Computer upgrade help

[BigTFromKC]

It has been around 4 years since I built a computer, so I am a little behind on the technology This computer is actually my girlfriend's and it is four years old but is randomly freezing. We tried reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling XP, but it still froze...so we are thinking it is a motherboard failing. The temps seem to be fine (if the ones on the front of the case are accurate ), so if anyone has any other ideas we can try let me know. She has:

MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM 939 NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra
AMD 3500
Nvidia 6800GT
3 GB corsair DDR400 ram
3 hard drives (listed below)
APEVIA X-Superalien case with the 500W power supply (which I am skeptical about)

However, I think my girlfriend is set on getting a new computer. We all know the itch of wanting something new (especially after 4 years). She uses the computer to play WoW, and its the only game she plays right now (although I may get Crysis to play on it). She also wants a reliable system for around 3 more years. We will be sticking with Windows XP professional because I have heard no reason to upgrade to vista. I would like to reuse the case, cd drives, RAM and hard drives for the new rig.

Old Specs being used:

3 GB of Corsair Ram DDR400 (2 1 GB, and 2 512 GB stick)
3 hard drives (2 ATA Western Digital 300GB, 200GB) and (1 SATA 74gb raptor drive for operating system)

New specs being considered:

Video Card: 8800GT - (I am lost on which brand of 8800GT to get) ~ $210

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz OR Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ~ $199 OR $250

Motherboard: I am completely lost on...I have ideas but I need some real help here. I was having problems finding ATA support...most have 1 ATA and like 4-6 SATA. However, if the best motherboard turns out to only have 1 ATA drive, we will just not use one of those 200GB hard drives and the Raptor.

Power Supply: I always got an Antech power supply before...but any suggestions are welcome here. I don't see us ever going SLI so is 600W enough, or even 500W? I see 1000W systems now and I'm not sure what is necessary these days.

We also need to replace a few fans in the case as they have failed the tests of time.

The budget for these parts is around $700, and I just need some help in homing in the best options of Quad vs dual core processor plus brand assistance. Any help assuring that they are capatible would be key as well.

Thanks in advance

- Ryan

 

[chinaman1472]

You won't be able to reuse the memory, as you'll need DDR2. You might be able to get some cash out of it if you sell here on the For Sale/Trade forum or on eBay.
Secondly, what resolution do you play at? If you don't game on anything higher than 1280x1024 or 1440x900, even a 9600GT would be enough for WoW.

8800GT is a great card. I'd get the MSI version with the spiffy aftermarket cooler, currently $180AR at newegg. The MSI 9600GT is $145AR at newegg.

It's really a toss up between the E8400 or Q6600 with the Q6600 being as low as $189 at Fry's in store and $199 at Microcenter in store (might as well price match if you got both stores nearby). The E8400 will be slightly better for gaming, but the Q6600 won't disappoint. The E8400 runs cooler and faster though.

Motherboard options for you will be very tough if you need more than 1 ATA port. Most P35 chipset boards only have 1 ATA port and that port is pretty much being phased out, slowly but surely. I'd really consider dropping the 200GB, possibly selling it. Common recommendations around here are the Gigabyte P35-DS3L and the Abit IP35-E at under $100. It seems like hard drives are constantly going on sale with 500GB going for less than $100 at times, if you need more space.

450-550W power supply should be suffice. Corsair makes some great ones and have rebates at Buy.com currently: http://www.buy.com/retail/user...e&display=col&dclksa=1

I say grab 2x2GB kit of DDR2-800 or DDR2-1000/1066 if you plan on overclocking and step up to Vista 64-bit. If you keep XP, you'll get about 3.25-3.5GB instead of the full 4GB. This should run you around $90, maybe less after rebates. G.Skill is pretty popular currently. If you opt for another brand (Corsair, Patriot, OCZ, A-DATA), make sure it runs at 1.8-1.9V.

I hear Yate Loon makes some great case fans, but that's about as far as I go on that subject lol.

All these recommendations keep you under $700, after rebates, before an extra hard drive, tax and shipping; around $630 before the case fans.

 

[boomhower]

I don't see any reason for you to go with a quad. Here is what I would suggest:

E8400 $200 at most places
IP35-E $100 again at most places, even less with MIR just keep an eye out in the hot deals section
2x1GB DDR2 $50 (No need for 4GB in XP, if you end up with Vista definatly go with 4GB.) ram is cheap everywhere
Corsair 520HX $100 at buy.com
9600GT $150 the aforementioned MSI card at newegg
500GB Hard Drive $100 various specials on several different brands. I am partial to Seagate due to the five year warranty.

That will get you in right at $700 including a new hard drive so you don't have to worry about having only one ata and losing storage. You could sell you old memory and hard drives to raise some cash. Take that cash and get a better heat if your interested in OCing. For case fans I would go with low speed yate loons from petrastechshop.com(I wont get into the details but the quality is better) or Scythe Slipsteams from where ever you get them the cheapest. I would also look into getting an SATA burner just for the ease of cabling. You will also get better airflow in your case as a result.

