I've been thinking of rebuilding my system for a while, I built it early in 2006 and it's a real fossil now. The problem I face is that I'm very out of touch with current technology, I haven't really been keeping up with progress, so I have a few questions that are going to need answers before I plan my build. You'll need to know that my budget isn't fixed, but I don't *really* want to be spending more than about £1000 total on it over the next 3 or 4 months.
My current spec is:
CPU: Intel Pentium D805 dual core 2.66gig
Motherboard: ECS PF5 Extreme
Memory: 2x Infineon DDR2 1gig
PSU: Winpower ATX 550L (supposedly 550W)
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4670 (RV730XT) 512mb GDDR3 onboard memory.
The first thing that needs upgrading is the PSU, as in another thread I've found that it's probably about to cause me all sorts of problems. I plan on ordering a new one this week, and was hoping it would be sub £100, but I want something that will run the future upgrades as well as my current system. I've been advised so far on the corsair hx850, but as this is a little out of my slightly elastic budget I thought I'd ask for other advice to go along with it. The system will be primarily used for gaming. RPG's like Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, Dragonage, and I'm thinking of dusting off my cougar and running some flight sims too.
I want to be able to upgrade in stages. So maybe this month buy the PSU, next buy will need to be cpu/mobo/ram upgrade together, which will probably take a couple of months to gather all the cash for. I'll need to replace my dvd rewriter at some point, but they're cheap anyway, and a new HDD would be added too, as my old 160gig is getting a little full these days. Last job would probably be the GFX card, as it's adequate for now, and will run during the upgrading process.
I'm happy to keep my current case, although possibly I'll replace that last of all, and my monitor is adequate, although again, something I'd possibly upgrade once the system is finished.
So finally, to the first questions I have:
Windows 7 or stay with Windows XP pro? 32 or 64 bit? I'll be sticking with an intel cpu, so i5 or i7? How much difference is there between the two? Any more ideas on PSU would be helpful too.
Thanks in advance, I'm sure this thread will end up stupidly long with me posting noob questions.
My current spec is:
CPU: Intel Pentium D805 dual core 2.66gig
Motherboard: ECS PF5 Extreme
Memory: 2x Infineon DDR2 1gig
PSU: Winpower ATX 550L (supposedly 550W)
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4670 (RV730XT) 512mb GDDR3 onboard memory.
The first thing that needs upgrading is the PSU, as in another thread I've found that it's probably about to cause me all sorts of problems. I plan on ordering a new one this week, and was hoping it would be sub £100, but I want something that will run the future upgrades as well as my current system. I've been advised so far on the corsair hx850, but as this is a little out of my slightly elastic budget I thought I'd ask for other advice to go along with it. The system will be primarily used for gaming. RPG's like Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, Dragonage, and I'm thinking of dusting off my cougar and running some flight sims too.
I want to be able to upgrade in stages. So maybe this month buy the PSU, next buy will need to be cpu/mobo/ram upgrade together, which will probably take a couple of months to gather all the cash for. I'll need to replace my dvd rewriter at some point, but they're cheap anyway, and a new HDD would be added too, as my old 160gig is getting a little full these days. Last job would probably be the GFX card, as it's adequate for now, and will run during the upgrading process.
I'm happy to keep my current case, although possibly I'll replace that last of all, and my monitor is adequate, although again, something I'd possibly upgrade once the system is finished.
So finally, to the first questions I have:
Windows 7 or stay with Windows XP pro? 32 or 64 bit? I'll be sticking with an intel cpu, so i5 or i7? How much difference is there between the two? Any more ideas on PSU would be helpful too.
Thanks in advance, I'm sure this thread will end up stupidly long with me posting noob questions.
