How do I upgrade my computer?
My details are:
CASE: AOpen HX-45, Midi-Tower ATX Case
POWER SUPPLY: AOpen ATX Power Supply, 350 watts, ATX12V Connector
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-81GX
CPU: Intel Pentium4, 1.8 GHz
MEMORY: 384 MB (256 + 128MB)
GRAPHICS CARD: Integrated On-board graphics
HARD DISK: Seagate 160GC parallet ATA
OPTICAL DRIVE: Sony CD-Writer/DVD Reader
All I use the computer for is surfing the net, but I would like my computer to be a bit quicker and also take video from my camcorder and create DVD’s, my camcorder has a firewire output port. I want it to be cost effective as well, so if I can keep any of my old gear that would be great
I need help.
I have to upgrade for a Uni assessment, that’s why I’m doing my own computer. Here is a list of what parts I can choose from
MOTHERBOARDS
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L
Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
PROCESSORS
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 or E5200 or E7200
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
CASE
Silverstone SG03
Silverstone TJ08
Antec P182
Antec Mini P 180
NExus Psile
Thermaltake Armor Junior
Thermaltake Armor
Thermaltake Armor +
HARD DISK
Western digital 3.5"
IDE 250GB or 320GB
Sata 160GB or 250GB or 320GB
Seagate 3.5"
SATA 160GB or 250GB or 320GB or 500GB
Samsung 2.5"
Ide 80GB or 120GB or 160GB
Sata 120GB or 160GB
MEMORY
DDR Dimm Modules
512MB DDR-400
1024MB DDR-400
DDR2 DIMM MODULES
512MB DDR2-553
1024MB DDR2-533
1024Mb DDR2-800
2048MB DDR2-800
DDR3 DIMM Modules
1024MB DDR3-1333
2048MB DDR3-1333
DDR2 SODIMM Modules
1024MB DDR2 SODIMM
2048MB DDR2 SODIMM
GRAPHICS CARDS
Nvidia Graphics
256MB FX 5500
256 MB 7600GT
512MB
19 hours ago
512MB 7600GS
ATI Graphics
512MB Radeon X1650-PRO
512MB Radeon X3650
256MB 8400GS
512MB 8500GT
512MB 8800GT
512MB Radeon 3450
512MB Radeon 4850
512MB Radeon 4870
PARTS
(PCI) RS232 Serial Port Card
(PCI) Firewire/1394 card
(PCI2-1x) serial ATA card
POWER SUPPLIES
Generic 500w ATX12V (24pin)
Coolermaster 460W ATX12V (24 pin)
Coolermaster 600W ATX12V (24pin)
Topower 600W ATX12V (24pin)
OPTICAL DRIVE
IDE DVD recorder
SATA DVD recorder
SATA Blu-ray reader
SATA Blu-ray writer
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I agree with duffaboy for the most part- definitely save money by keeping your existing case and optical drive, and maybe add a SATA DVD burner.
Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L, great low-cost board, the only limitation is that only 1-sided RAM fits in adjacent slots.
Processor- since you’re interested in doing video work, take the Q6600. If you were gaming, the E8400 would be a MUCH better buy at the same price. But for video/DVD encoding, go quad.
Video card – For your purposes a 7600GT 256mb is plenty and that should only cost about $75. There’s no point in spending $120-$160 for cards like the Geforce 8800GT and Radeon 4850 unless gaming is your primary usage.
Power supply- 460W Cooler Master
Firewire/1394 card
The only old stuff you should keep is the hard drive and CD/DVD drive, and those should be used in your new unit for secondary devices.
Keep the Case and Power Supply, Also the DVD, CD Drive you have. You could in theory keep your Hard Disk also.
Get a new motherboard and Memory that will work with it and also a Processor to boot. You will need the Firewire card to connect to the Camcorder
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L will work with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
and as for the Memory 1024Mb DDR2-800 2048MB DDR2-800 should work looking at the specs.
This is what the WEB site says
* Because of chipset limitations, do not populate both DIMM sockets of the same channel (e.g. DDR and DDR2), or populate 4 DIMM sockets with double-sided memory modules to prevent system’s failure to start or incorrect detection of memory modules. Please refer to the user manual for the memory configurations table.
* Because of chipset limitations, when using FSB 1333 MHz CPU with populating all DIMM sockets, memory frequency will be reduced from the original, and system instability or incorrect detection of memory module may be occur.
Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information.
Finally you need to do your own research as you are the best judge.
crucial.com they will scan your system and recommend upgrades
Hi,
I suggest the following…
1 x Case Silverstone SG03
1 x GA-EP31-DS3L Motherboard
1 x Q6600 Intel Processor Core-2-Quad / 2.4Ghz 8mb cache (boxed)
4 x 1024MB DDR-2 / 800 (4GB total)
1 x 512MB 8800GT PCI Express
1 x Firewire Card (pci 2.0 complaint)
1 x Generic 500-watts / Power Supply 12v 24 pins
1 x SATA Blue-Ray Writer
(it can read -write blueray’s+read-write DVD’s)
Best regards,
E.T.