Upgrade help/advise please

basktm · 31 Jul 2011 at 16:41

hey guys,

its a long story but had a comp go down about a year ago, had all my files and pictures on from the last 4-5 years, raid 0 problem

Found a company to fix it, its all recovered now but it needs new hard drive/s

anyway this is what i have (its about 6 years old now)

Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition UK with SP2 - English
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Chassis: Alienware® P2 Chassis - Saucer Silver
Chassis Upgrades: Alienware® AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling + AlienFX™ System Lighting + Alienware® High-Performance Liquid Cooling
Power Supply: 700 Watt Alienware® Approved Multi-GPU Power Supply
Motherboard: Alienware® Intel® D975XBX Motherboard
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz 4MB Cache 1066MHz FSB (clocked to 3.2 i think)
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 x 512MB
Video Card: 256MB ATI RADEON™ X1650 XT
Video Optimiser: AlienAdrenaline: Video Performance
System Drive: Extreme Performance - RAID 0 - 1 TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7,200 rpm with 16MB Cache (4x250GB)
Optical Drive One: 18x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Network Card: Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (DSL-ready)
Removable Storage: Alienware® 28-in-1 Digital Media Reader / Writer
Floppy Drive: 1.44 MB Floppy Drive - Black
Speakers: Creative® 5.1 Inspire™ T6100 - UK Power Supply
Game Controllers: Belkin Nostromo™ SpeedPad n52 USB
Game Controllers: Logitech® Force™ 3D Pro
Alienware Extras: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager.

so they can fix this for £140 inc data recovery and a 500g hard drive or £190 to inc 1 tb drive but not sure if the speed is worth it ??

he has also suggested a rebuild, which is where i get lost , this would inc

Replacing the above with this

processor: i3 3.1 ghz
new motherboard (upgradable to i7), not sure which model, sorry, but its £95
16gb ddr3 (1052 mhz) ram
60gb solid state hard drive, something like vortex 3 ? i think ??
windows 7 64bit
2tb storage drive or 2x1000gb (1 for staorage, 1 as back up)

all in all this would cost £600 or £630 to upgrade to i5 2.8ghz processor this inc the £90 for file recovery, so £510 for parts and build.

any idea's what this would be like speed wise, never had anything to do with the new i range or solid state hard drives ????

is this worth the money ???

Sorry for the long post, cheers guys

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 16:45

Firstly they want a £50 premium to give you a 1TB drive instead of a 500Gb drive? thats ridiculous or is it a 500Gb drive and an extra 1Tb drive?

Secondly, You need a more detailed description of the parts involved.

hibernian1875 · 31 Jul 2011 at 16:49

What are you looking to use the PC for? Just no point in over speccing if you're only going to be browsing and some light media.

basktm · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:10

thanks for quick reply guys

as for details of the parts, sorry thats all i have at the moment, as for the price on drives, just checked and sorry got my figures wrong, should be £140 for 500g or £170 for 1tb.

For usage wise, not a lot really, minor online gaming (minecraft server hosting ??, runescape for the kids) and all i really do is browsing and a bit of video editing and photo editing.

Been told the SSD is the way to go, but would also need to upgrade to win 7 for that, due to maintenance ??

hope this helps

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:14

Well a £30 preminum to go from 500Gb to 1TB is still a bit off, the actual difference between the costs is £13 if you buy separately,

£32 500Gb - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

£45 1TB - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

====================

As for your usage a quad core Sandybridge I5 will be much better - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300.html

Which will really help with the Video editing etc, they also make killer gaming CPU's

And win7 is amazing.

basktm · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:26

thanks again mate, think the extra £30 to upgrade to an I5 is worth it as for the drives, the price they are giving me seems very high, their saying £50 for 500g and £80 for 1tb :O

Just to check the basic prices i'm getting from them is.

motherboard = £85 sorry dont know which one.
I3 3.1ghz = £100 or £130 for I5 2.8
16 g ddr3 Ram £55
1tb drive £80, or £100 for 2x 500g
60g SSD = £130
win 7 £90

are these prices way over ? i also understand they are in business to make money, so i expect to pay a little extra but i wanted to know if it was worth it and how much over the odds will i be paying.

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:31

Hopefully its this 15 2.8ghz - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-363-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

So its the newer socket1155 Sandy bridge stuff.

If its the old socket1156 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-339-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1672

Then avoid, you need to find out which it is.

Surveyor · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:45

16GB of DDR3 for £55 - daylight robbery.

You robbing them that is.

Are you sure about that?

basktm · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:46

thank you again, i will get this checked first thing tomorrow.

Just wondering why the older one seems to be dearer ??

basktm · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:47

Surveyor said:
16GB of DDR3 for £55 - daylight robbery.

You robbing them that is.

Are you sure about that?

yes mate, thats what the guy quoted me anyway

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:47

When stock levels get low then prices go up as they become rarer.

But I can assure you that the 15 2300 is faster and uses less power than the i5 760.

Surveyor · 31 Jul 2011 at 17:51

basktm said:
yes mate, thats what the guy quoted me anyway

I should check on the specification.

They're charging you full whack for everything else but virtually half the price for 16GB at OcUK.

It doesn't really make sense.

basktm · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:04

thanks again, will check that price, more than likely me getting it wrong :S

So taking the ram out of the equation, and assuming i cant build this myself, is it worth £540 to have this built ???

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:06

Depends on the CPU and the motherboard for the CPU?

If it is indeed a Sandy bridge with a H67/P67 board and that is 16gb of RAM with Windows7 a SSD and a big harddrive and they will fit and install it all working for you?

Then the price isnt shocking.

chrisarm · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:12

if its 1052 mhz memory isn't that ddr2 and not ddr3 if so then it'll be on old i5 CPU. I think (scratches head)

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:13

chrisarm said:
if its 1052 mhz memory isn't that ddr2 and not ddr3 if so then it'll be on old i5 CPU. I think (scratches head)

Cant be an old i5 as they only support DDR3.

chrisarm · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:15

does ddr3 come in 1053 mhz?

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:17

There are Jedec values for 800/1066/1333/1600 etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM

chrisarm · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:18

Ah right must've missed that one ;p

stulid · 31 Jul 2011 at 18:19

Its because no one uses them (maybe laptops?) and the standard memory controller for Sandybridge is 1333mhz default.