 

[BigTFromKC]

Thanks for all the great advice guys. I completely missed the RAM issue. I also didn't realize it was so cheap! So I will go ahead and go with the 4GB just because of the potential to upgrade to vista. We were actually going to get a XP pro upgrade CD for 90 bucks from ebay because we don't have a second "legit" copy any more. How do you guys like Vista? Is it worth just going ahead and getting that instead of spending money on XP professional?

I guess I also didn't think about if the power supply would have an ATA connector. I can't tell on the specs if some of them do or do not have at least one for ATA style hard drives. We would like to keep the raptor for running the operating system and using the slower ATA 320gb drive for just storage (getting rid of the 250gb drive). If the 320gb hard drive is just a storage device, does it need to be reformatted to the new system or will we be okay in not doing so?

As far as the graphics card goes...its really hard for me to go against the great anandtech review of the 8800GT...

I like the idea of SATA burner, but that will be a later addition.

I might be just incorporating all the old parts in my computer and may just give her a little money for them. We don't plan on overclocking, and we won't be upgrading for 3 years, or until she gets done with pharmacy school.

Right now I have on the Newegg wish list:
E8400 Wolfdale - $210
GIGABYTE GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - $79.99
8800GT - MSI - $179.99 after MIR
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR800 - $79.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply - $89.99 after MIR

 

[BigTFromKC]

Actually I am going with Chinaman's advice and doing the Gigabyte P35-DS3L at - $89.99. So it all comes to $650 after MIR.

 

[chinaman1472]

Both boards are great really; it really comes down to brand preference, free shipping, or rebate.
If you're going to spend $90 on XP Pro, you might as well get Vista 64-bit for $100 on Newegg.
A SATA burner is a great idea btw. They only run about $25-30.
Overall, you're not keeping a lot of the old parts. You can easily still reuse most of the old system.

 

[BigTFromKC]

My main concern is compatability issues with older programs on Vista. From what I have read Office 2003 works fine on Vista, and burning programs like Nero are now capable of running on Vista. However, I am not convinced about Vista yet. The reviews are pretty shady, and my girlfriend's little brother has Vista (not 64 bit) and they both hate it.

I know the system will be fully capable of running Vista, but I also worry about the fact that it is such a resource hog. Isn't XP coming out with a SP3 update? I don't see XP going away anytime soon. I realize I won't get the full 4GB out of the system, but with it being XP I shouldn't need that much anyways.

I'll look into the SATA burner as well.

 

[chinaman1472]

Do they hate Vista because of compatibility issues, or do they hate Vista because of the interface? A lot of users here on Anandtech have used Vista since day one and have had virtually no trouble with compatibility unless it's ancient. But really it's up to you.

 

[UpstartXT]

Just wanted to chime in with my own question here:

I understand why the e8400 is being suggested over the q6600, I think (because it is faster currently since most stuff, especially games, don't take advantage of the extra cores and therefore its faster fsb makes up for it?). However, there is something called a e8500, and since this is faster wouldn't that be an even better choice? I'm a total newb btw, I'm scouring the anandtech forums to try and figure out a build for myself. So anyway my question is why go e8400 instead of e8500?

Oh and second question: the board bigTF is going with, that works right off the bat with that processor correct (he won't need to do BIOS update in order to get it to work?).

Third: When you first build a computer, do you get the newest BIOS and flash the BIOS right off the bat? Or when should I flash my BIOS? What about chipset?

Fourth: I seem to remember having to have a floppy drive for XP to install RAID drivers and to do the BIOS flash thing, should I include a floppy drive in my build if I am going to be using Vista 64 so that I can do the aforementioned things?

Fifth: Would there be any benefit in going up to 8 GB with RAM for his build, hypothetically assuming he wanted to use it for FPS gaming? Is this going to mess up dual channel mode or whatever that thing is?

 

[boomhower]

Upstart you should really start your own thread but I'll give you some short anwers

1.It is overpriced for the small speed/multiplier bump.
2.It should.
3. I flash to the newest BIOS immediately.
4. I set up matrix RAID in Vista 64 without the need for installing any RAID drivers.
5. That would be pointless. There is a time and a place for 8GB of ram but gaming is not it. All you are going to do is hurt your OC,

Back to the OP:

I along with many others have not had any compatibility issues. Just do a bit of research on the peripherals and software you use before you buy. There are issues, most of them are pretty well documented so just do your research. Vista is not as bad of a resourse hog as people make it out to be. It just has a completely different approach to using ram than XP. Vista is far from perfect but it is not near as bad as the haters make it out to be, all of my systems have been moved to vista and I have no regrets. With the system you are should go with Vista to get the full use of your system. If not you are going to be missing out of both DX10 and ~800MB of RAM. They are features you have paid for so you might as well use them

 

[Roguestar]

FWIW, Vista has excellent program compatibility. I've been using Vista 64-bit for ages now and it's prettier and more secure than XP. I've had no problems with drivers or software (except for an older version or Nero, so I just got a freeware program).