Suggestions for a new build.

I have read all his posts and payed attention, and I am not trying to whine about him, I apoligize.We just need to know his power supply model, make, and wattage, and the Graphics card model to ensure cpmatibility with the motherboard.
 
byteninja2 said:
Denther, Iknow what he said.But he cant stuff a i7-3970 on a 380w PSU, we need to know brand, wattage, and model. And what is the GPU?
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PSU - (Generic?) WT480 - Dual Fan
Output: +3.3V +5V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
Max(A): 28A 36A 16A 0.8A 0.5A 2A

wt480q.jpg


GPU - Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT
DFGS951024GTE

For some reason I thought I had a 500+ watt PSU but I may just be remembering the one I was comparing this one too and maybe I didn't have as much cash when I made the purchase. Pretty sure it came from Newegg.

The video card was put in a bit over a year ago and it uses the blue PCIEX16 slot.

My Linksys N dual band wireless card is in a standard white PCI slot, and I want to keep it so the MB should hopefully have at least a PCI and a PCI Express 16 slot. Correct?

Byteninja2 - I see you're in Columbia too. I'm going to be doing house projects all weekend long if you wanted to pop by for a cold beer and talk computers. :good:
 
I'd advise a new PSU. That think looks very sketchy. Corsair, Antec, XFX, Seasonic, PC Power and Cooling, and a few other brands that others will remember better than me would be a good choice.
 
Denther said:
Yes. If you want to use more than 3.5gigs of RAM then you need 64. There is no reason not to get 64 unless you're using old programs that aren't compatible.
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I'm kind of torn on this and not sure what I want to do.

In theory 3.5 Gb should be fine for daily use and most programs I use. However, having full use of 8 Gb of RAM would be not only ideal but awesome.

On the other side of that coin, I do have some older programs on this machine that currently runs XP Pro SP3+.

Both the 32 bit and the 64 bit cost the same right now with free shipping. Cost isn't an issue.

I guess it comes down to my older programs, which I do lean towards keeping many of, and being able to use more of my installed RAM.

Quick question - Is there possibly a software fix to the RAM ceiling? Maybe expected in a future SP update?
 
Go for 8GB of RAM, get Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and then use Windows XP Mode to run your older programs.

To save some money you could always get Windows 7 Home 64-bit, then download and install VirtualBox for free and if you have a copy of the XP disc, install XP in a VM and run your older programs in that VM.

XP 32-bit and any 32-bit OS will always be limited to 3.5GB of RAM. You can run the OS with 8GB of RAM installed, but only 3.5GB will be detected and used by a 32-bit. It's just a limitation. 64-bit is the way forward.
 
WinXP mode sucks. If your going to depend on that get WMWare player and install WinXP on that for your XP needs. you can get more than one core and a bit better virtual hardware.
 
What programs are you wanting to run? I had some old games like Age of Empires from the late 90's and it runs fine. I had a hiccup with AoE 2 (2002ish) but a simple batch file fixed it. If you absolutely need 32 bit then I'd suggest dual booting W7 64 bit and XP 32 bit.

Or whatever VistaKid suggested.
 
FuryRosewood said:
WinXP mode sucks. If your going to depend on that get WMWare player and install WinXP on that for your XP needs. you can get more than one core and a bit better virtual hardware.
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True... VMWare Player is good (and free) so is VirtualBox. Both support multi-cores.

Denther said:
What programs are you wanting to run? I had some old games like Age of Empires from the late 90's and it runs fine. I had a hiccup with AoE 2 (2002ish) but a simple batch file fixed it. If you absolutely need 32 bit then I'd suggest dual booting W7 64 bit and XP 32 bit.

Or whatever VistaKid suggested.
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I wouldn't dual-boot if I were you, just stick to a VM of XP and a copy of W7 x64 installed on the HDD.

You can always try and install your older programs in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2, just run the setup.exe in compatibility mode. To be honest, I've managed to get Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise installed onto Windows 7 successfully using compatibility mode (NOT Windows XP Mode, they're two completely different things) and that software was released in 1998 so I think you should be OK.
 
not to say that vista is on the wrong track, but if you are concerned about compatibility, then install in dual boot. VM can only go so far in my experiences. Especially if compatibility mode does not work for you and you are working on a game. Just don't dedicate a lot to it though.
 
wolfeking said:
not to say that vista is on the wrong track, but if you are concerned about compatibility, then install in dual boot. VM can only go so far in my experiences.
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In my experience, VMs are just fine for running basic programs and browsing the web etc. It really depends on what programs the OP wants to use as to whether he needs to dual-boot or could get away with using a VM. If he's trying to run games or photo/video-editing software or CAD/3D modelling programs, it's going to be better to dual-boot, but if he's only using maybe a word processor or something, a VM should be fine.

If I'm honest, I reckon you could get your old software installed fine on Windows 7 though. I forgot to mention I got Office 97 Pro working on Windows 7 too.
 
My 2 cents:

1. Absolutely no point getting 32bit to run a modern computer. Firstly you'll likely to only have available 2 or 3GB of that RAM if you install a modern GPU etc. Using VM ware or dual booting (as suggested before) is a much better option.
2. That current PSU is junk and will go bang if you install anything modern on it.
3. Suggested parts:

Z68 Motherboard (Gigabyte) get the most expensive 1155 socket you kind afford.
i2500k will be loads
DD3 RAM 8GB 1600
PSU CS430

All up around 500.
 
Why? Z77 USB3.0 only works with ivy bridge (he wants a sandy bridge) natively and most z68 boards have USB3.0 chips on them anyway. The only reason to go z77 is the PCIe3.0 but meh, 2.0 isn't even saturated yet. Z68 boards will be super cheap too.
 
they are about the same price as Z68 from what i have been seeing. And USB 3 works under sandy too, at least under the Z77 extreme4.
 
bigfellla said:
Why? Z77 USB3.0 only works with ivy bridge (he wants a sandy bridge) natively and most z68 boards have USB3.0 chips on them anyway. The only reason to go z77 is the PCIe3.0 but meh, 2.0 isn't even saturated yet. Z68 boards will be super cheap too.
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I did a quick search on Newegg for Z77 and Z68 to compare, and it seems the results landed several of each.

Would you mind posting a link to the board you're specifically recommending? The Z68?

Thanks.
 
Durango_Boy said:
I did a quick search on Newegg for Z77 and Z68 to compare, and it seems the results landed several of each.

Would you mind posting a link to the board you're specifically recommending? The Z68?

Thanks.
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Z68 and Z77 are chipsets. Multiple companies create multiple boards with those chipsets. Chipset means it's got the same socket and generally similar features and compatability.
 
wolfeking said:
Its a great board, but useless if you are gaming. You can get a lot farther with a 2500k and Z77 or Z68.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157263 would be a good one about the same price.
If you went to a 3570k and Z77, then http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128549 would be good.
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I don't play games on my computer. So, with that known, is the board I linked a good starting point? I kind of loosely picked a few components based on that board as a starting point, and I was waiting for some replies and suggestions to compare notes.

I understand I'm probably the minority here, not building a PC for gaming, but let's just make that clear. I'm not building a gamer machine.
 
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