The weakest part of my system is.....what?

Printable View

10-10-2004, 10:20 AM
BenW

The weakest part of my system is.....what?

Well, here are my specs:

2.26Ghz P4 533FSB
1GB Crucial DDR400 RAM running at 266Mhz because of processor/mobo
Dell Mobo, 845 chip i think
Radeon 9800Pro 128MB 256bit with ATI Silencer 1
WD 40GB 5400RPM Hard drive
Sound Blaster Live! value 5.1
Samsung CD-RW/DVD combo drive
300W SilentX PSU (<14dB)
17" Analogue Dell TFT
30W 2.1 Harmon Kardon speakers
Logitech MX1000
Standard Dell Keyboard

Think thats it, what should be my next upgrade? I'm thinking either hard drive or AMD64/new mobo or Soundblaster Audgy 2ZS

All opinion welcome
10-10-2004, 10:32 AM
SmileyUK

i would say your processor/mobo

your memory is fine (overboard for your mobo tbh). And your graphic card can do everything you need it to. My personal recommendation would be an a64 3500 on s939. This will give you scope for a later chip upgrade and a healthy performance boost.

also if you like using eax you may consider a sound card upgrade, i found my live used to hammer my cpu when i had one
10-10-2004, 10:55 AM
BenW

The memory was bought with a future upgrade in mind and was cheaper than the DDR266 so i bought it and it's running at low latency too

I think you're right about the processor but being a Dell it means that i need to replace the case at the same time which means it's gonna costa bomb

Sound card...... I'm thinking of asking for some Logitech Z5500s at christmas, i don't think i would see any improvment with a new sound card with my current speakers so that upgrade can probably wait a while
10-10-2004, 10:57 AM
Ravens Nest

Yeah i'd agree with SmileyUK, the only thing is a 5400rpm Hardrive really slows a PC down, i upgrade a friends PC from a GF4 MX to 9800 pro, 256 DDR to 1 GB and a 5400rpm hardrive to 7200rpm and the thing that made the most difference.

Believe it or not was the HD. :)

But if i was picking for purely gaming then the Motherboard and CPU would definetly come first, you'd just have longer loading times thats all.
10-10-2004, 11:20 AM
BenW

I don't play games that often, i have NFSU, Far Cry and Doom3 which all play at reasonable speed and loading times don't bother me too much, far cry takes a while though!

So..........at the moment i only use about 23GB, that'll obviously rocket when we get broadband (When we move house which is soon). That means that i would only want i suppose 100GB or something. Is it best to get a 120GB drive or best to get 2 60GBs/80GBs and put them in raid when i get the new mobo?
10-10-2004, 11:43 AM
BAcon

Quote:

Originally Posted by ben_wade

Well, here are my specs:

2.26Ghz P4 533FSB
1GB Crucial DDR400 RAM running at 266Mhz because of processor/mobo
Dell Mobo, 845 chip i think
WD 40GB 5400RPM Hard drive
300W SilentX PSU (<14dB)
Logitech MX1000
Standard Dell Keyboard

Think thats it, what should be my next upgrade? I'm thinking either hard drive or AMD64/new mobo or Soundblaster Audgy 2ZS

All opinion welcome

id get a new A64 cpu/mobo, defo HD and maybe a gfx card

if u go for a beefy gfx card the PSU may need upgrading also

also if its in a dell case get a new case to
, tho it depends on your budget
10-10-2004, 12:06 PM
BenW

Im leaving the GPU, it's fine for now

I know the PSU would probably need upgaring for a AMD64 but i've only had it a month or so and it's as quiet as an active PSU will be!

Seems like a HD would be a good idea, then CPU, mobo, case
10-10-2004, 12:22 PM
Spud1

PSU would need upgrading if you got a new CPU, or in fact got anything extra to that system. I agree with the rest on the CPU/mobo front, defo should be your next upgrade.
10-10-2004, 02:35 PM
bmh.01

If you were to change the mobo then the PSU must be upgraded because dell don't use standard atx pinout and it would just fry a non dell board, just as a non dell psu would kill the dell mobo.
10-10-2004, 02:57 PM
Tom

dell do use a standard pin out in some cases bmh and since he has just said its a silentX 300w then i assume it is the standard Shuttle PSU, which would work on any mobo ;) i used a shuttle PSU to replace a dell desktop's PSU and it worked fine and dandy :) they use different headers on the mobo for power switch but thats it really.
10-10-2004, 04:24 PM
BenW

BMH & Tom, it's a standard ATX SilentX PSU, Here

Can't afford to do the CPU/mobo/case/psu now, will probably wait until next year when 939 is cheap or BTX is released

Any suggestions for hard drive, as quiet as possible which i think means samsung?
10-10-2004, 05:39 PM
myth

try seagate! ;)

Oh, and I just found out my raptors have acoustic management on! :crazy: I wonder how they sound with it off!
10-10-2004, 05:46 PM
BenW

i read a review earlier where they had a segate and a samsung, the seagate was quieter idle but noisier when seeking. The samsung was much faster too