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Thread: Component Upgrading

  1. #1
    Fresh Paint
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    Default Component Upgrading

    Add In – Yay rambling posts from random viewers XD. If you've got the time and willingness to help, please read. If not, ignore this wall of text ^^'



    Hey all, long time lurker, few time poster here – something I hope to change. Before I get started – I know if I don't get straight to the point I'll end up telling my life story, and leave you all confused. So I'll do that, get straight to the point of this thread.

    My main computer, that I use for basically anything is the same one I bought back in 2006. Other than a few Graphics card, PSU and case changes, it has remained completely stock. I believe it was an HP Pavilion, and I really am surprised that it is still running perfectly fine, and suits me for the tasks I use it for; and despite it's age, it runs faster than the brand new laptops my Mother and two sister's have. I blame that on Windows 7 and Vista though.

    Anyway – Since I'm a bum and still living at home with a nice full time job; and I hate to say it, but I have more money than I honestly know what to do with. See where this is going? Yeah, I want to do some serious upgrades to my computer. I'll start off (I'm just starting? See – I'm bad for rambling on and on) by listing my current specs:

    Motherboard: Asus P5Lp-LE
    CPS: Pentium D 2.8Ghz
    Memory: 2GB DDR2
    HDD: 320GB Maxtor and 1TB Western Digital
    Graphics Card: XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB
    PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 700W

    Now, I've taken apart my computer several times just to say I have, transferred cases a couple times etc. So I am comfortable working within it; but I've never taken the stock heat sink off of the CPU, and I've never upgraded my Motherboard; both of which are things that I am wanting to do – and since this is my first time I've got a couple questions.

    I know I want to upgrade my CPU, Motherboard and Memory; so with a little bit of researching on NewEgg, I've come up with the following:

    EVGA P55 LE
    Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66
    Corsair Dfominator 4GB DDR3

    My first question would be: are those all compatable? I'm sure the MB and CPU are; but I'm completely confused as to how to tell what RAM is good for what MB. The MB linked above states that “DDR3 2000MHz+ “ is the Memory standard; but in reviews for the same board, people have said they used 1600. I know I need to match the number of pins and whatnot, but that bit I just explained has my completely befuddled.

    My next question would be: What other options are there for me? Those items I listed above were selected with my limited knowledge on those items – if you guys know better products at a similar price range please tell me. I'd like a black/red combo for the MB to match my case and lighting, but I really am not picky, and would like your opinions.

    And now some less generic questions. What's a good brand for a heat sink? Both the CPU and MB I listed have excellent reviews for Overclocking - something I've never tried, but I might if it's as simple as claimed. I'm not interested in water cooling at this time, so I was just curious as to what a good brand name/price range for an after market heat sink would be.

    In the regards of heat sink/CPU – Thermal Compound would be required for adding that correct? Since I have none, I should get my hands on some? This is in my NewEgg cart right now, but I can change it if that's not the right stuff.


    And I think that's all for my questions/annoying rambling for the moment. Any help at all is appreciated, especially if you read this entire post and plan on responding I've stalked this site so much that I know all the regular posters by their sigs/avatars too well; hopefully I can stop being a lurker and give back to this wonderful community

  2. #2
    Stupidity feeds my children blueonblack's Avatar
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    Oh, Goodie! A chance to pounce on the Intel wagon and possibly shake loose another poor soul! Woo hoo!

    As you may be able to tell, I'm an AMD fan. Assuming you're not absolutely set on an EVGA motherboard (since they seem to be in bed with Intel), I'd suggest either the Phenom II X6 1055T six-core or the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition quad-core. Honestly, the 965 is the better bang for your buck and being a black edition it should overclock nicely. Either one is cheaper than the Intel you listed.

    The ASUS M4A78T-E would be an excellent board to house it in. Good overclocking features and also handles CrossfireX if you're into that, and has on-board video which I've found is a good thing to have even if you don't use it normally, just as a backup in case of video card failure. It happens. The color scheme isn't nearly as nice as the EVGA (none of them are, EVGA boards are the best-looking on the market), but again, cheaper and more for your money.

    As for the RAM, this ASUS board supports DDR3 1333 natively lists 1600 (O.C). While I'll admit I don't know what that means, someone here will surely enlighten us both, but DDDR3 1333 is still blazing fast. I'd suggest something like the CORSAIR XMS 4GB kit, two of them if you want 8GB of RAM obviously.

    My obvious bias aside, AMD has always offered more performance for your dollar than Intel. It depends on what you want, I suppose.


    Quote Originally Posted by Stone View Post
    I have more money than I honestly know what to do with.
    I don't know, maybe Intel is for you.


    EDIT: Sorry, I got off on my anti-Intel tangent so far I missed the other two questions. There are a LOT of excellent CPU coolers on the market. Enough so that choice comes down to budget, space and appearance. If you're looking for a black-and-red combination, the Thermaltake Frio and the Cooler Master V6 that we reviewed here recently are both top notch but you'll need some space for them.

