advice on new components

[Bordoh]

I bought a Dell a refurbed Dell awhile back and I'm considering upgrading some components, mostly because I can't think of anything for a birthday list.

current specs are:

Studio XPS - 435 Tower base


16X DVD ROM Drive
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM) 3.0Gb/s, 32MB Cache
12 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (6 DIMMs)
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5870

the PS for the XPS 435T is a dell 475W one.

I'm thinking of a new hard drive and a power supply possibly. The specs on the 5870 require 500W +. I've heard dell power supplies are underrated, but I'm a little weary of it since its at minimum specs.

What I'm looking for here are recommendations on a new HD or PSU. For the hard drive I don't need a huge one, less than 100 GB is fine even, I just want the best I can get for around $75 less.

The same with the power supply, best I can get for around $75 or less.

This computer's primary purpose is gaming by the way.

any advice is appreciated, Thanks.

 

[Sheninat0r]

I bought a Dell a refurbed Dell awhile back and I'm considering upgrading some components, mostly because I can't think of anything for a birthday list.

current specs are:

Studio XPS - 435 Tower base


16X DVD ROM Drive
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM) 3.0Gb/s, 32MB Cache
12 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (6 DIMMs)
Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5870

the PS for the XPS 435T is a dell 475W one.

I'm thinking of a new hard drive and a power supply possibly. The specs on the 5870 require 500W +. I've heard dell power supplies are underrated, but I'm a little weary of it since its at minimum specs.

What I'm looking for here are recommendations on a new HD or PSU. For the hard drive I don't need a huge one, less than 100 GB is fine even, I just want the best I can get for around $75 less.

The same with the power supply, best I can get for around $75 or less.

This computer's primary purpose is gaming by the way.

any advice is appreciated, Thanks.

If you don't need storage space, then an SSD is the way to go; the only problem with that is that they won't fit in your $75 budget. I'd recommend an X25-V 40GB for $100 if you went down that path.

For $75, you can already get a 1TB hard drive. Most people seem to like the Samsung Spinpoint F3 and Western Digital Caviar Black versions of 1TB drives, so going with either (both $75 exactly) is a good bet.

For power supplies, I'd usually recommend the Corsair VX450 in your price range, but judging by AnandTech's review of the 5870 it won't be enough - at load, the test system was hitting 401W. Right now on Newegg, the VX550 is $75 after rebate; imo, it should work pretty well for you.

 

[Bordoh]

a question for the PSU.. the corsair 650TX is only $5 more than the 550VX. Since its such a small difference, would I gain much from having the 650 over the 550? I may crossfire in another 5870 in the future, but prolly a year or more down the road if I do.

 

[mfenn]

a question for the PSU.. the corsair 650TX is only $5 more than the 550VX. Since its such a small difference, would I gain much from having the 650 over the 550? I may crossfire in another 5870 in the future, but prolly a year or more down the road if I do.

CFX 5870's in a year is likely to be a poor idea. By them we're have ATI's next-next generation architecture, and you'll want to get one of those instead.

The 5870 is already plenty fast, so I would hold off on upgrading for now. As for the PSU, Dell actually does testing to figure out exactly what size PSU they need in the system. ATI's PSU "requirements" are written very broadly as a CYA measure.

Anyway, I would definitely go for an SSD. You can get a Corsair Force 60GB for about $165 or an Intel X25-M 80GB for $200

 

[f4phantom2500]

CFX 5870's in a year is likely to be a poor idea. By them we're have ATI's next-next generation architecture, and you'll want to get one of those instead.

The 5870 is already plenty fast, so I would hold off on upgrading for now. As for the PSU, Dell actually does testing to figure out exactly what size PSU they need in the system. ATI's PSU "requirements" are written very broadly as a CYA measure.

Anyway, I would definitely go for an SSD. You can get a Corsair Force 60GB for about $165 or an Intel X25-M 80GB for $200

yeah, they mean 500w generic piece of crap.

OP, everything in your rig looks very much up to par. an SSD does look to be the only really reasonable internal upgrade. i believe the Intel 40GB x25 is going for $100 now, and since you have that 1TB drive you could just install windows and a few key apps on the SSD and use the 1TB for all of your storage needs.

have you considered new speakers or maybe some nice headphones? dunno what you're using now but good sound can turn a good computing experience, even more so gaming experience, into a great one. you can get some pretty nice headphones for about $75~$100. i have a set of Audio Technica AD700, they cost me $80 shipped new on amazon, and they sound more detailed and generally provide a higher fidelity sound experience for games and music listening than my Logitech Z-5500 speakers.

 

[Bordoh]

I actually have a nice set of headphones.. used that as a christmas gift, heh.. I'll probably toss a SSD on there and hope someone buys it, its not that I need any of this stuff, but... birthdays = free stuff and i need ideas, heh.

Thanks for the input everyone. I actually completely forgot I had a 10k 74gig raptor sitting around from my old computer anyway, its no SSD, but, can use it till I get one.

 

[f4phantom2500]

I actually have a nice set of headphones.. used that as a christmas gift, heh.. I'll probably toss a SSD on there and hope someone buys it, its not that I need any of this stuff, but... birthdays = free stuff and i need ideas, heh.

Thanks for the input everyone. I actually completely forgot I had a 10k 74gig raptor sitting around from my old computer anyway, its no SSD, but, can use it till I get one.

why not just ask for amazon gift cards or something? that way whenever you think of some cds/games/movies/whatever you want, you can get it?

 

[Bordoh]

my family kinda hates giving gift cards, basically like handing cash back 'n forth they say... although I do like cash..