Been out of the LOOP for 5 years.

[MRGOOCH]

If I decide to upgrade to one of the current boards,what am I in for? I know I would have to buy a new CPU to go with the new motherboard. Also new memory [ DD3 ]. But where do I stand with my hard drive and DVD burner. Are they using different cables to connect to the motherboard now?
Can I somehow move to a smaller case than the mid tower ATX?

 

[Fallengod]

Heh... Youre kind of in the same situation I am. In fact, your current rig is fairly similar to mine.

Youll get stuck in the same situation I did. Most new mobos dont have IDE ports, so youll have to buy a new dvd burner and thats also true if your HDD is also IDE. There are IDE/SATA adapters you can buy for around $5 but I am not sure thats a good use of money when a brand new sata dvd burner is only like $18.

Anyways, I just picked up an intel 2500k and Gigabyte z68 UD3H-B3 mobo from microcenter. I decided I dont want this one and have done a bit of shopping around lately.

Id stick with asus or gigabyte for motherboard brand personally. In terms of which one, well, thats where I am kind of stuck right now deciding. Youll kind of just have to figure out what features you want first, then how much you want to spend.

 

[MRGOOCH]

You seem to be in a state of flux on your upgrade.

 

[red454]

What are your plans?

Gaming?
Web browsing / email?
Video editing?
Work computer?

 

[MRGOOCH]

Some photo editing and web browsing. Viewing some photo and video files. Looking for something in an mATX as my cabinet won't take the ATX height.

 

[cantholdanymore]

Look no further than my sig:biggrin:
But if you can hold extra 4~6 months Ivy Bridge will be here.

 

[Belegost]

So, looking at what you have, most modern boards have moved to SATA only, so your HDD and optical would need to be replaced (the HDD would slow down a new system a lot anyway.)

Memory has moved to DDR3 standard, so new ram, which is fortunately cheap as dirt at the moment.

You can move to a smaller case by getting a microATX board and case. I like the CoolerMaster elite 340.

 

[MRGOOCH]

I wonder if it would be cheaper to look for a new computer [ box ] that fits that description.

 

[stahlhart]

If I decide to upgrade to one of the current boards,what am I in for? I know I would have to buy a new CPU to go with the new motherboard. Also new memory [ DD3 ]. But where do I stand with my hard drive and DVD burner. Are they using different cables to connect to the motherboard now?
Can I somehow move to a smaller case than the mid tower ATX?

You should have already been up to SATA ports even 5 years ago -- they won't be up to the speed of the most current ones, but should still be backwards compatible. Might still want to get a faster boot drive, though, if your current one's the same approximate age.

 

[Zap]

I wonder if it would be cheaper to look for a new computer [ box ] that fits that description.

I would suggest that. About the only things you would be keeping from your current rig (in your sig?) would be Windows 7 and the power supply (depending on case).

So, we know you will be doing "some photo editing" and web browsing, and you pretty much need the whole rig. You also need it to be smaller than ATX.

What we don't know is your budget.

Since you are not gaming, you can go quite small. Micro ATX is just the beginning. How about mini ITX?

 

[Gigantopithecus]

By "photo editing" are you talking about occasionally removing red eye from family pictures or daily semi-pro/prosumer RAW image editing?

If you mean the former, a Pentium G620 will be sufficient and an i3-2100 will be overkill. If the latter, you might consider an i5-2500K (or even i7-2600K).

As Zap suggests, think about ITX. My SFF buyer's guide is now almost a year old and a lot of the components I'd suggest now would be different, but it is still a good primer on small computers.

 

[bearxor]

I'm on board with it being way cheaper just to buy a box these days.

The last system I picked up was a refurb Dell Studio with a i7-2600, 1.5TB 6GB/s HD and 8GB of RAM (2 x 4GB, so two slots left open) for $600. I mean, a 2600 with a decent board is going to run you 400-450, for only 150-200 more, you get an entire setup with a new DVD burner, case, power supply (mine had a 600w) and a copy of W7HP-64.

You could just add a SSD for your OS and whatever video card you want and have a great system.

Right now on the outlet I see a XPS 8300 with a i7-2600 with 2gb of ram and 2x500GB hd's with a 1GB 5770 for $609. A 2x4GB kit would run you like $60. There's also another one with 16GB of RAM, a single 500GB drive and a GTX 560 for $829.

If you do the quick math on that using average prices, 300 (i7-2600) + 125 (mobo) + 90 (16GB DDR3) + 230 (gtx560), it starts to look like a real bargain. You lose over locking ability, I suppose, but I think that's becoming less and less important these days.

 

[MRGOOCH]

I do editing of RAW files with LightRoom 3 and Gimp.

 

[wirednuts]

in my experience, ide->sata adapters work perfectly on hdd's... they are completely transparent (you wont notice youre using an ide drive on a sata port... it works the same)

however, those adapters do not work well with optical drives. now maybe this has changed with newer dvd burners or maybe the newer converters are better... because i too have been out of the loop for a good 2 years, but generally that was always the case. ide drives OK to use on sata, optical drives are a nogo.

 

[niggles]

I'm wondering what the benefit is to switching to a smaller case. I have an 1156 mobo so I could throw the thing in an mATX case, but the i5 processor spits up *a lot* of heat so I've got a nice fan in there... wouldn't throwing the thing in an mATX case cause heat issues? I'm a gamer and I simply couldn't deal with heat issues.

 

[Zap]

I do editing of RAW files with LightRoom 3 and Gimp.

Okay, so you may benefit from more RAM. Start at 8GB.

What is your budget?

I'm wondering what the benefit is to switching to a smaller case. I have an 1156 mobo so I could throw the thing in an mATX case, but the i5 processor spits up *a lot* of heat so I've got a nice fan in there... wouldn't throwing the thing in an mATX case cause heat issues? I'm a gamer and I simply couldn't deal with heat issues.

The benefit is that you don't have a huge, empty case taking up room. The drawback is that you can't use a ginormous computer to compensate for other deficiencies.

With the latest socket 1155, unless you are doing something wrong with your CPU cooler or in BIOS, there are no heat issues. I know many "enthusiasts" are unwilling to accept that fact, but fact it remains.

 

[MRGOOCH]

The mention of going to a smaller case has to do with new space limitations. An mATX case will fit wear the ATX won't. I realize that would make an mATX motherboard necessary.