System overhaul

C

camelass

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 28, 2007
Messages
272
I have been doing some thinking and I think I’m just going to do a “decent” upgrade to last me for a few years rather than just jumping right into Nehalem and spending god knows how much money. I did that back in 2002 with my P4 system and quite frankly I don’t want to get burned in spending over $3500 for a minimal performance increase just only to have everything outdated within a few months.

Now my budget is roughly $1500. Less the better of course. Currently I’m running the following setup

E4500 @ stock
4CoreDual-SATA2 <<< this board blows for oc'ing
2gb kingston DDR2 667
x2 WD 640AAKS
DVD-ROM IDE
DVD-Burner IDE
Creative Audigy Gamer sound card
Sapphire x1950pro AGP
Mushkin HP-550 Enhanced Power Supply (550w)
Windows XP Pro SP3
Lan Li PC7B PLUS II

I was thinking just about swapping everything out but the hard drives and the CPU.
My goal is to have 4gb of ram running vista and eventually be gaming at 1920x1200.

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W $159.99

MOBO: ??? Nothing too outrageous in price. (P43/P45 mobo maybe?) I want something that can easily overclock my E4500 at 266mhz fsb. Which should bring it to 2.93ghz if I did my homework correctly. $130-$180.

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Might as well get DDR2 800 incase I want to upgrade my cpu later on down the road. $79.00

Video card: Well this is either going to be an ATI 4870 or 4870x2 whenever it’s released. So i'll go for a DIAMOND 4870 for now. $289.99

CPU: E4500 OC'ed to roughly 2.93ghz no cost

HD: x2 WD 640AAKS no cost

Aftermarket CPU cooler: ??? I just need something to keep this thing cool and can fit well in my Lan Li PC7B PLUS II.

OS: Vista Ultimate Retail I chose retail because well I want to be able to transfer my OS over to another machine down the road without any problems. $277.49

Grand total: Roughly $986.47 not including any rebates or shipping costs.

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed! Btw would my E4500 be much of a bottleneck for the newer cards being released? Or should I look into swapping this out too?
 
camelass said:
...
4CoreDual-SATA2 <<< this board blows for oc'ing...
Click to expand...

It wasn't designed for OC'ing. It was designed to be a budget, stopgap solution for people wanting to get more life out of their AGP and DDR parts.

The GA-EP43-DS3L is a good basic board. If you want Crossfire for that 1900x1200 display, you'll probably want an X38 board. A good midrange board would be the MSI P45 Neo3-FR, and the next step up would probably be the Asus P5Q Pro. Decide on whichever board gives you the features you need. Danny has a nice list of mobos, but I don't have the quote with me right now, so hopefully he'll post it.

$37 - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (highly recommended: $7 Xigmatek Bolt-Thru-Kit)

Do you need all the features of Ultimate? If not, drop down to Home Premium. When do you plan on getting a new system? If its not anytime soon, you might be better off with OEM, since Windows 7 might be out by then.

Sell your old parts to help offset the cost.
 
Here's the list of mobos that Enginurd mentioned:
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 Motherboard - $85
MSI P45 Neo3-FR Intel P45 Motherboard - $107
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R Intel P45 Motherboard - $125
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 Motherboard - $140
DFI Lanparty DK X38-T2R Intel X38 Motherboard - $180
Asus P5E Deluxe Intel X48 Motherboard - $220
Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Intel X48 Motherboard - $225

Just to help you out: All of these motherboards have PCI-E 2.0 which may be useful for future GPU upgrades. If you don't need RAID, more than 6 SATA ports and only need semi-decent overclocking, check out the DS3L. If you need 8 SATA ports, RAID, 4 PCI slots, and legacy ports, then get the Neo3-Fr. If you don't need more than 6 SATA ports but want RAID, firewire, a second PCI-E x16 port, a second gigabit port, support for 16GB of RAM, optional eSATA, x8/x8 Crossfire, and high overclocks, then get the DS3R. If you like the DS3R but need 8 SATA ports, want an onboard pre-installed fast booting Linux setup, only need support for 8GB of RAM and don't need a second gigabit port, get the Asus P5Q Pro. If you want Crossfire with full x16/x16 bandwidth, get the Lanparty DK X38. If you have cash to burn and don't give a damn about getting the most value for your money, get the Asus or Gigabyte X48 motherboards. Do note that the Asus website can be slow sometimes.

In addition to Enginurd's recommendations, which I agree with, get the 620HX PSU from buy.com or zipzoomfly.com since they're cheaper there. Though if you don't really need modular cables, I recommend getting this PSU instead:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $98
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I decided on the following so far.

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R zipsoomfly $127.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W zipzoomfly $112.90 (after rebate)
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) newegg $79.00
ATI 4870 newegg $289.99 (will probably be the 4870x2 when released)
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler $44 with Bolt thru kit
Vista Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM newegg $109.99

Grand total minus shipping $763.87. Add $200 or so for the 4870x2.

The only thing I may jump on right away is that PSU with the $30 rebate. I really need the modular cable support. Less wires the better in my case. Unless someone can suggest a different PSU?

I'll probably sell my old PSU, RAM, MOBO and Video card. Not sure what I can sell them for but I should get something for them.

EDIT what do you guys think about the COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-LB12-GP 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103040? I like how the fan is mounted with screws on the heatsink rather than clipped on.
 
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