    In my opinion, Arctic Silver 5 is overrated. The whole have-to-wait-for-a-million-hours-before-its-maximum-effectiveness thing really turned me off. I've used Noctua NT-H1 and Arctic Cooling MX-3 with great results and zero wait time.
    Last edited by blueonblack; 09-22-2010 at 05:17 AM.
    “Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”

  3. #3
    rawrnomnom diluzio91's Avatar
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    of course if you have more money than you know what to do with... why not go whole hog? DangerDen and a waterloop? the benifits are pretty nice, especially if you are going to get into overclocking. ill second BOB's ideas on the amd front, 80% of the performance for 40% of the cost... and then you overclock...
    Not dead yet

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    Thanks for the post blueonblack, you've given me lots to think on.

    The biggest reason I've decided to stick with Intel – and I have no idea where I got this idea or if it's even true; but I've already got a nVidea Graphics card. I always believed Intel goes with nVidea and AMD with ATI, and I have no idea if the two are compatible with each other? If so I'd happily change to AMD from Intel.

    As for the Memory; I'm running Windows XP, and have no reason to upgrade – but doesn't XP have a limit on the amount of memory it can use? I never actually considered going above 4GB, since 2GB is basically doing everything I need, but at the price of the Corsair you listed, 8GB could be gained easily, if XP allows it.

    Those two heatsinks you linked ma be a bit to large for my case. I've got the NZXT Beta; it's a mid tower, so I don't think there is that much room between the MB and side panel. Something with a lower profile would probably better for me; but I should find a way to measure that distance before I make a decision on the heatsink.

    As for the Arctic Silver 5, I really need to do some research there. Arctic Silver is the only product I've ever heard of, and the whole have-to-wait-for-a-million-hours is completely new to my as of this thread. I'll look into the two items you listed for sure.


    Diluzio, you have a very valid point XD. The main reason I'm not interested in water cooling is because I believe it takes a lot to set that up; and I'm still at the point where I like to take my case apart every other weekend for the hell of it. That, and I'd like to try my hand at upgrading the MB etc. before I get into water cooling – and I honestly probably wont be doing enough OCing where it will be necessary.


    And, I completely forgot a question in my first post – pretty much the question I wanted to ask when I opened this thread >.< Say I was to take my current MB, CPU and RAM out, and replace them with new ones, keeping in mind I have an HDD and Graphics card already set up and working with what I have now – what can I expect to happen when I first turn on my computer after making that switch? Will I be put in the BIOS automatically and have to change/set-up settings? Or are there drivers/software I should have installed beforehand?


    Again, thanks for all the help BoB and diluzio, and anyone else who happens to read this

  5. #5
    rawrnomnom diluzio91's Avatar
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    im running a 9800gt (nvidia) with an amd Proc, its no biggie, its just that amd has taken the midrange market and intel spreads dirty rumors . GO PHENOM!!
    Not dead yet

  6. #6
    Will YOU be ready when the zombies rise? x88x's Avatar
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    Quote Originally Posted by Stone View Post
    The biggest reason I've decided to stick with Intel – and I have no idea where I got this idea or if it's even true; but I've already got a nVidea Graphics card. I always believed Intel goes with nVidea and AMD with ATI, and I have no idea if the two are compatible with each other?
    The only time that this is even partially valid any more is that certain AMD chipsets (the controllers in the MBB, not the CPU) don't support SLI and certain Intel chipsets don't support CrossFire. So, as long as you know going in what you want to do it doesn't matter at all how you mix it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stone View Post
    As for the Memory; I'm running Windows XP, and have no reason to upgrade – but doesn't XP have a limit on the amount of memory it can use?
    Assuming you're running 32-bit XP (you'd know if you weren't), then yeah, it has a max of 4GB. However, especially considering your financial status, I would highly recommend upgrading to 64-bit Windows 7. The load on the system isn't much different than XP, it's more future-proof (since XP isn't getting security updates anymore..or they'll stop soon, I forget if they extended the EOL again), and it can take up to 192GB of RAM. Speaking from personal experience, I thought 2GB was fine until I upgraded to 4GB...then I though that was fine...then I upgraded to 8GB, and I didi honestly see a difference in system performance, not only in gaming but also in normal every-day use.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stone View Post
    Those two heatsinks you linked ma be a bit to large for my case. I've got the NZXT Beta; it's a mid tower, so I don't think there is that much room between the MB and side panel. Something with a lower profile would probably better for me; but I should find a way to measure that distance before I make a decision on the heatsink.
    Another option would be to go with one of the CoolIt or Corsair sealed water-cooling systems. They'll out-perform most if not all air-coolers, and are just as easy to set up.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stone View Post
    As for the Arctic Silver 5, I really need to do some research there. Arctic Silver is the only product I've ever heard of, and the whole have-to-wait-for-a-million-hours is completely new to my as of this thread.
    AS5 is one of the best TIMs available on the market without paying stupid amounts of money. The set-time that BoB mentioned is something like a week or so of solid run-time, but once it sets you'll get a few C temp drop..worth it, imo.

