Contemplating a major upgrade

**dj_stick** · Sep 20, 2005, 04:50 AM

Atm i'm contemplating a major upgrade from my current system (it's ~2 years old)
ie, getting a new mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM, and possibly a 100 - 200Gb HDD. I'll also need a decent PSU aswell.

I'm leaning towards dual core Intel atm, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: i should probably say i'm looking for a mid-range system, that'll last me about 2 years or so

CDsDontBurn · Sep 20, 2005, 06:06 AM

if you're looking at intel, the 830 has come down in price some since it first debuted

. you'll need a 945/955 or nVidia nForce4 chipset MoBo, a PCI-E gfx card, DDR2 memory, and HDDs are cheap now

.

Today at my work i sold a guy a similar set up to what you're asking for. walked away w/a complete system for $700 (USD) after taxes. The guy's system consisted of an Intel 630 Retail, Gigabyte 945 MoBo, 1Gb DDR2, LiteOn 16x DL DVD-RW, 200Gb SATA2 WD HDD, and a cheapy case. Windows was not purchased. The MoBo had on board video (and also had 1 PCI-E slot for later video upgradability) so no gfx card was purchased, and the CPU isn't an 8x0 series so it would have obviously been more....actually about $130 (USD) more if he had gotten an 830.

Just to give you an idea as to how much it would cost. but i do understand that from region to region prices do change.

**dj_stick** · Sep 20, 2005, 06:33 AM

i already have a case, and optical disc drives etc, so it's pretty much the bare internal essentials i need

i'm not really fussed about AGP/PEG, but i do need at least 2 or 3 PCI slots for some expansion cards i already have and want to keep using

EDIT: looking at my options, i'm thinking maybe even a single core intel would be fine (if it has HT enabled) and about 1 - 2 Gb ram - edging towards 2 as i can pretty easily fill the 1Gb i have now

CDsDontBurn · Sep 20, 2005, 06:36 AM

bare essentials should be around $500 (USD).

what kind of PCI cards do you have that you want to keep using?

EDIT on your EDIT

:

all Intel chips that have an 800Mhz FSB will have HT

. So that basically means any 478 intel 2.4Ghz 800Mhz FSB

. So you're fine on that one

**dj_stick** · Sep 20, 2005, 06:43 AM

2 x Soundcard
1 x Video capture card

i would prefer a CPU that'll give me quite a noticeable improvement over my barton at 2.2ghz

CDsDontBurn · Sep 20, 2005, 06:51 AM

for video capture, can't you use an ATI AIW card? and i know you're an audio guy, but how come you have 2 soundcards? isn't one enough?

**dj_stick** · Sep 20, 2005, 07:01 AM

nope, one card is not enough

i link them together to record as many inputs as possible

as for the AIW card - how much more expensive is one of those compared to a standard GPU? because i already have the capture card… but i may leave it in my current machine (i have spare case) and make a portable AV pc

CDsDontBurn · Sep 20, 2005, 07:08 AM

an x600pro AIW goes for about $200 (USD) last i checked (about 4 months ago). if that's all you need, then you're set on the capture card

. for sound cards....dunno what to say really

Drakon · Sep 20, 2005, 12:38 PM

You could get the x800xt AIW; not sure about the price. I believe Stuart did a review on it

**dj_stick** · Sep 20, 2005, 12:57 PM

thanls for the ideas - i'll check the prices on those cards

**dj_stick** · Sep 21, 2005, 02:32 AM

after some searching this is what i've come up with so far
Graphics cardAnything more is a little too expensive for what i'm considering, but that may change
CPU Should be a decent cpu for my needs
PSU I'm thinking 500w should suit my needs
RAM It's kingston value, but i'm not much of an overclocker, and it's still pushing my budget a little

The total price is $974.00 without the motherboard, which is scaring me a little - i may have to drop back to 1gb of ram, unless i purchase two of these or these. Would the extra speed be worth the extra price of the second link?

i'm still undecided on which mothrboard to go for, but i'm edging towards a gigabyte model, as i trust their boards. Also it needs to be LGA775, support DDR2… if anyone can give me some advice on that i would be greatful.

