What upgrades should I buy?

Moosilope · 7 Mar 2012 at 21:32

Hey guys, I'm new to the forums but they have been a great source of information for me over the last few weeks.

I currently have an Alienware PC from 2009 (ish) and am looking to upgrade some of the components. These are the current specs of my PC;

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 (With 512MB memory, I think)
Motherboard: ASUS P5N-D
System Model: Area-51 7500 R6

All these are the standard parts the the PC came with. Any other useful information you might need ill try to find. I am looking to spend around £250-£300 on upgrades. I was thinking of adding 4GB more ram up to my system maximum and adding a new GPU, I was thinking the GTX 560Ti 1GB.

What do you think of these choices? Would I need to install any more forms of cooling if I were to make these upgrades?

Thanks for the help.

Moosilope · 7 Mar 2012 at 21:50

Thanks for the quick reply guys, really appreciated.

I do have a 64bit version of Vista (home premium) and the PC is used for gaming, Skyrim, ME 3 etc. Ideally I would like to play these on very high or ultra settings (currently on medium with decent FPS). I had not seen the ATI 7870, ill go and have a look at it. Would I need extra cooling for these upgrades? My cores and GPU run between 35 and 40 degrees under a stress test.

I had tinkered with some overclocking on my CPU but was uncomfortable with the process, I think ill go back to it once I understand it better.

Moosilope · 7 Mar 2012 at 23:47

I'm not sure on how to open my case, i will have to look into how to do that. It's the old style Alienware case. I'll open it up tomorrow and get those measurments. How would I go about safely overclocking my CPU?

When running Super Pi to calculate Pi to 32M DP my core speed is 2666.62 MHz with small variations. x 8.0 multiplier. 333.34 MHz Bus Speed and 1333.34 MHz Rated FSB.

Moosilope · 8 Mar 2012 at 23:24

Stulid: I was not sure exactly what measurments you wanted me to make, so I took a few photos of the inside of my PC if that is any help.

http://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u459/Moosilope/

I could not seem to find the 7870 on the site so I will probably order the GTX 560 Ti soon, with some extra ram.

Moosilope · 8 Mar 2012 at 23:30

Would you say that they are better than the GTX 560Ti? The coolers you were going to sugggest, would they also fit ok?

Thanks for all the help.

Moosilope · 8 Mar 2012 at 23:38

Ok I will do, oops I forgot about that. I will go and have another read.

Thanks for helping me make this decision.

Moosilope · 21 Mar 2012 at 21:13

I think I'll wait for the 7870 to come in, it sounds like exactly what I am looking for.

I was also looking at getting a PC for bringing up to uni with me, with a bit more portability than my current desktop. I was looking at building my own with parts from overclocker. I guess im looking for somthing that I can still game on but is not massive. I was looking at:

Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
Asus GeForce GTX 560 DirectCU 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan (as an extra to the one that comes with the case)
Samsung SH-D163C/BEBE SATA 16x DVD-ROM (Black)

This came to around £630 and the case sais Midi so im guessing it will be a bit more portable. I could not find any box cases that would fit the larger graphics cards and CPU's but maybe thats just me being inept in my looking.

Thanks for the help,

Moosilope · 21 Mar 2012 at 21:36

Woops, I thought i needed a DVD RW one aswell.

This would be my first self built PC, so just wanted some feedback, thanks for the help. Would that case be much smaller than my current alienware one?

Moosilope · 21 Mar 2012 at 21:44

I was looking at the AMD bulldozer series, but im more familiar with intel.

I think the smaller the space the better, the alienware is one of the old style Area 51s and it seems pretty large to me, not somthing I would want to move around too often. Can you get box like cases that fit the larger parts?

Moosilope · 21 Mar 2012 at 21:45

I was looking at the In Win Dragon slayer or somthing like that. Did some more looking and this is what I think I will go with.

INWIN DRAGON SLAYER MICRO ATX USB 3.0 MINI TOWER GAMING COMPUTER CASE + FANS
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
PowerColor HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM

Total: £654.32

Moosilope · 22 Mar 2012 at 15:15

Im seeing a few complains about the Gigabyte boards getting stuck in a boot loop. Is this a problem that I should be worried about?

Moosilope · 29 Mar 2012 at 21:29

Decided to go with the 7850, thanks for all the help guys. Got my first order on the way, self build. Really looking forward to it!

Moosilope · 30 Mar 2012 at 22:18

I decided to spend a little more than I intended, as is the way

.
HD 7850
i5 2500k
Asus P8Z68
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator - Black
Corsair Enthusiast TX 650W V2
Western Digitcal Caviar Blue 500GB
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB
Samsung SN-208BB/BEBE slimline 8x DVD+RW SATA drive.

Thanks for the help along the way, now I just need to not blow it up when putting it together.
Came to £780 with Postage.

Moosilope · 30 Mar 2012 at 23:01

Thank you. Just realised I have ordered a slimline DVD RW drive, is that a problem?

Moosilope · 30 Mar 2012 at 23:04

Ah well, there was bound to be one mistake at least

Thankfully not a major one.

Moosilope · 30 Mar 2012 at 23:10

I'll send off an email, see if I can exchange it or somthing like that.