Upgrade Time

[darkangel]

I haven't been on the forum for a long time know but i am back.

I have decided to upgrade my p.c. I have got some ideas so i want to know what u think of them.

Thermaltake Xaser III V1000A Black(with window)
550w ATX Power Supply
Abit AT7 MAX 2
512mb PC2700 DDR SDRAM(DDR333)

now these may be the wrong things and they won't work together so please tell me if they don't.

and any recomanded to get cheap prices on any of the bove would be great.


Thanks

 

[Ian]

Those all seem like good components to me! Can you refresh my memory, as to your current setup and we can take a look and see if any of the components may conflict, or if there are any better choices

 

[darkangel]

At the moment i have got a:

ABIT Silurio GF4 Ti4200 OTES
Creative Audigy 2 Soundcard
AMD Athlon XP 1.67Ghz
Liteon DVD & Rewriter
Maxtor 40Gigabyte Hard Drive

this are the commpents i am not upgrading if there is any more information you need just ask.

Thanks

 

[darkangel]

From talking to my brother and a look on the inrenet i have changed my shopping list.

I am know getting:

Q-Tec 550w Dual Fan Gold PSU £24.90
ThermalTake Xaser III Black Case with window £95.18
Asus A7N8X-VM motherbord £78.43
512mb PC3200 DDR Memory £59.93

I am also getting some new cables. I am getting these from two websites, overclockers.co.uk and scan.co.uk. In total with delivery this is going to cost me £296.10. This is quite a lot of money so any changes you think i need i will welcome and any other sites with chepper prices then what i have i will gladly have


Thanks

 

[Ian]

That seems like a good choice to be honest - the power supply is good (I have the same one), as is the Ram. I cannot comment on the case, but I assume it will be good for that price (perhaps read up on it though), and the motherboard has had some good reviews

 

[darkangel]

Thanks for all your help

I recomened the case for all the people who trying to keep their cases cool. They all come with 7 fans all around the case. They also come with a fan controller and temp monitoring. To find out more info you could go to scan.co.uk and go to cases and click on info on thermaltake cases or u could click on this link:

http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/xaser3/v1000a.htm

this is the case i am getting.

Thanks for you help

 

[muckshifter]

Whoa ... 'ang on a mo …

You're making a mistake with that MB ... with only a max of 333FSB and on-board video (an mx chip) give it a miss. Sticking 3700 in there may not work. (seen to many people make that mistake)

Go for the Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2 ... and you can get it at the same price. Granted you'll need a decent graphic card, say an FX5200, but at lest you'll have the freedom to choose.

Another point with any nForce2 MB is the 'duel in line memory', what that means is a little extra speed by using TWO sticks of memory ... in the case of the Deluxe board you fit 'em in the blue memory slots ... and unless you plan to use a 400FSB Barton stick with 333 (2700) memory.

Also consider the MSI K7N2 Delta-L - ATX, 400MHz, NVCrush18D, 5 PCI, 8X AGP, 3 DDR400, 5.1 AC, NV LAN, 2 USB2.0, ATA133 ... a little cheaper than the Asus, but a little more 'robust' in my opinion.

Oh, as for your case I could get you for £20 one that has 8 fans and will do the same job, however, if the ambient temp it 90c then no amount of case fans will cool your system. :brow:

 

[darkangel]

First of all thanks for the warning.

Secondly if i did go with the mothebord you suggested the MSI K7N2 Delta-L would i be able to use the merory i wanted. I have never heard of this make are they a reliable compney.

I would of gone for the deluxe but the brother has got it so i wanted to be a bit diffrent. Also it said i would need a good make of memory like corsair but that is a bit more expensive then normal memory.

I would go with the MSI K7N2 Delta-L aslong as i know this is a good mothebord and is reliable.

Lastly could i have some information on the case you where talking about please

Thankyou again

 

[muckshifter]

darkangel, MSI are one of the most reliable MB's

DA ... I'm a system builder and the MSI Delta is my mainstay board.