EDIT: I may also need to get a CPU cooler, or will the stock cooler work fine?

I'm open to suggestions, comments and criticism about my choices here aswell: i've been out of the whole upgrade experience for almost two years

EDIT again: on the motherboard, this one looks to suit my needs quite well

nitrousoxide52 · Sep 21, 2005, 02:52 AM

The new x800gt's are awsomely priced right now at about 150, and there is one that is running on the x850xtpe chipset for 169. Good price IMHO, probably what I will get when I upgrade soon.

**dj_stick** · Sep 21, 2005, 04:02 AM

all the prices in my links are AUD - the x800s are a bit expensive for me atm

**dj_stick** · Sep 24, 2005, 07:18 AM

question: do sata 2 hard-drives work on sata 1 controllers?

CDsDontBurn · Sep 24, 2005, 10:29 AM

no. on SATA there is no such thing as master/slave configuration. each SATA controller connects to only one HDD.

i'll look into some Gigabyte MoBos for you. i'll post links up shortly

CDsDontBurn · Sep 24, 2005, 10:37 AM

915 chipset:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128287

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128250

945 Chipset:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128294

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128247

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128293

nVidia nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128290

**dj_stick** · Sep 25, 2005, 01:13 AM

i'm getting the ga8I945p Pro

I was talking about SATA 2/300mbps vs Sata1/150mbps - are the drives backwards compatible?

CDsDontBurn · Sep 25, 2005, 01:51 AM

yes, they are

**dj_stick** · Sep 25, 2005, 02:05 AM

ooh good - cause i might buy one today and chuck it in my current machine for the time being

btw thanks for you help

CDsDontBurn · Sep 25, 2005, 02:19 AM

yea, np

. how big of an HDD you going to get?

**dj_stick** · Sep 25, 2005, 07:48 AM

I'm going to get a 200gb hdd eventually, but i decided not to today - opted to get a new PSU - Coolermaster Real Power 450w - not the best but it's a nice one, and much quieter than my last

CDsDontBurn · Sep 25, 2005, 10:41 AM

i still woulda gotten the HDD over the PSU

.

**dj_stick** · Sep 25, 2005, 12:59 PM

i got plenty of hdd space for my needs right now

and the PSU was getting annoying - the loudest thing in my case

anyway i have another question - i'm thinking of going with water-cooling down the line - probably the thermaltake big water system - so i'm wondering of the stock HSF is good enough for maybe a little overclocking… or i may leave the system at stock to start with…

CDsDontBurn · Sep 25, 2005, 05:49 PM

yea, OCing on the stock HSF is alright, some people have done it already. push it as far as you want to take it on that though. each system is different though, remember that.

**dj_stick** · Sep 28, 2005, 11:59 AM

After thinking it over, and talking with people this is the final list, and it looks like it may be purchased soon:

1x Intel Pentium 4 630 CPU
1x Gigabyte GA-8I945P-Pro Mobo
1x Gigabyte GV-NX66256DP (nVidia 6600) GPU
2x Kingmax DDR2 533mhz 1024Mb Ram

Online from scorptech.com this costs AU$1157, but I've found a retailer not too far from home who will do the whole lot as listed there for AU$910. Just waiting on confirmation that he'll honour warranties, and then I scrounge up the cash and head over there.

CDsDontBurn · Sep 28, 2005, 04:20 PM

cool set up man

.

once you get all your parts, take lotsa pix and post them up....i wanna see parts!

