XPS 600 upgrade

Dacelonid

The title says it all really, I have got a bit of money and want to upgrade my PC
I currently have a Dell XPS 600 and fancy upgrading it via a self build.

Basically I plan to salvage as many parts from it as possible.

My plan is
Get a new Case/PSU and MOBO (because the ATX board won't fit in the XPS), and use the CPU(P4, 640 (3.20GHZ), HT, 2MB, EM6), Memory (4 x 512Mb 533MHz), Drives (250Gb SATA, DVD Writer), graphics (7900GS)etc out of the XPS. Then at a later date upgrade the Graphics card, sound card.
The things I was thing of were
MOBO etc
Case
PSU

Alternatively I could go the other way, and upgrade the Graphics card now (something like this) and then add on the other things later

The big stumbling blocks I see to upgrading in future is:
the CPU, it is only a 32 bit, which means I can't upgrade the memory beyond 2Gb
the case, can't add an ATX MOBO to the dell case, which means I will have to upgrade all of them at some point anyway.

So any advice on my plan or the compentents I've chosen (apart from don't buy Intel or nVidia) would be greatly appreciated, especially any advice that says you can get the exact same thing cheaper elsewhere.
Also advice on what i should be looking for wrt MOBO/processors/memory/PSU etc would be appreciated.
Many Thanks
Dace

DirkVoodoo

Downgrade to an E6600 and my god, please change PSU. Tagan,Seasonic, Corsair are all very good brands. NorthQ and Fortron should be avoided like the plague.

EDIT: Some info on what you use your PC for (details!) and how much you are prepared to set aside for a budget.

Dacelonid

Thanks for replying DV.
It dawned on my afterwards alright that I should say what it is used for.

Mainly used for Gaming, I also use it for work (Java Programming) and also use it for Photo Manipulation and video editing. Also do some desktop publishing every now and then. So I reckon Gaming would be the main driver in terms of power.
My budget is about €500 - €600 at the moment, probably another €500 around Christmas, early next year.

From reading reviews the 8800 GTS seems to be a buy well worth it (80% of the power of a 8800 GTX and 60% of the cost is how one mag put it) so I reckon that is ok.
What about the rest.

As regards the PSU, what power should I be looking for, assuming I won't have SLi and will probably add another hard drive.

Thanks
Dace

DirkVoodoo

Might be a bit of an overstatement. The GTS is very good for the price, ive ordered a 320MB version for a home PC, but the GTX is a beast.

For €600, hardwareversand.de:

Intel Core2Duo E6320.....................................................€140
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 500M, 320MB.................................€243
2048MB DDR2 Corsair TwinX XMS2 CL 5, PC6400/800.............€87
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 R3.3: Intel P965, ATX, PCI-Ex............€88
ATX-Netzteil Corsair 520W 520 Watt...................................€86

Thats €644, without a case and you can pilfer the rest (HDD, inputs, etc.) from your xps. The 320MB GTS will struggle a bit with high resolutions and memory intensive features like AA/AF.

You can mix and match, to suit your needs. Hard drives only need to be added when your current one is full. I never understand ppl buying TB of capacity and only installing maybe 50 GB. By xmas, larger drives will be cheaper. But if you have €90 and need space, get a 500GB SATA off the site above.

Dacelonid

Thanks for all the info DV.
One more question, while looking around, it's been pretty easy to decide on the memory, processor, graphics etc, but what should I be looking for wrt the mobo.
Granted it will be a socket 775 ATX board, but is there anything else I should be looking out for.
Thanks again
Dace

DirkVoodoo

Well, you can go intel 965 or more expensive 975. If you want an NVIDIA chipset for Sli, the 680i boards are pretty good. I think on your budget there is little point going for a P35. You will be "futureproofing" yourself for hardware you don't own, and when you do decide to upgrade again, the hardware scene may have changed and prices will most definitely have dropped.

That Gigabyte board is the one i have. Guilty of some vdroop under heavy loads, it cant be beaten for its price:performance as it can compete with boards twice its price and is a solid overclocker. Keep looking at the 965 boards, they will more than suit your needs.

Dacelonid

Taking DirkVoodoo's great advice I have come up with the following.
Can anybody see any problems with anything here, or can anybody recommend anything better.

