TL;DR - Have crap Dell Motherboard, want to upgrade it and keep rest of system as is.
Okay, wondering if anyone feels like chucking some suggestions in.
My current system is a little different from the usual self-built gaming rigs (Did that through the Athlon Thunderbird, Athlon XP and P4 Northwood generations) - long story short, I picked up a Dell Vostro 200 and added various bits and pieces. Specs are:
Dell Vostro 200 case (Which, perversely enough, I actually like a lot, and want to keep!)
Motherboard: As near as I can tell is the Foxxconn G33M02 Micro ATX. Horrible, horrible motherboard. Can't overclock squat without modding the pins on your CPU, and can only do RAID-1.
CPU: Core 2 Duo E4500
Ram: 4gb of PC2-5300 667mhz (2gb x 2 Dimms)
Graphics: Geforce 8800 GT
PSU: Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W
Storage: 2 x 400gb Samsung Spinpoints, 1 x 500gb WD Caviar Green, 1 x 500gb WD Caviar Black (Unconnected, and still in anti-static bag)
As mentioned, ideal situation: I'd like to keep the Dell case and swap out the motherboard for something that:
A) Has at least 6 sata ports vs the 4 I have at the moment (3 drives, 1 CD)
B) Has overclocking functionality
C) Micro-ATX form factor
If I remember correctly, the E4500s had a reputation for overclocking quite well - so I'll obviously need a new cooler. Something fairly low profile as the case is not large by a long shot - the 8800 GT makes for a very tight fight after you add the hard drives in. More importantly, any new cooler would have to be quiet!
I'll also need to get a 5.25" > 3.5" drive bay, to add the 4th hard drive in properly.
That'll leave me with a box which will be about as upgraded as far as it can go.
So far to fit these requirements, I've found:
Motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-194-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=326 - Looks just about perfect, even has RAID.
CPU Cooler: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-033-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
Can't find a suitable drive adapter, the only ones OCUK carry are 2 x 5.25" bays into 3 x 3.5" - which is a problem, as the Dell case only has two bays, one of which is taken up by the CD drive!
Any other suggestions are of course more than welcome! Except for the 'get a new case' one which is so blatantly on its way
Okay, wondering if anyone feels like chucking some suggestions in.
My current system is a little different from the usual self-built gaming rigs (Did that through the Athlon Thunderbird, Athlon XP and P4 Northwood generations) - long story short, I picked up a Dell Vostro 200 and added various bits and pieces. Specs are:
Dell Vostro 200 case (Which, perversely enough, I actually like a lot, and want to keep!)
Motherboard: As near as I can tell is the Foxxconn G33M02 Micro ATX. Horrible, horrible motherboard. Can't overclock squat without modding the pins on your CPU, and can only do RAID-1.
CPU: Core 2 Duo E4500
Ram: 4gb of PC2-5300 667mhz (2gb x 2 Dimms)
Graphics: Geforce 8800 GT
PSU: Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W
Storage: 2 x 400gb Samsung Spinpoints, 1 x 500gb WD Caviar Green, 1 x 500gb WD Caviar Black (Unconnected, and still in anti-static bag)
As mentioned, ideal situation: I'd like to keep the Dell case and swap out the motherboard for something that:
A) Has at least 6 sata ports vs the 4 I have at the moment (3 drives, 1 CD)
B) Has overclocking functionality
C) Micro-ATX form factor
If I remember correctly, the E4500s had a reputation for overclocking quite well - so I'll obviously need a new cooler. Something fairly low profile as the case is not large by a long shot - the 8800 GT makes for a very tight fight after you add the hard drives in. More importantly, any new cooler would have to be quiet!
I'll also need to get a 5.25" > 3.5" drive bay, to add the 4th hard drive in properly.
That'll leave me with a box which will be about as upgraded as far as it can go.
So far to fit these requirements, I've found:
Motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-194-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=326 - Looks just about perfect, even has RAID.
CPU Cooler: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-033-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
Can't find a suitable drive adapter, the only ones OCUK carry are 2 x 5.25" bays into 3 x 3.5" - which is a problem, as the Dell case only has two bays, one of which is taken up by the CD drive!
Any other suggestions are of course more than welcome! Except for the 'get a new case' one which is so blatantly on its way
