I’m planning to upgrade my computer in a couple of weeks due to various problems i’m having with it. Unfortunately I haven’t been keeping up with computer hardware for a couple of years so i’m hoping someone might be able to give me some advice.
At the moment I’m looking at the following upgrades
Processor - Intel Quad-core Q6600 {£146}
Motherboard - either Asus P5N-D {£92}, or MSI P43{£63} or Asus P5Q {£101}
Memory - 4GB (not using old 2gb). No idea what the difference is between brands {<£50}
DVD-RW - Is there much difference between models? {<£20}
I got these from an article in PC Gamer about building a games computer, but it’s a few months out of date now, so there’s probably some better choices around. I use my computer for games mostly, but I want to start making DVD’s from the videos i’ve got on my computer so I’m assuming the quad core will be useful for the encoding. I’m also still using Windows XP, but may look at Vista in a few months, is it worth getting the 4gb ram if only 3gb will be accessable at first? Also is there anything else I need to be aware of in regards to cooling/power etc with the parts i’ve got?
The parts above come to about £300, I can stretch to about £400 by next week when I plan to order everything.
IMHO I would go with a dual core computer. The number of times where you could use the extra two cores are much smaller than the times you could use the bigger processor on each core. Especially for gaming.
I’m just going by the magazines i’ve read most games don’t use the cpu as much as the graphics card, so even a slower quad core would be more than enough, whilst the extra cores would provide a huge boost with video encoding. I don’t play FPS’s, just really RTS’s and RPG’s, so there’d be nothing overpowed like Crysis to run on there.
Yeah, i’ve tried reinstalling windows, i’ve tried reseating all the components (except the processor) and i’ve tried running various tests on the memory, but I still get random restarts, especially when playing games.
I had to change grapics cards a few months ago as my old one overheated and died. Thats also when I got the psu and case which seems to have helped. I’m guessing though that maybe the motherboard and/or memory may have been damaged at the same time but have just held on a bit longer. I’ve just decided that as i’ve got some money saved up for a change I might as well just upgrade the lot and save the hassle of trying to pin down the problem.
You may need to upgrade your case fans or CPU cooler. Especially with that 4870 you are running generating some serious heat. I’d try that (fairly cheap) solution first.
At the moment i’ve got the 3 x 120mm (2 front + 1 rear) and 1 x 200mm (top) fans, plus the cpu fan/heatsink are better than the stock ones. There’s space to add 2 more 120mm fans, one on the side and one between the hard drives and the graphics card, however there doesn’t seem to be a heat problem anymore.
I’ve just been playing Red Alert 2 for an hour, opened the side of the case and touched the side of the graphics card heatsink and it’s nice and cool. Before I changed cases it got too hot to touch after 15-20 minutes on a game. Also the computer quite often reboots in the middle of the night when all that should be running is Utorrent and AVG Antivirus, neither of which should stress the cpu or graphics card.
Or RAM. It might be worth it to take it to a shop that can swap out parts until they find the bad component (if there is one).
That motherboard probably will support a quad-core AMD processor. If you don’t replace it, that’ll save you enough to pay the labor charge at the shop.
Thanks for the help everyone, however i’m really more interested in doing an upgrade to an intel core processor whilst i’ve got the money. I bought this computer just before the core processors were coming out and from what i’ve read they outperform the amd processors by a huge margin. I’ll probably just pass on my current parts to a friend of mine to use in his computer, then he can sort out what the problem is.
You might want to try reinstalling your CPU heatsink. Take it off, clean the thermal paste off, reapply thermal paste, then put it back on. Sometimes the heatsink can become slightly dislodged, and if your heatsink is not working properly, even just running windows can overheat your system enough to shut it down.
I know you’ve indicated your Power Supply is relatively new, but it might be going bad. Do you have access to another PSU you can swap in for testing? I’ve had bad PSU’s that caused random restarts, and it seems to be a common problem. A friend told me he has gone through seven PSU’s in the past 5 years (this is a bit extreme though).
BTW the link you posted to your motherboard shows several customers with memory problems using this board, I’d look into that also. If you’re going to get new memory, try to get a reliable brand like Crucial or Corsair.
I have an ASUS P5Q PRO motherboard, it seems pretty nice and stable. I’d recommend it if you’re going to go with Intel processors. It supports dual and quad core socket 775, and has crossfire support for dual Radeon cards.
I get the feeling the OP wants new hardware, regardless of a possible fix of the current.
Q6600 here with 4gb of ram (G.Skill, MSI P6N SLI Plat. mainboard), no regrets. Even things like just burning a DVD (the encoding part) tend to use all four cores. Damn thing screams when I put the priority on high. Even better if you use video or music editing software.
Thanks, I’ll be getting some thermal paste for my new processor, so i’ll redo this one before I pass it on. The bios updates look like they could help too.
I was leaning towards going for the P5Q PRO motherboard, because although I have no plans for crossfire, it’s nice to have the option there, so I’m glad you reccommend it. I don’t know what the differences are between chipsets though, so I was hoping someone might be able to tell me what the tradeoffs are between the boards. Am I losing another feature by getting crossfire support?
Thanks. I assume you’re talking about video dvd, thats why I was thinking of getting a quad core. Is that 4gb of ram on 32-bit xp? If so, are there any problems except for it not all being recognised?
Of the 3 motherboards you’ve listed, the first, Asus P5N-D uses a Nvidia chipset, which I wouldn’t recommend for Radeon cards. The second one, MSI P43 uses the P43 chipset, which is a scaled down version of the P45 used in the Asus PQ5 board.
I have 4gb, which shows up in Win Xp as 3.2 gb. No problems with it here.
Thanks to everyone who’s replyed so far, sorry I disappeared but my computer has had all sorts of problems since my first post. No internet, frequent crashes, boot drive failure, more crashes withe the replacement hard drive etc, so I haven’t had easy access to the internet.
There’s been a slight delay with the upgrade, as I had to lend some money to my parents, but i’ve just had a tax rebate and will be ordering everything tonight. Which is good because i’ll be glad to have a working computer again. This is what I’m planning to order, can anyone see any problems with it, or anything else I might need. I’m getting some thermal paste for the processor heatsink, are there any other bits and pieces that might come in handy?
Looks sweet. I don’t see anything wrong with your selections. Get some arctic silver compound and some air cans to clean out your video card and other older components and you’re set.
Also, overclock that CPU, you should have some decent headroom with that cooler.
Can’t speak to WinXP and 4gb… I’m using Vista Home Premium 64bit and the 4gb is just fine.
Related if anyone cares… Even Vista 64 supposedly can support 8gb of ram. But when I put another 4gb in, Vista freezes after the initial load of Windows during boot. A fix for that was that I’m supposed to install Vista with the 8gb already in so that it can recognize it, but that’s just what I’ve read on other forums. I have swapped the 4gb pairs, so I know my 2nd set works (identical brand/timings), just need the time to reinstall and test the ‘install Vista with 8gb already in’ theory, which I think is crap, but I hope it works too.
well, I ordered the parts thursday night, for delivery today, but they haven’t arrived. I’m guessing the roads are still blocked from the little bit of snow we’ve had.
I’ve ordered a tube of Arctic Silver, and I cleaned the all the components last week, although I’ll probably give them a quick spray with the air duster as I transfer them to the new motherboard
I think I’ll leave that for a few months, knowing my luck i’ll end up breaking things.
I don’t think I can afford that as well at the moment, but it could be good if I do try overclocking at a later date.