**dj_stick** · Sep 28, 2005, 09:14 PM

oh you can be sure my 350d will get a workout - finally a decent system to complement my case

CDsDontBurn · Sep 28, 2005, 09:31 PM

lol. damn right. you'll be enjoying that nice combo w/your new rig, and your shark case

**dj_stick** · Oct 15, 2005, 08:02 AM

well i have my new parts - pics will come later
thye were out of stock of the mobo, but they offered the ASUS P5LD2 instead - it's a pretty decent board so i accepted
also upgraded to a P4 640 3.2Ghz
and purchased 2X1GB Kingston Value ram sticks and a gigabyte Geforce 6600 256mb

CDsDontBurn · Oct 15, 2005, 09:34 AM

nice nice

. glad you like your new build

. can't wait for the pix

Sep 20, 2005, 06:06 AM	#2
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	if you're looking at intel, the 830 has come down in price some since it first debuted . you'll need a 945/955 or nVidia nForce4 chipset MoBo, a PCI-E gfx card, DDR2 memory, and HDDs are cheap now . Today at my work i sold a guy a similar set up to what you're asking for. walked away w/a complete system for $700 (USD) after taxes. The guy's system consisted of an Intel 630 Retail, Gigabyte 945 MoBo, 1Gb DDR2, LiteOn 16x DL DVD-RW, 200Gb SATA2 WD HDD, and a cheapy case. Windows was not purchased. The MoBo had on board video (and also had 1 PCI-E slot for later video upgradability) so no gfx card was purchased, and the CPU isn't an 8x0 series so it would have obviously been more....actually about $130 (USD) more if he had gotten an 830. Just to give you an idea as to how much it would cost. but i do understand that from region to region prices do change. __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 20, 2005, 06:36 AM	#4
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	bare essentials should be around $500 (USD). what kind of PCI cards do you have that you want to keep using? EDIT on your EDIT : all Intel chips that have an 800Mhz FSB will have HT . So that basically means any 478 intel 2.4Ghz 800Mhz FSB . So you're fine on that one __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 20, 2005, 06:51 AM	#6
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	for video capture, can't you use an ATI AIW card? and i know you're an audio guy, but how come you have 2 soundcards? isn't one enough? __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 20, 2005, 07:08 AM	#8
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	an x600pro AIW goes for about $200 (USD) last i checked (about 4 months ago). if that's all you need, then you're set on the capture card . for sound cards....dunno what to say really __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 21, 2005, 02:52 AM	#12
nitrousoxide52 Driverheaven.com err .net Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1,719 Rep Power: 0	The new x800gt's are awsomely priced right now at about 150, and there is one that is running on the x850xtpe chipset for 169. Good price IMHO, probably what I will get when I upgrade soon. __________________ AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ XFX Geforce 7800GT ABIT AN8-SLI BFG Tech 650w

Sep 20, 2005, 12:38 PM	#9
Drakon DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Floatin'... Posts: 4,957 Rep Power: 0	You could get the x800xt AIW; not sure about the price. I believe Stuart did a review on it

Sep 24, 2005, 10:29 AM	#15
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	no. on SATA there is no such thing as master/slave configuration. each SATA controller connects to only one HDD. i'll look into some Gigabyte MoBos for you. i'll post links up shortly __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 24, 2005, 10:37 AM	#16
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	915 chipset: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128287 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128250 945 Chipset: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128294 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128247 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128293 nVidia nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128290 __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 25, 2005, 01:51 AM	#18
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	yes, they are __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 25, 2005, 02:19 AM	#20
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	yea, np . how big of an HDD you going to get? __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 25, 2005, 10:41 AM	#22
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	i still woulda gotten the HDD over the PSU . __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 25, 2005, 05:49 PM	#24
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	yea, OCing on the stock HSF is alright, some people have done it already. push it as far as you want to take it on that though. each system is different though, remember that. __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 28, 2005, 04:20 PM	#26
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	cool set up man . once you get all your parts, take lotsa pix and post them up....i wanna see parts! __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 28, 2005, 09:31 PM	#28
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	lol. damn right. you'll be enjoying that nice combo w/your new rig, and your shark case __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Oct 15, 2005, 09:34 AM	#30
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	nice nice . glad you like your new build . can't wait for the pix __________________ Her First Day \| A year later