work in progress

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rharding91

New Member
I have a few questions about the compatibility and power requirements of some hardware I am looking into purchasing.

Looking to Purchase

A new Case, Motherboard, and processor.

I would like to replace my case with a Antec 900 and am considering putting this motherboard into it. I would like to know if this is a good motherboard for the price and what would be a good processor to put on it.
I want to know if that motherboard coupled with the right processor and my existing parts will be able to give me what I am looking for. If not please include suggestions of things that I should change. I am looking to spend as little as possible probably like everyone else in the world :p

Current Parts

Processor Fan looks something like this.
The two video cards I have are Gigabyte GV-RX70P256V.
I currently have 4 1GB memory sticks.
I also have SATA hard drives, DVD/CD Player/Burner, and a SD card Reader.
I have a 150W power supply. Im guessing I will need to upgrade that also.

Personal Info

I like to do moderate gaming. I play games such as Sims 3, Age of Empires, Bioshock, Fallout, Black and White 2, Burnout Paradise, Need for Speed Undercover, Lord of the Rings BFME, Hitman. Now this isnt the important part considering I only play games about an hour or two a week. The important thing in a computer rig is the look of the case and the comfortability I have with the computer. By that I mean I want a smooth running computer. I hate nothing more than to be stuck waiting on my computer. I am also a storage freak and love to have it all accessible. I dont know what that does to performance but I am planning on putting in as many hard drives as I can.

I would really like to be able to burn a CD, browse the web, listen to music, and have all my applications such as AIM, UTorrent, Smart Defrag, Peerguardian, AVG AntiVirus, Rocket Dock etc running and not see too much lag.

I need to be able to use Photoshop and Autocad smoothly for work. Not at the same time of course.
 
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dgrevillius

dgrevillius

Member
150W....WOW. Yeah, you will definitely need an upgrade. You will also need to get faster RAM. That slow RAM will bottleneck your new system.
As far as a good CPU. You could get a Q9550 or another comparable Core 2 Quad.
You mentioned having two video cards, but that video card is not Crossfire compatible, so I am a bit confused on that. The motherboard you want only has 1 PCI-e slot, so you could only run a single video card.
 
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rharding91

New Member
They weren't in a system together they are just what I have laying around. I've been using my work laptop for far to long now and want to put my computer back together. It stopped working a while back and I took it in to get diagnosed and they told me the Motherboard was dead and I have just been letting it sit.

I use Windows XP and thought that XP could only use four GBs of ram?

How much more power would my PSU need?

Also I know absolutely nothing about processors so your going to have to give me more info on those please. All I know is you set them on if they fit they work and if they don't find a new one.. heh. Most of my computer experience comes from repairing computers as a summer job in the back of a softque during high school. They told me to just plug and play so while I have seen a lot of computer hardware I don't know anything extensive. I'm very good at finding drivers though :p

I would like to purchase my motherboard first and then try it out with my current processor and see if it works and if not be forced into buying a new one. I spent some time looking at motherboards and the only difference I see with them is the look and size.

My current processor says
Intel '04 Pentium 4
640 SL7Z8 CHINA
3.20 GHZ/2M/800/04A
5503B303

My old mother board is this.
 
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dgrevillius

dgrevillius

Member
Alright. That CPU will indeed work in your new motherboard.
For the RAM, XP can only see about 3.25 GB of RAM. You can use 4 GB in the machine and it will work, but you would be limited to the 3.25 or so GB. I was actually referring to the speed of the RAM, not the amount. That PC2 4200 you have now is pretty slow and may not work in the new motherboard at all. The memory support list on the Gigabyte website only goes down to PC2 5300 (DDR2 667). I would recommend getting 4 GB of PC2 6400 (DDR2 800) RAM. That will be compatible with the motherboard. The motherboard will actually take DDR2 1066, but with the older CPU, I think it would be a waste of money, because there wouldn't be any performance increase.
 
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rharding91

New Member
Could you give me a suggestion on RAM? Also I was planning on upgrading to Windows 7 if that would change the amount of RAM that could be used. I didnt know there were different speeds I thought there was only amounts heh. How can I tell if the ram will fit?

Would this be a good option?

How much power should my power supply have?
 
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Backwoods166

Backwoods166

New Member
rharding91 said:
Could you give me a suggestion on RAM? Also I was planning on upgrading to Windows 7 if that would change the amount of RAM that could be used. I didnt know there were different speeds I thought there was only amounts heh. How can I tell if the ram will fit?

Would this be a good option?

How much power should my power supply have?
Click to expand...

that board can run 1066 ram so these would be a little better.

G.Skill 4gb

here is a decent PSU
Antec 550w

if you give me an idea of how much you want to spend I can always find cheaper or better products.
 
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rharding91

New Member
I purchased the motherboard, ram, and PSU.

So far only the motherboard has arrived. Could I run the motherboard and my video card on a 150W PSU until it arrives and use my old RAM?

Just so I could install windows and get it set up, until the other things arrive and then swap them out? Or would that cause problems down the line.

New Motherboard

OLD Ram

Processor
Intel '04 Pentium 4
640 SL7Z8 CHINA
3.20 GHZ/2M/800/04A
5503B303

Video Card

My harddrive is a WD 500gb WD Caviar SE16

I have 5 Silenx Fans

Write Master CD/DVD RW Burner/Reader.

CPU Fan
 
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FATALiiTYz

FATALiiTYz

New Member
Wait are you gonna stick with the pentium 4 processor? That wouldnt work well in games and would bottleneck the graphics card. My friend has a p4 and can barely run halo 1 and nfs underground 2 plus most games need at least a dual core. You can either get a core 2 duo e8400 which plays game great, or the quad that dgrevillius suggested which wouldnt play games quite as well, but still decent.Though it would be much faster at burning videos etc... maybe 30% faster I'd say. Its really up to you.
 
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rharding91

New Member
Yes I am sticking with that processor. The power supply just arrived I purchased the one backwoods suggested.

Could I run my computer with my old G-Skill Ram?

I would like to use it until the new RAM comes.

Or would getting my computer set up using the old RAM then switching them cause problems?
 
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rharding91

New Member
How can I tell if a processor is bad?

I was looking around and found an old motherboard box that had a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. Im going to assume thats better than the Pentium 4 previously mentioned. Now the only problem is that I know the old motherboard I found that was holding the Q6600 processor is bad but I dont know if the processor is bad. Would putting it into my new motherboard to test it out be a bad idea?
 
linkin

linkin

VIP Member
Go ahead and test it. If it's a bad CPU it might not even boot up. but you are right about, it will kill a pentium 4.
 
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rharding91

New Member
In case you guys were curious here is what it looks like so far :]

444193213_1546352039_0.jpeg


I can post other angles and stuff if you want just ask. Its not running yet :/ waiting for the RAM.

Ive got my video card, WinTV thing, and a USB expansion slot plugged in. I also got my wireless N card plugged into my expansion slot.

Im loving it so far, I just wish I could turn it on heh. Next time I might spoil myself and get rush shipping.
Havent bought the case yet because it costs 100$ and it was either RAM or Case. Heh
I somehow managed to find money to buy a new wireless keyboard and mouse tho. @.@

Ill have it soon though!

I might be just shoving it into my old case. I really want the Antec 900 though!
 
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