imminent P.C. upgrade

Hi all,

been thinking for a while that my XP Pro Compaq P4/2.4 machine (don't laugh!) needs a bit of a polish-up so I've read a few reviews and made some vague choices about some new internals. Machine is mainly used for CS3 work (that's pretty much as hard as I push it, well rather, as hard as it will let me push it...) also general MS Office/Browsing so doen't really need the i7 treatment although I would like to avoid having to do any more work on it in the next couple of years.

I don't need storage at this point apart from the OS drive as I have 2x SATA 750Gb drives that I use for photo storage using Karens replicator to keep them in sync every few days, and a third 750Gb drive that I swap into the cycle every month & take the spare to work as an offsite backup.

Feel free to either approve or shoot down in flames the following:

CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor 2.830Ghz LGA775 12M Cache 1333FSB #Q9550

Motherboard
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 Chipset LGA775

RAM
2x Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR2-800

OS HDD
Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Graphics
Asus EN9400GT 1GB PCI-E


I figure the CPU & Mobo is overkill at this point but want to give myself some overhead to do a bit more if the need arises, one never knows in this job environment if there would be a need to do some home self-study on IT products (virtual machines & the like)

any thoughts?

The CPU isn't overkill, especially if you do batch conversion. The P5Q is a good board, I have the SE, I didn't need the pro. If you have a 32 bit OS you want a graphics card with less memory, as every MB on the graphics card means less addressable system memory. Mine's 512, but you could even go for 256 and it'd be heaps.

Also bigger drives tend to have higher data density, so they end up faster. Check out the specs/reviews of 250 and 750 drives.

If you are not into gaming choose a lesser video card. That one is a bit overkill for photo editing and general PC work. Also spend the extra few bucks on a 640GB or 750GB WD Black HDD as opposed to that 250GB. As Tim said, they are faster and only a few bucks more.

Do you plan on using the same case and PSU? I wouldn't. Especially the PSU. Instead pick up a decent PSU like a corsair or PC P&C. Also, as cheap as DVD drives are right now there is no reason not to buy one. Most are $25 for a SATA drive (OEM).

Here is a PC I speced a couple times here. I know you are in NZ, but the parts should be available.

In2Photos wrote in post #8133394
Mobo - Asus PQ5L - $94.99
RAM - G Skill(2-2GB) - $54.99
CPU - Q8200 - $159.99
HDD - WD 640GB Black - $74.99
Case - CoolerMaster RC590 - $59.99
PSU - Corsair 650TX - $89.99
GPU - Sapphire 512MB 4650 - $59.99
DVD - Samsung SATA - $22.99


$621.92 plus shipping from the egg.

If you have the budget, look at replacing the HDD with an SSD. OCZ has just released a new line called "Agility" which is cheaper than their extremely popular Vertex line but nearly as fast.

Remember everything's more expensive in New Zealand, and we don't have quite the same range available as in the US.

Toms Hardware did an article on budget power supplies not long ago, that might be helpful.

tim wrote in post #8250412
Remember everything's more expensive in New Zealand, and we don't have quite the same range available as in the US.

Toms Hardware did an article on budget power supplies not long ago, that might be helpful.

Aye, didn't check the locale...the Vertex's are available there but not sure about the prices. I think anandtech also did a big power supply round up about a month or so ago. Make sure you get a quality one!

tim wrote in post #8250412
Remember everything's more expensive in New Zealand, and we don't have quite the same range available as in the US.

you're not wrong there... the list above totals NZD$1016 - roughly USD$630

thanks everone for the comments, here was me thinking more was better in the graphics memory dept!

My PSU is a 400W unit and is only 6 months old as I replaced it in an effort to resolve intermittant rebooting issues (which continued) a
The case is a minitower so I didn't think there's any reason to change it - I'm not bothered that it doesn't have see-thru panels with laser lightshows...

joeseph wrote in post #8253023
you're not wrong there... the list above totals NZD$1016 - roughly USD$630

thanks everone for the comments, here was me thinking more was better in the graphics memory dept!

My PSU is a 400W unit and is only 6 months old as I replaced it in an effort to resolve intermittant rebooting issues (which continued) a
The case is a minitower so I didn't think there's any reason to change it - I'm not bothered that it doesn't have see-thru panels with laser lightshows...

LOL. I thought you maybe had the original Compaq PSU and case so that is why I mentioned it.