Time to start this process again (1 Viewer)

[Ted]

yeah, well, I don't upgrade very often. I can't believe it's already been four years. I mean my machine is still humming along quite nicely, I just want to add more RAM and can't with this muthaboard. So it's probably time to start fresh anyway. What I'm saying is that chances are, by the time I want to upgrade a chip, I'm probably going to need another motherboard, too.

but the cost isn't that big a deal. the processors cost the same (920 and 860). Looks like a 1366 board are maybe $100 more. once I have 8GB RAM and a good fan, that's not going to be a big deal. So I just want the best set up.

Oh, and it's got to work with the GPU I recently got - Radeon 4850. That won't be a problem, right? It's PCIe and there's a slot on both of these boards, as far as I can tell.

 

[Severum]

I'm also using a 4850, it should work without any issues.

What's your current PSU and CPU?

If you're looking for an aftermarket HSF make sure it's compatible with LGA 1156 if you go that way. I'm using a Noctua NH-U12P which has a new 1156 compatible version.

 

[Rickboy]

Another vote for the i7. It is just flat out the best out there at this time.

 

[Ted]

I've still got the 500W PSU. Is that gonna be enough? Current rig is Asus A8N-E with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Code 4600+ 2.4GHz chip.

I love the Zalman fans you've recommended, Severum, and figure I'll get this one - http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=CNPS10X.html - assuming it'll fit into my case, the Antec P180. It's such a nice quiet set up. Speaking of the box - an ATX is an ATX is an ATX, right? That's what I've got now so one of these new ATX mobo's should fit this box, right?

 

[RazorOye]

I've still got the 500W PSU. Is that gonna be enough? Current rig is Asus A8N-E with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Code 4600+ 2.4GHz chip.

I love the Zalman fans you've recommended, Severum, and figure I'll get this one - http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=CNPS10X.html - assuming it'll fit into my case, the Antec P180. It's such a nice quiet set up. Speaking of the box - an ATX is an ATX is an ATX, right? That's what I've got now so one of these new ATX mobo's should fit this box, right?

what PSU is it? Got a brand/model number?

With a single card, I'd think it could handle it. I had a PC Power and Cooling 510W that handled a similar load for years - rock solid. But not all 500W are created the same.

The 4850 says this on its power requirements if you're not running a multi-GPU setup:

450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended

 

[Ted]

Razor, not sure on the make/model of the PSU, but it's been running my system fine with three hard drives, two DVD drives and the powered GPU.

I think I'm leaning toward the 860 since it draws less power. should run cooler?

Here's what I'm thinking at this point

i7-860 2.8GHz

Asus P7P55D motherboard

8GB Corsair DDR3 1600 RAM

Zalman CNPS10X CPU Cooler

Three WD 640 GB HDD in a RAID 5 array

Slap it all into my existing Antec P180 box with my existing GPU. Total of $951 before I buy Windows 7, which my friend who works for Microsoft will get me at his cost

 

[Cajun Mike]

still i would see how much power you need I had a nice 400w antec had to buy a 500w seasonic then things were working properly

 

[Ted]

thanks, Mike. I'm going to let it try. I think the 500W will work as I'm not really adding anything to it that draws more power than I'm already drawing.

So I was in MicroCenter yesterday and they had the i7-860 on sale for $230, $60 cheaper than newegg, so I got it. They really do have some kick *** pricing in there. Win7 Pro OEM was only $130. The rest of the hardware was about the same, so I'll order it from newegg to avoid the sales tax

 

[Cajun Mike]

Hey checkout zipzoomfly their pricing has recently been decent also

 

[Saint77]

thanks, Mike. I'm going to let it try. I think the 500W will work as I'm not really adding anything to it that draws more power than I'm already drawing.

So I was in MicroCenter yesterday and they had the i7-860 on sale for $230, $60 cheaper than newegg, so I got it. They really do have some kick *** pricing in there. Win7 Pro OEM was only $130. The rest of the hardware was about the same, so I'll order it from newegg to avoid the sales tax

500 will work fine. Intel I believe requires less, but I like pumping more juice for two reasons. 1, nice clean power, and lots of it, reduces the chance of odd data errors. and 2, if you ever wish to add stuff later, even a faster CPU or larger faster drives, youll have that power in reserve to handle it. I have 750 watts right now, and I should be just fine when I finally jump to an i chip.

Your local Microcenter may be different, but I detest that place. All thier sales staff work on commission, and they dont know mostly basic **** about computers. Ive run into a few "associates" who are dumber then a bag of hammers, and for many years thier pricing was :terrible: they have gotten better though, ill give them that, but only because the Egg, Frys, and whomever else was kicking thier arse all over the place.

Ive ordered from zipzoomfly before, they are ok. Also look into Directron.com.

 

[eaux-yeah]

I don't know the AMD Quad Phenom II is pretty impressive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103692

That's what I am getting. I like the X4 series. Ordering it next week. On zipzoomfly, it's $189.
Also getting the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT MB w/8Gb Ram.

 

[Cajun Mike]

but I like pumping more juice for two reasons. 1, nice clean power, and lots of it, reduces the chance of odd data errors.



and 2, if you ever wish to add stuff later, even a faster CPU or larger faster drives, youll have that power in reserve to handle it. I have 750 watts right now, and I should be just fine when I finally jump to an i chip.

lus-un2: Drag your PS down and all sorts of weird things start happening. CLEAN CLEAN

 

[Ted]

OK, thanks to everyone who helped. Just made a contrib to sr.com for all of your help.

I did my rebuild this week and it's screamin'. I went with the i7-860 with the ASUS board, 8GB RAM and the RAID 5 setup. Everything was a Bree's. It was so nice that, for the most part, everything was laid out the same on this MB as it was on the old one. The only tricky part was the Zalman CPU cooler. That thing is HUGE. But I got the wires around it and everything in there is nice and cool and quiet.

I reran a job I had to do last week that took about four hours to run (matching 1.5 million records from one file to another of .5 million on several criteria). This time it took one hour

 

[buzd]

Nice!!

 

[RazorOye]

there's a computer in there, somewhere, right?