADD: (Emily Latella voice) Never mind. The system I’ve got isn’t really all that bad even though it’s six years old. I’m just going to upgrade it some with more memory, a newer video card, and eventually Windows 7.