Possible new system build ?

[Bharat]

I've had my current system with the following setup for a little over 2 years now :

AMD Opteron 165 CPU
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce x16 Motherboard
XFX GeForce 7900GTX PCI-E 512MB 665MHz card
Tagan EasyCon TG530-U15 530W Modular PSU
Corsair TwinX2048-3200C2 DDR4000 (2x1GB kit)
Zalman CNPS 9500
Eclipse - 62 black case
74GB WD Raptor, 500GB Samsung Spinpoint

I do play the occasional games, and tried out a few of the new ones in the recent past like COD4 and Assassin's Creed.

What I did struggle with was a lot of graphic bleeding randomly, so I wiped the PC, re-installed XP and installed the latest version of nVidia drivers, but no joy

Plus, sometimes while running multiple applications (multiple browser windows, picture editing, Word, etc), there is a slight feel of sluggishness.

I had overclocked a bit initially when I built the system, but then put it all back to stock as this is my main PC on which I have lots of information/documents, so didn't feel brave enough to mess around with it too much.

I haven't sat down and did much research into what might be going on, but I'm tempted at this moment to just build up a new system.

After doing a little bit of reading, I thought initially of this spec :

LN21219 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.83 GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB L2 Cache, 8.5x, Retail - £225

LN23567 - Gigabyte GA-EP45C-DS3R, iP45 Express, S775, PCI-E 2.0 x16, DDR2/3 1066/1333/1600, SATA II/RAID, ATX - £98

OR

LN22915 - Asus P5QC, iP45, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2/DDR3 1066/1333/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX - £99

LN23275 - 512MB Asus HD 4850, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1986 MHz GDDR3, GPU 625 MHz, 800 Cores, 2 x DL DVI-I/HDTV - £117

OR

LN24376 - 1GB Gigabyte HD4850, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1920MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP - £138

LN23639 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC2-8500(1066), 240Pin, NonECC Unbuffered, CAS 5, EPP - £87

OR

LN22021 - 4GB (2x2GB) CorsairTwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333MHz), 240 Pin, Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, DHX - £119.02


I'll use the rest of the components from my existing system.

Now, I'm just wondering if it is worth spending the money now, or to wait until the newer products come out in the near future and push the price of these items down.

As much as I would like to have a new system, which helps with my professional life, I am also aware that I have recently lost my main contract, my main source of income thanks to the current global financial situation.

Comments/suggestions ?

[staffsMike]

If you think your PC is going to hold together for 6 months or so it might be worth sticking with it as i7 is just starting out now which is going to change the motherboard socket etc..

If not I would probably aim at some cheaper components.

Unless you have particular need for the quad you can get an awesome little pentium dual core E5200 for £55 which will easily overclock to 3.5Ghz or more

You don't need DDR3 RAM but if you want serious overclocking from the Q9550 then the dominator is probably worth it. If you go for the E5200 you won't need anything more than PC6400 which is £48 for 4GB on scan today only

I'd skip the DDR2/3 board.. you won't need it. The P5Q-PRO isnt a bad way to go or the DFI P45 if you want an awesome overclocking (which you wont need for the E5200)

Graphics wise if you are going to spend £135 then the HIS HS4850 ICEQ is very nice.

[Bharat]

Apologies for bringing this topic back up, but I'm in a real tight spot now. Long story to follow, so please bear with me

My 2nd SATA HD was almost full (only a 250GB, not 500 as mentioned in the 1st post), so ordered a new Samsung Spinpoint 750GB SATA2 last week, plugged it into my working XP SP2 system - partitioned and then copied over all the data keeping with the partioning - all OK.

Couple of days ago, got hit by a virus/trojan and the system crashed badly - had to format and re-install (OEM XP SP2).

That is when the the first shock hit home - XP would not install - kept stopping at the initial stage with BSOD.

I thought because the new HD was the only change hardware wise, I decided to disconnect it - and I managed to install XP. Once the basic drivers were installed, connected the 2nd drive, recognised, all OK.

Installed updates from Microsoft in batches - all good so far. Waited for SP3 until the end as I have had problems installing 'older' updates that show up (like .Net 1.1 and 2.0) even after SP3 has been installed on PCs at work.

SP3 installation completed - rebooted the system - endless BSOD and reboot !

Again, I decided to disconnect the new HD and the system booted up - decided to uninstall SP3 and test - connected the new HD - system is fine.

So I decided to adjust the partition sizes - halfway through the partition change, the bloody software (Paragon Disk suite or something) crashed and I've lost my critical data for tax returns, etc !

I thought this is it - let's start fresh - unplugged the normal WD Raptor as my 1st disk, and connected the new HD and tried to install XP on that - not having it.