    Quote Originally Posted by Stone View Post
    And, I completely forgot a question in my first post – pretty much the question I wanted to ask when I opened this thread >.< Say I was to take my current MB, CPU and RAM out, and replace them with new ones, keeping in mind I have an HDD and Graphics card already set up and working with what I have now – what can I expect to happen when I first turn on my computer after making that switch? Will I be put in the BIOS automatically and have to change/set-up settings? Or are there drivers/software I should have installed beforehand?
    You should boot straight into whatever OS you have installed (XP in this case). However, it most likely won't have drivers for most if not all of the devices on the MBB, so you'll have to install them before it'll really know what's going on.

    Now, all that being said, I would also highly recommend that you upgrade your GPU and HDD as well. The GTS250 may or may not need upgrading, depending on what you do graphically (though it'll definitely be one of the worst bottlenecks in your system), but definitely upgrade your HDD. The HDD is one part of the computer that most people neglect because they figure they aren't going to get much performance difference, but the difference even just between a 3 year old drive and a new drive with identical stats is immense. Plus, there have been so many advances in HDD tech over the last few years that you can get a significant performance increase by upgrading to a new high-performance HDD (or SSD ).
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  7. #7
    Stupidity feeds my children blueonblack's Avatar
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    Quote Originally Posted by x88x View Post
    Another option would be to go with one of the CoolIt or Corsair sealed water-cooling systems. They'll out-perform most if not all air-coolers, and are just as easy to set up.
    Second this. We reviewed the CoolIT ECO here, and I own the Corsair H50 myself and love it. Obviously they take some space also, but with the coolant lines they do allow more flexibility in their installation and performance is outstanding.
    “Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    Thanks for clearing that up diluzio and x88x; I'm really not sure where I got the idea about nVidea only working with Intel. I'll most definetely be going with AMD now.

    As for upgrading HDDs – My 1TB WD is brand new, only been in my system for about 2 weeks. I'll admit I only bought it because my 320GB one was to full. I believe you completely when you say there is a performance difference. My music folder on the WD opens instantly now; but when it was on my old drive it would take full minute for that to load. I don't really want to purchase another HDD (although an SSD with on the OS would be nice in theory), but do you think it would be worth it to go through the trouble to transfer everything off my old drive and just use the 1TB?

    Looking over the review of the CooIT Eco (done by blueonblack?) I am definitely sold on it. I'll look at reviews of the Corsair H50, for sure, but I like everything I've read about the CoolIT so far. Only problem is the Canadian NewEgg store doesn't carry it But I've used TigerDirect in the past without problems.


    Okay, grabbing a new cart at NewEgg, I put in the ASUS M4A78T, AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (what's Black Edition even mean? Lol) and the Corsair XMS 2x2GB, and my total is a good $100 less than my earlier selection; which my money-hoarding nature really likes. I could get an extra 4GB of memory and my total would still be less than what I had earlier – but that would also require my to upgrade my OS, which I might as well start a new paragraph to talk about.

    Firstly, what's the difference between 32 and 64 bit versions? Also, how well does it play with older software? My biggest concerns are the Photoshop 7 program I have (I don't upgrade often, if you couldn't tell already) and Oblivion. All the other programs I use are pretty common and up to date, so I'm not worried about them working; but PS and OBL are both reasons that would likely keep me on XP. I'm going to look into Windows 7 a bit more now, so I'll likely be back with more questions on this topic.


    Once again, thanks for all the help everyone You've given me lots to think on and narrowed down what I have to research; Thanks a lot.

  9. #9
    Stupidity feeds my children blueonblack's Avatar
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    The black edition processors have unlocked multipliers, which just means they are a lot easier to overclock. When you start into that you'll see what I mean.

    On the 32- vs 64-bit question, I don't know. When I built my last system I tried to use a 64-bit operating system but (as you feared) I ran into problems with some older software that I use a lot. Any advantages I might have gained were not worth not being able to use that software, so I'm currently using Win7 Ultimate 32-bit with 4GB of memory and have no regrets whatsoever.

    I think the only way you will know if your older software will work with a 64-bit operating system is to try it. Of course, if it doesn't, you're out the money you spent on the OS.
    “Do not trust people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible, and when I leave you will finally understand why storms are named after people.”

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Component Upgrading

    I'm honestly not sure how much OCing I'll be doing. The 965 is already at 3.4 Ghz, which should be more than enough for me. I'm at 2.8Ghz and happy right now. Then again, I might do it just because, there doesn't really need to be a real reason :/ .

    A little bit of researching, and Oblivion is compatible, so I'm good on that front. If I splurge the extra $50 or so and get Profession Edition instead of Home, I'll have access to Windows XP Mode, which in theory would clear up any other problems I would have with older programs. On another note, do you have any idea how Windows 7 handles dual monitors? XP works pretty well with it, so I don't see why 7 shouldn't.

    Back onto the topic of what to buy – would I be safe with the System Builders OEM version of Windows 7, or should I opt for the more expensive retail version?

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