computer died...time for a new one. advice?

my ~4 year old machine died. won't spin fans or do any sort of power up; LEDs light on the MoBo so the PSU is OK (or at least getting some juice to the machine), so i guess the MoBo is toast. don't feel like troubleshooting, so it's time for a new one.

i want a stable machine that can run 64 bit OS (windows), SSD would be nice, and i've got all the HDDs i need, monitors, and other peripherals. just need a box. so...what should i be looking at for processors? i have DDR2 RAM, so is that useless these days?

i've taken a look at Tigerdirect, Dell Outlet, and Newegg. the Dell T3500 workstations look pretty decent but i'd have buy and install my own SSD and re-load OS etc. not a huge deal.

thoughts/advice?

thanks in advance.

I rebuilt last May with newegg parts.
Core i7-2600K, Cooler Master HAF922 case, Asus Z68 board, 16 GB Corsair Vengeance, 850 Wt. PSU, old HDDs, old graphic card, Win7-64 bit.
Love it.

what's my best bet for a processor...core i7?

If you're strictly doing photo stuff, an i5 2500k is going to be the best balance of performance/cost. If you do video or other workstation type tasks, you can benefit from the i7's like a 2600k but they're not really necessary.

As for your DDR2, yep, it's not going to do you any good. It still worth a bit though, either use it in a secondary rig or sell it off.

i do have a tendency to have a lot of apps open simultaneously...i7 would help in that regard?

narlus wrote in post #13923993
i do have a tendency to have a lot of apps open simultaneously...i7 would help in that regard?

More RAM would help.

narlus wrote in post #13923993
i do have a tendency to have a lot of apps open simultaneously...i7 would help in that regard?

It depends what kind of stuff you are running all at once. Take a look at your current computer with everything open and see how much load you have on your CPU and how much ram you are using.

If programs are just open unless they are actually doing something (say Pshop is stitching a panorama in the background) they aren't really going to be putting a load on the CPU, they will just be using up some ram.

You can get the core i7-2600K for less than $300 if you live near a MicroCenter store. Add a Z68-based motherboard for $120-150 and 16GB of RAM for $80-90 plus a disk/SSD, PSU, and case and you're done. Total cost is about $750-850 plus $99 for Windows7.

I recently built...

ASUS P8Z68-V Pro
i5 2500
8 gig of DDR3 Ram

..and used the remaining parts I had on hand.

If you're using your "older" hard drives, unless they are SATA 6.0 Gb/s models you may not be utilizing the full potential of the faster new transfer rates.

MikeT2i wrote in post #13924047
I recently built...

ASUS P8Z68-V Pro
i5 2500
8 gig of DDR3 Ram

..and used the remaining parts I had on hand.

If you're using your "older" hard drives, unless they are SATA 6.0 Gb/s models you may not be utilizing the full potential of the faster new transfer rates.

That's not really true. The current Sata 6 drives (physical hdd's not SSD's) can't even fully utilize the Sata 3GB/s bandwidth.

I'd start here
4-8 gigs of ram windows 7 x64... Quad+ CPU, and a decent video card

The rest is just a matter of prefence vs price. What you want /need and are willing to spend

i am looking at the Dell XPS 8300....it's got all i want aside from an SSD drive.

Dell are a good brand, but they're difficult to expand sometimes. I have a Dell Optiplex 790 desktop case at work, it has two 2.5" drives and no space to put a 3.5" drive in. It's very tidy inside though, and mini towers might be different.

I'd agree on the expanding dells. If you want something you can tinker with then I'd skip a prebuilt pc.

narlus wrote in post #13951909
i am looking at the Dell XPS 8300....it's got all i want aside from an SSD drive.

Can it accomodate all your existing hard drives as well? And yes avoid if you want tinkerability...