New Year Upgrade Time

meghatronic · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:31

I have this:

Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(and an X1600)

Looking to upgrade the case as it annoying me so much I want to cry. Need a bigger sata hdd, and was thinking of a new graphics card and more memory.

So:

1) Case. Was looking at the Antec Nine Hundred.
2) Memory. GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)- to make 4gb in total.
3) Graphics card. Not a clue.
4)Hdd. Was looking at samsungones but I have a seagate atm which I'll keep as a filestore and finally dump my old ides. At least 500gb.

Budget isn't an issue as long as it is justifiable.

1337z0r · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:43

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£187.99)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS)
(£72.84)

The Seagate is supposed to be pretty fast and reliable, you could wait for Nvidia's 9 series of cards before upgrading your GFX card.

meghatronic · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:46

1337z0r said:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS)
(£72.84)

The Seagate is supposed to be pretty fast and reliable, you could wait for Nvidia's 9 series of cards before upgrading your GFX card.

Oooh.... I've been out of the game for too long. When are they due out?

jak731 · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:47

i say get ram, HDD and case, then wait for the 9800 before getting getting a graphics card.

samsungs are generally known to be quite. avoid the seagate 7200.11s for now until the firmware issue is resolved. western digital are also a good make to look at

there is not confirmed date for the 9800 that i am aware of

meghatronic · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:55

jak731 said:
i say get ram, HDD and case, then wait for the 9800 before getting getting a graphics card.

samsungs are generally known to be quite. avoid the seagate 7200.11s for now until the firmware issue is resolved. western digital are also a good make to look at

there is not confirmed date for the 9800 that i am aware of

Well I've no problem waiting with the graphics card.

I think I'll get the Samsung. Any suggestions on ram/case given what I've got.

1337z0r · 2 Jan 2008 at 23:58

jdickerson said:
Well I've no problem waiting with the graphics card.

I think I'll get the Samsung. Any suggestions on ram/case given what I've got.

Get the same Ram you have now so its matched no need to buy a different brand and model of ram. Case is personal preference all it does is hold your hardware anything with a couple of fans will be fine and have good enough air flow so, if you like the look of a case get it

.

meghatronic · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:01

1337z0r said:
Get the same Ram you have now so its matched no need to buy a different brand and model of ram. Case is personal preference all it does is hold your hardware anything with a couple of fans will be fine and have good enough air flow so, if you like the look of a case get it .

No can do I'm afraid, looks don't come into it for me anymore... the last 4 cases I've owned have been ****. Be it poor airflow, temperature or NOISE!?!?!?

I also just found out I only have a 500W psu!

OCZ 8GB (4x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Quad Channel Platinum Low Latency XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P8008GQ) any good?

Ben M · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:03

what speed is your cpu running at?

jak731 · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:09

a good 500W is fine unless you are running a lot of things such as sli or cf with high end gpus

may i suggest looking at lian li cases for build quality.

i have a v2000b and i find it very quite, as my 120mm delta drowns out all noise the rest of my pc makes. the build quality is goodand there is plenty of room there for upgrades

meghatronic · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:13

Ben M said:
what speed is your cpu running at?

3.12Ghz steady.

1337z0r · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:17

jdickerson said:
No can do I'm afraid, looks don't come into it for me anymore... the last 4 cases I've owned have been ****. Be it poor airflow, temperature or NOISE!?!?!?

I also just found out I only have a 500W psu!

OCZ 8GB (4x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Quad Channel Platinum Low Latency XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P8008GQ) any good?

8GB is a real overkill, 4GB is all you would need you should get 2x2GB sticks or another set of 2x1GB sticks.

Ben M · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:17

jdickerson said:
3.12Ghz steady.

In that case I'd do as jak suggested.

meghatronic · 3 Jan 2008 at 00:23

Cheers all,

I think I'll order the below tomorrow:

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

I have a hunch I'll have to buy some cables too, it's really tight in my case at the moment as I only have short ones. I'm also hoping psu cpu power will reach too.

Also, shall I stick with XP for now? I *think* I can get either free from work (defo XP). I'm not sure if everyone is over the OMFG hate Vista phase yet and driver support etc.