Upgrading a dell

Robcook

Robcook

Robcook

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Joined
25 Sep 2010
Posts
16
Hi, this is my first post so hope all goes well.

Well 2 years ago I brought quite a 'nice' dell. At the time I didn't know much about computers and was really busy so I brought one instead of building. I wont to upgrade in 2 stages so I have decided to upgrade the power supply, motherboard and CPU cooler in stage 1 to give me more options on the second stage of the upgrade and that PSU just seems too small.

Spec: (all came standard)

I7 920 CO stepping
3 x 1 Samsung DDR3 1066 ram
ATI radeon HD4850
360W unbranded PSU
unbranded Motherboard
650 GB HHD

I haven't installed any parts before but I'm sure I can get the hang of that.
I wont to OC the processor to about 3.6-3.8 GHZ wonted to ask a few questions and opinions and this seemed the best place.

Will the ram cope when Overclocking (never Oced before)?

Will the dell case cope or do I need a new one? On the stock cooler my cpu idles at 43 oC. It hits 79 oC when both the GPU, CPU are at full load.

My choice of Motherboard would be the
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58
or the
Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58

Power supply:
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply

CPU cooler (i'm pretty sure this will not cope with a 3.6-3.8 OC)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2

The problem is I have £250 to spend on these 3 parts and I maybe able to stretch to buy ram OR a better case but not both.

Thanks for your time, Rob.
 
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Hello and welcome to the forums :)

Being a Dell I would look at buying a new case as they sometimes use non std connectors for the power on switch, led for power & HDD, You can get good budget range cases.

The motherboard you have chosen, or both I believe are good.

When overclocking you will need to adjust the memory multiplier to get 1066mhz on the ram, hopefully both boards should have lower enough multipliers to do this.
 
Thanks for the reply.

Yeh I was thinking about a new case and that's confirmed it. It'll be cooler if not. Can anyone recommend a good budget case 50ish or under?

My main worry is the cooler because its only cheap and though I know its not bad I don't know if its enough for the OC I plan on doing.
 
 
Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

I like those coolers, I think I'll go for Titan Fenrir Evo CPU Cooler. I remember seeing a good review of it, but I'll be sure to check out the other one first.

In your quote below you had the same link as the cooler above. What case were you thinking about?

Can you afford a extra £8, something like the case below is good:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-010-TI&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
Click to expand...

Once again thanks for your help, Rob.
 
I think Dell don't use the STD socket mount :confused:
Only way to tell if the op checks the mountain bracket on the cooler :(
 
The only problem with that is I probably wont be able OC my I7 until I get a better cooler and that was one of the main points of stage 1.

The case, MB, PSU, Titan Fenrir EVO cpu cooler come to 315ish... which might just be affordable in one go..
Is the Titan good enough for what I wont?

Stage 2 (march I guess): SSD or revo drive if they sort them out and 6GB of 1600 ram. Maybe a nice nvidia GPU if I can get can some spare cash but that's a long way down the road

Thanks for the replies :)
 
RJC said:
Stage 2 looks good, I use OCZ Vortex 2 60gb and Patriot Viper memory :)
Click to expand...

Yeh that's the memory I was thinking of getting and the OCZ Vertex 2-E 60gb unless there is a new Revo drive that works good or new OCZ drive.
The lure of the 550Mb/s read on the revo is tempted but it hasn't got trim and the reviews show it does drop quite a bit with use, its a shame. :)
 
Robcook said:
Yeh that's the memory I was thinking of getting and the OCZ Vertex 2-E 60gb unless there is a new Revo drive that works good or new OCZ drive.
The lure of the 550Mb/s read on the revo is tempted but it hasn't got trim and the reviews show it does drop quite a bit with use, its a shame. :)
Click to expand...

I was tempted with the REVO but decided on the STD SSD drive, I may give it a bit longer and see how they pan out.

The memory has been pretty good, running at 1600mhz with my cpu @ 4ghz without a hitch.
 
I take is your CPU is DO stepping version, there normally better for Ocing but I hope I got one of the good CO's :)

Out of interest to save me some time do you know anything about OS's?

I really hope I don't have to buy a new version of windows 7 but am nearly certain I will. Computer came with windows vista and I used the £30 upgrade for students deal for Windows 7. If not I'll ask Microsoft but that will take some time :P

"You can only take advantage of this special offer through the official promotion website. There is no difference between the Windows 7 software you will install from the online store versus in retail stores. However, if you need to perform a custom (clean) install on your PC, we recommend you purchase the back-up DVD."

Sorry for going so off topic

Thanks Rob
 
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I would suspect the upgrade would be OEM which is tied to the motherboard it was originally installed on.

To check go into control panel > System & Security > and Click the System letters, go towards the bottom and check the Windows Activation, does this have OEM in the code.
 
its says Product ID: ........... ect that doesn't contain OEM. Next to it says change product key so.. i guess that is it. Though it doesn't have letters so.. not sure. It is where you suggested.

Just seeen this on ZDnet.com .. but nowhere on the site i got it from does it say if its a retail upgrade :S

"Retail upgrade Here’s the one that has caused all the recent controversy. A retail upgrade package is sold at a steep discount to a fully licensed retail product. The idea is that you are a repeat customer, and you get a price break because you already paid for a full Windows license earlier. Retail upgrades qualify for free technical support from Microsoft, even if the copy you’re replacing was originally supplied by an OEM."
 
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To keep things legal yes you will have to buy a new product key but you can get away without changing although I don't recommend it.

From the picture above it shows 2 screws fixing the heatsink into the motherboard, is this the same on the other side or is it hinged?
 
its the same on the other side of the cooler but i think i'll just buy one (the titan)

Hmm with the product key, if it doesn't work on my new system which it wont then I will use the trail and use the rearm command because I am told this is legal... though I will check more.. after I have used the rearms I should be able to afford a new version.

Thanks, Rob.
 
It will accept it and it will activate no problems, microsoft wont even know you are using it on another computer and is impossible for anyone to know unless they come to your house and look at the sticker and notice it says OEM or Dell on it and your not using it on a dell computer but it is illegal.
 
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