You'll not have any problems with 400FSB memory, but unless you intend using a 400FSB Barton I would stick to 333, it’s up to you. Don't skimp on the quality of memory ... Kingston, Samsung and Crucial are all good. Corsair is ok but I seen a few complaints, I do not personally like it.

The case is a 'bog standard' (Blue Nokia) affair from one of my suppliers ... I was just kidding you on such an expensive case when a cardboard box will do ... it does look nice though, but I tend to look at the monitor when doing any work.

 

[darkangel]

Thankyou for your help muckshifter


Another quick qiestion what do you mean by Barton

 

[muckshifter]

Hehe, no problem ...

AMD make the Athlon CPU as opposed to Intel's Pentium chips

Under the Athlon 'umbrella' are several chips ...

There is the Thunderbird ... starts at 1.3Ghz 266Mhz FSB
There is the Palomino
There is the Thoroughbred at 266 & 333FSB (so be careful you get a 333)

... and then we have the Barton at 333 and 400

Apart from the TBird all the others are also called Athlon XP chips, just to add to the confusion. :crazy:

My advice is to either get yourself a ...
Athlon XP 2400+ (Thoroughbred 266FSB)
or an Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton 333FSB)

Hope that wasn't too confusing.

 

[floppybootstomp]

A 550W PSU for twenty five quid?

Seems too good to be true.

Is that a momentary peak rated power, or can it supply continuous current at that rate without any hiccups?

Q-Tec? I haven't heard of them.

 

[darkangel]

i throught it was a good price. I am not sure if it is contnious. If you want mre info i got it from overclockers.co.uk

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Q_Tec_139.html

if u go on to this link you will see a whole range of thir fans.

Their is somethink on the page which says

'Note - the power cables are shorter than usual on this PSU - Motherboard = 12", HDD/CD = 13" first connector +7" second, P4 = 11", AUX = 11". Please ensure this is sufficient before ordering.'

i am not sure if this is why it is so low but my brother has the same one and he's is fine

 

[muckshifter]

I'm surprised at you Flopps ... Q-Tec make pretty good PSU's, not the greatest, but very good indeed and you can get 'em in the UK.

At 285watts rating on the 3.3+5volt line is pretty good ... should last a while.

Just don't try putting one in a HighTower, the cables are shorter than most PSU'S but fine for the STD case.

 

[Ian]

I've got a 550W Q-Tec in my PC at the momentm and have done for a year or so, it seems pretty stable to me. A bargain for that price

 

[muckshifter]

See

 

[floppybootstomp]

Well well, it certainly does seem a bargain.

I suppose when browsing PSU's at supplier's sites I've always skipped over anything that inexpensive, assuming it wasn't any good.

Forgive my scepticism, I shall certainly consider one of those when next I need a PSU.

 

[darkangel]

Back to mothebords again!!!

I have know decide to get the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe V2 at the moment i am getting a single stick of 512mb pc3200 (PC400) DDR Memory (major)

Will these work????

 

[muckshifter]

Yes it will ... however, I still stress that you should get two sticks of memory. As with all nVidia motherboards you use slot1 & slot3 to get that little extra oomph ot of it.

Now if you can only afford one stick of 512 and wish to add another one later make sure you can 'pair it up' ... with buying two sticks of 256 you'll get the best of both worlds, and you shouldn't really need any more than 512.

 

[1nteger]

Sounds like lots of good suggestions in previous posts, but I'd drop the xaser case (you're paying for something that's pretty flashy but has few extras that are worth the cash)...7 fans is pointless...if you have a couple of low intakes and a couple of high exhausts, you can create he ideal airflow up and over your mobos heatsinks. That's all you need. Add more fans blowing down onto that flow (as in the Xasers door fan) and it can actually interfere with the airflow and work against the cooling overall. In addition, 7 fans will be louder than 4 and draw more from the PSU.

Invest in a good heatsink for the CPU and more on the mobo and/or ram, and save on the case.

Only my opinion, but hey, that's what I'm here for:spin: