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Thread: Advice Please

  1. #1
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    Advice Please

    Hi

    I've decided to upgrade my PC and it's been a few years since my last one, so I'm a bit rusty on whats what.
    The only parts I'm thinking of re-using are the case and psu current case is an Antec SLK3000B with an Enermax psu either a 485w or 435w can't quite remember until I strip the current system.
    So the question is should I keep the case and psu or upgrade, the key points are.

    1- The systems on for about 15 hours a day most days.

    2- I don't play any games to speak of.

    3- The current case has 2 120mm fans front and back

    4- The new cpu will probably be a Quad Core intel Q9550 and Asus P5Q PRO MB and 2 gig Corsair Dominator DDR2 PC2-8500 (running XP pro)

    5- Single Nvidia 880GT graphics card 512 mem

    6- Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card

    7- 2 HDD and 2 DVD

    So is the case and psu worth keeping with the above setup or should I spend the extra.

    Thanks for your thoughts.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    • Pob255's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus M5A99X EVO
      • CPU:
      • FX8350 & CM Hyper 212+
      • Memory:
      • 4 x 2gb Corsair Vengence 1600mhz cas9
      • Storage:
      • 512gb samsung SSD +1tb Samsung HDD
      • Graphics card(s):
      • EGVA GTX970
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic GX 650W
      • Case:
      • HAF 912+
      • Operating System:
      • W7 Pro
      • Monitor(s):
      • iiyama XB3270QS-B1 32" IPS 1440p

    Re: Advice Please

    What do you use it for apart from Not playing games?
    Simple reason is remove games from the list and the required spec drops very quickly.
    Video editing & 3d rendering are the next two major performance gobblers.
    2D image editing is a minor perfromance hit (mainly cpu, memory and Hard drive)
    Movie watching requires a small amout of graphics
    internet + email + office apps require very little.

  3. #3
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    Re: Advice Please

    I see no reason why you should upgrade the case and PSU. I'm running a shuttle with modern components and some measly 250 or 300W power supply. I reckon you've got plenty of juice to power the components you've listed and not encounter stability issues.

    It is relevant though, to ask why you are upgrading, if not for gaming? As Pob said, some activities might require more power than others.

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    Re: Advice Please

    Quote Originally Posted by Pob255 View Post
    What do you use it for apart from Not playing games?
    Simple reason is remove games from the list and the required spec drops very quickly.
    Video editing & 3d rendering are the next two major performance gobblers.
    2D image editing is a minor perfromance hit (mainly cpu, memory and Hard drive)
    Movie watching requires a small amout of graphics
    internet + email + office apps require very little.
    Hi Pod255

    I tend to have several different apps open at the same time, do some photo editing, office, and some movie stuff and there always seems to be a lot running in background, I thought maybe wrongly that the set up I mentioned would speed things up.
    Thanks for the reply's.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    • Pob255's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus M5A99X EVO
      • CPU:
      • FX8350 & CM Hyper 212+
      • Memory:
      • 4 x 2gb Corsair Vengence 1600mhz cas9
      • Storage:
      • 512gb samsung SSD +1tb Samsung HDD
      • Graphics card(s):
      • EGVA GTX970
      • PSU:
      • Seasonic GX 650W
      • Case:
      • HAF 912+
      • Operating System:
      • W7 Pro
      • Monitor(s):
      • iiyama XB3270QS-B1 32" IPS 1440p

    Re: Advice Please

    Quote Originally Posted by Dodger21 View Post
    there always seems to be a lot running in background, I thought maybe wrongly that the set up I mentioned would speed things up.
    Thanks for the reply's.
    That's probably down to keeping windows clean, it can ba a major pain in the backside but seriously effect your performance.
    This is purely down to software producers and I real am starting to hate them for the messy carp they push out.
    Preloaders / Pre-cashe and auto updaters are the biggest pain / main offenders, they sit in the background, eating a small amout of memory and latency
    (they may not use any cpu power but they are an extra thread or few threads that the cpu checks each cycle just to make sure they don't actually need to do anything)
    Keeping windows clean is one of thoes thing that takes time, trial&error and a lot of looking up on google to find out what should be running and what can be killed.

    One reason a new pc is always faster is that it's a fresh install of windows and has no crud buildup.

    On to build sugestions.

    -Well unless you're a major Audio-phile you'll not need a seperate sound card, onboard sound is very good these days.

    -8800gt, old we've already moved on from that card . . . sort of . . . the 9800gt is basically the same card rebranded, with slightly higher stock speeds and a better low power idle state. I still say it's a good card for under £100 however, without games it's overkill.
    Something around the £55 mark, ati 4650 or nvidia 9500gt, both will give good video decodeing resaults.
    Or a 8800gt if 2nd hand and around the same cost.

    -Memory, do you plan on overclocking? if yes it's fine, if no then swap to pc6400
    You may of fallen into the common trap here, the listed cpu "fsb" is in fact 4 times the actual FSB, the memory speed is 2 times the actual FSB
    So the q9550 while listed as a 1333mhz fsb it's only actually 333mhz, pc6400 is listed as 800mhz so is actually 400mhz.
    Having the memory runing faster than the cpu does improve performance but not by a great deal and it's not worth the extra cost to go to pc8500 for the very small performance boost.

    Hard drives, what exactly are you looking at? how much storage do you want to go for?
    I'd sugest a good fast 320mb single platter drive for the OS and key programs, with a 2nd larger disk for storage.

    Current Case, fans, and PSU should be fine

    One thing I would add is a better cpu cooler (mainly because I dislike the stock intel one, IMO it has some serious flaws)
    For a quad core I'd look at a tower cooler with 120mm fan.
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...39-AM2-AM2plus
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa...-120mm-PWM-fan
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ZEROt...with-120mm-fan
    All good and under £30

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    Re: Advice Please

    Pob255

    Thanks for that you told me what I needed to know, the graphics card I'm getting is indeed a 9800gt (my bad on that one) but not new, as is the DDR2 memory so they both come to less than £100 and yes I will probably will do an over clock at some point but nothing to extreme, as for the sound card I already have this, I was just going to swap it over but I think I will see how the on board stuff performs first.
    I already have a Samsung 250gig sata, at the moment it is only running at half speed due to motherboard restrictions, as for further storage I may go external as I've had a few instances were XP pro has stop me accessing folders on internal drives complaining of insufficient rights, and yes I log on as Administrator.
    Anyway thanks again and sorry for getting your screen name wrong last time.

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