Looks like for some strange reason, XP SP3 does not like my new HD, maybe it's too large in size. And XP SP2 won't install with the new drive connected.

I'm really fed up because of all this faffing about for the last 2 days, hours on end.

Hence, I'm back to the stage now where I'm thinking of abandoning parts of my existing setup, and get new components.

New motherboard, new CPU/RAM, new graphics card - and start again. I HOPE I will be able to get XP onto the new HD with a newer motherboard ?

And hopefully stick to XP. Not really a fan of Vista to be honest

Question is : IF I splash out on the new i7 (is it worth it at the moment ?) setup, is XP likely to be a problem ? Or should I bite the bullet and get Vista OEM ? Or simply go for a Core 2 Duo or Quad setup ?

[coffeejunky]

Apologies for bringing this topic back up, but I'm in a real tight spot now. Long story to follow, so please bear with me

My 2nd SATA HD was almost full (only a 250GB, not 500 as mentioned in the 1st post), so ordered a new Samsung Spinpoint 750GB SATA2 last week, plugged it into my working XP SP2 system - partitioned and then copied over all the data keeping with the partioning - all OK.

Couple of days ago, got hit by a virus/trojan and the system crashed badly - had to format and re-install (OEM XP SP2).

That is when the the first shock hit home - XP would not install - kept stopping at the initial stage with BSOD.

I thought because the new HD was the only change hardware wise, I decided to disconnect it - and I managed to install XP. Once the basic drivers were installed, connected the 2nd drive, recognised, all OK.

Installed updates from Microsoft in batches - all good so far. Waited for SP3 until the end as I have had problems installing 'older' updates that show up (like .Net 1.1 and 2.0) even after SP3 has been installed on PCs at work.

SP3 installation completed - rebooted the system - endless BSOD and reboot !

Again, I decided to disconnect the new HD and the system booted up - decided to uninstall SP3 and test - connected the new HD - system is fine.

So I decided to adjust the partition sizes - halfway through the partition change, the bloody software (Paragon Disk suite or something) crashed and I've lost my critical data for tax returns, etc !

I thought this is it - let's start fresh - unplugged the normal WD Raptor as my 1st disk, and connected the new HD and tried to install XP on that - not having it.

Looks like for some strange reason, XP SP3 does not like my new HD, maybe it's too large in size. And XP SP2 won't install with the new drive connected.

I'm really fed up because of all this faffing about for the last 2 days, hours on end.

Hence, I'm back to the stage now where I'm thinking of abandoning parts of my existing setup, and get new components.

New motherboard, new CPU/RAM, new graphics card - and start again. I HOPE I will be able to get XP onto the new HD with a newer motherboard ?

And hopefully stick to XP. Not really a fan of Vista to be honest

Question is : IF I splash out on the new i7 (is it worth it at the moment ?) setup, is XP likely to be a problem ? Or should I bite the bullet and get Vista OEM ? Or simply go for a Core 2 Duo or Quad setup ?

Ooh...so many questions.

1. It sounds somewhat like a memory problem. Download memtest and burn it to a CD - http://www.memtest86.com/

2. i7 is still quite pricey due to its newness - but 775 is going to become a dead socket soon, so its a tricky decision.

3. You should have no real issues with XP on an i7 mobo - BUT you will be limited to 3gb due to the limitations of x86. If you want >4gb of RAM you're best off getting Vista x64 - which works nicely IMO (I have had only a couple of minor problems with it)

[Joe120]

looks like a good build to me

[Bharat]

Ooh...so many questions.

1. It sounds somewhat like a memory problem. Download memtest and burn it to a CD - http://www.memtest86.com/

2. i7 is still quite pricey due to its newness - but 775 is going to become a dead socket soon, so its a tricky decision.

3. You should have no real issues with XP on an i7 mobo - BUT you will be limited to 3gb due to the limitations of x86. If you want >4gb of RAM you're best off getting Vista x64 - which works nicely IMO (I have had only a couple of minor problems with it)

1. Did not think it would be memory related - problem only seems to be with XP SP3 and the new HD - did run Memtest for about 10 hours to be sure anyway - no problems there. As mentioned, I've formatted and got the system up and running with XP SP2 and the new HD connected - just that SP3 installation wrecks the setup.

2. Well, that is exactly my concern - the i7 looks quite expensive right now, but I really don't want to spend money on an existing technology that will be phased out in months. Haven't got money to line up the pockets of these big companies

3. I guess unless we have a few people who have tried XP on the i7 platform who confirm stability, we are not quite clear. And yes, while I do find the 3GB limitation a bit stupid, it won't make much of a difference in the near future as I'm not expecting to use such memory intensive applications anyway.

Thanks for the info though. The pondering continues