Buy Now
Corsair Powersupply 520W Black, ATX/EPS
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, P965, Socket-775, ATX
Turbine V54 Gaming case, Sidedoor with 250mm Fan, Midi tower

Buy at Christmas
Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 1.86GHz Socket LGA775
Windows Vista 64 bit. (would prefer XP, so will have to see if I can get it somewhere. Otherwise it will be Vista)

Buy Next Year
4 Gb Ram

=======================================================
My current configuration / salvageable parts are
P4, 640 (3.20GHZ), HT, 2MB
DUAL-CHANNEL 2048MB (4X512) 533MH
250GB SATA (7200RPM) HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB
16X MAX. DVD +/- RW WITH DUAL LAYER WRIT
nVidia 7900GS PCI-E

I don't expect any conflicts or problems, but just to be sure can anybody see any.

Thanks
Dace

Anti

You might be screwed on the power supply part. As dell psu's are not stardard size. You might want to check the dimensions of your current one before you go out and buy a new one !

Dacelonid

Anti, that is why I am buying a new PSU, Case and MOBO because those are the Dell proprietry ones. ie replacing those gives me a PC that is actually upgradeable. Or at least that is what I think anyway.

TerrorFirmer

Dacelonid wrote:

Anti, that is why I am buying a new PSU, Case and MOBO because those are the Dell proprietry ones. ie replacing those gives me a PC that is actually upgradeable. Or at least that is what I think anyway.

That's the problem. A new standard atx psu might not fit at all. So you might have to take tools to the case for it to fit.

papu

as regards the psu , dude cut some holes int the case and some no more nails will hold that sucker in there XD

Anti

Ah hes buying a new case too. Thats grand then so !

Dacelonid

Hi All,
Thanks for all the help and info so far. Now I have more questions
All the parts mentioned above (case, mobo and psu) arrived and once I figured out what all the connections were, I preceeded to assemble the new machine, until I ran into a small snag. The heat sink from the Dell doesn't fit the new ATX Mobo. Bit of a pain really. So not willing to run the CPU without a heat sink, I reassembled the Dell.
So in order to proceed with the build, what should I be looking for in a heat sink for the CPU. If I by a stock Heat sink will it fit the new board.

I do plan on upgrading to a Core 2 Duo later this year so I also want one that will work with that. (I see they generally come with fans, but I reckon a decent heatsink, with an extra fan positioned behind the Heatsink would be better).

I was looking at this on Komplett
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=320110 which includes a fan or this
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333422

Another thing, the Dell heat sink has a plastic fitting around the base, screwed into the mobo, that hlds the heatsink steady. Is this something supplied with a heat sink or should it have come with the mobo?

Finally, I forgot to order thermal compound to put between the cpu and heatsink, given that I will have to order a new heat sink, should I order the compound as well. How critical is it?

Again thanks for all the help
Dace

DirkVoodoo

Take a look at the Arctic Freezer 7:

OCUK

It is an extremely affordable cooler that gets some really good results for the price. Look around to see if you can get it from another source, OCUK shipping is a bit pricey for that one item.

Buy a tube of Arctic Silver 5 or if you don't mind the extra few degrees, the supplied TIM that comes with any cooler you buy should do fine. In fact, even marmite is a good TIM, apparently.

Gloopy

If you're in Dublin, you can get the AF7 in Peats for €25, which would obviously take p&p out of the equation

Dacelonid

Hi All,
Thanks for all the help everybody, especially DV.
I have finally assembled my new Dell XPS 600 hybrid (need a better name really) and am well chuffed with myself. Not as hard as it would have seemed at the start and I definitely learned a lot.

The things I bought were
Corsair Powersupply 520W Black, ATX/EPS
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, P965
Turbine V54 Gaming case
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro.
Arctic Silver 5 paste

And salvaged the rest out of the Dell.

Had a few scary moments (forgetting to connect the Graphics card to the PSU and finding the cable afterwards, none of the surround sound speakers working, Windows telling me to reactivate and not being able to find the license) but everything is working now and it has definitely got me interested in modding and things like that. I may not have done any this time around, but now that I know it is not rocket science and I know I can count on Boardsies for help I am definitely going to go down the route of overclocking etc.

All that is left now is for me to decide which project to take up next, reanimate the Dell into a Media PC or continue the original plan to make a better gaming rig than the one I had.

So thanks for all the help people, and hopefully I can pass on what I have learned from ye onto others.