My slow year long upgrade (project bodge it and bash it)

skippy2421 · 21 May 2009 at 03:02

I have been planning to do the next part of my upgrade for a while and figured i'd start a thread to show how it goes plus i was getting requests by other forum members (yes you siumatfung) The following stuff turned up on wednesday but haven't had chance to do anything with them yet.

Just so you know what i'm working with already:

Well that's all my gear pictured for you lot to look over, apologies for poor pictures, i only have a phone camera available at my disposal.

Now to the upgrade, i have recently purchased the following:

Gigabyte X48-DS4
Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer
WD Caviar Black 500gb HDD
Zalman fan controller
2x coolermaster silent blue led fans (120mm)
1x xilence black fan (120mm)
and some cable management stuff

I have been slowly replacing the parts of a dell system i bought about 10 months ago which performed admirably but as i started to play more games it began to struggle. So far i have replaced the GPU (which was a 2600XT) with a sapphire 4850, the PSU (which was an awful 325w) with an antec earthwatts 650w and the case with a cm 690 dominator case. the components i'm still using from the inspiron 530 i started with is the HDD, DVD drive, CPU(Q6600), mobo and ram

my plan is to install all these new toys and finally overclock that q6600 as that nasty dell board wouldn't let me

and tidy it up whilst in the process.

I should be starting work on it tomorrow at some point however it may take some time to finish as i have a rather busy schedule of partying to stick to with it being the end of the uni year. I also may be asking for some help when it comes to overclocking as it's going to be my first attempt at it.

Any tips you wish to share would be appreciated, i'll keep you guys updated with piccies as and when i do stuff.

skippy2421 · 21 May 2009 at 16:38

Yea, i'm going to see what i get with the 4x1gig sticks of dell ram (ddr2 800mhz). If it does hinder me quite a lot i'll get some of the new OCZ gold stuff however i'm just a little reluctant to spend any more money if i can get away with what i have, on a budget you see.

skippy2421 · 22 May 2009 at 03:32

a little progress report, i've been flat out on it pretty much all day (actually from about 5 as i didn't wake up until 3) and i'm nowhere near finished. It's been disaster after disaster and i actually am going to have to resort to what the project title says, bodge it and bash it. After an enormous battle with the sunbeam cooler which now has to blow upwards as oppose to out the back i have now run into a bigger problem. The top of the case will not go back on again, i'm supposed to be able to fit 2 120mm fans on the top of it but clearly not, its not even close to shutting. In the morning before sorting stuff for our house party i'm going to attempt to try and cut out some of the plastic that is catching on the new fans.

I was hoping to have it all together by tonight. I made a big deal with cable management and neatness, but if i can't get the top to fit i'm going to have to take it all out again to get the top fans off. I'm p****d off and now going to bed, night all.

skippy2421 · 22 May 2009 at 16:59

right top's back on, reason it didn't go on before is because i was being a retard. However work has come to a halt as my room has become a storage facility for my housemates stuff. PARTY PARTY!!!!!!!

skippy2421 · 22 May 2009 at 18:39

ouch!!! unlucky mate. Just been setting up a massive PA system

(well massive for a house party anyways). Yea think it was because i was attempting to put it all back together at 3 in the morning that the case wouldn't go back together. I'll probably finish it off on sunday as i'm going to be very dead tomorrow.

skippy2421 · 23 May 2009 at 23:15

It's all together now, just doing a few other little things and flicking through the manual to understand my BIOS and i'll see if it works. Fingers crossed. Give me a couple hours and i'll sort out some more piccies for you all.

**edit

As promised i have some pictures for you, the system is up and running and i am now taking a crash course in overclocking

The new inside of my case

the front with new fan controller

skippy2421 · 24 May 2009 at 23:07

well i'm at 3ghz quite easily, now 3 hours prime stable, so much for having 4 sticks of ram holding me back, i have a feeling i could get a lot more out of it, however i'm content to sit at 3 for now until something comes along to warrant an increase in speed. I was a little disappointed tho at the sunbeam cooler, turned up quite mangled but i refused to send it back due to the cost of doing so when i could just bend the fins back to straight.

ooooooooooooooo! what you getting? come on spill the news

skippy2421 · 25 May 2009 at 01:20

temps are sitting at 52 under load, and CPU volts are at 1.248 i believe.

Very nice, general sort of internet browsing/office sort of machine i take it? I quite like them p180 style cases, they look very discrete and packed full of nice little features however not sure i would get on with the door, each to their own i suppose (or maybe i'm just that lazy i can't deal with a door lol). Piccies are a must! seeing as you made me take some

.

skippy2421 · 28 May 2009 at 16:35

Hold on let me get my glasses

lol, nice work mate, have fun? how'd you find the case? Reason i ask is my brother was moaning bout his computer over easter and hinted he may get a new one and this case (or one of a similar style) is kind of a contender as its not too big and looks nice.

skippy2421 · 28 May 2009 at 19:17

yes higher res pics please, take all the space you want, its not like anyone else reads this thread other than us anyways.

As for the case i may recommend it to my brother when the time comes, which could be any time, he goes through phases of "i want a new computer" then "i dont need one as i have a ps3".

skippy2421 · 29 May 2009 at 03:15

ahhh there's no rush to do it, i'll deal with it when he says he definately wants one, always something on offer luckily

. What do you do that requires you work so late?

skippy2421 · 29 May 2009 at 20:19

Ahhh i understand your crazy working hours now. Those pics are better can actually see what i'm looking at now. Looks really good, you done well there mate. Quite impressed at the cable management options of that rather small case too. Hmmmm but where did those red enermax fans go tho?

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 18:44

lol thought that might of been what happened to them, always got to treat yourself in those situations haven't you. Back in sunny kent and am now on the graphics card hunt for my brother but it's very difficult to find one that fits the bill. It's gotta beat his 7300LE, work with a 300w cheap dell PSU and be single slot. not having much luck as most cards i've seen require a lot more juice than 300w

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 18:53

all 4770's i've seen are dual slot so that ruins that idea

. 9500GT maybe but i think he likes my 4850 but is reluctant to do an overhaul on his computer as it would require a lot of effort and money. dunno what to do really

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 19:47

yea he's considering a new computer, 500 quid is max upgrade budget, however will need new OS he likes vista and can't be bothered with the hassle of dealing with 7 and re-installing it later when it is released. Would his processor an intel core 2 6400 @2.13ghz be worth keeping? He also has 2 hard drives, i know one is IDE however the other may be sata. Also has a DVD drive, monitor, keyboard etc.

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 20:02

Well not a lot really, basic internet browsing and gaming, he would game a lot more if perhaps his computer would let him but about all he can manage is CSS. Might get a spec me thread up in a minute

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 20:22

lol yea i was lookin at that case (i know where you got it from too

) , as it needs to be smallish, well smaller than my cm690 anyways. i need to establish what his current HDDs are as that could be more money saved there

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 20:35

no spec yet? you ill? lol

i haven't forgotten it's mATX just browsing ideas now.

*edit* just as i say that you post a spec but one without a case

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 21:55

seems my brother is actually a fan of crazy blue neon lit cases etc. so seems the p180 may not fit the bill

. Bring on the case hunting.

skippy2421 · 31 May 2009 at 22:32

right think we might be able to up the budget to 600, i'll leave the case till the end i think. I bet he'll want one of them cheapy horrible cases that look crazy.