Upgrading 2 PCs

[greg20]

Hi everyone,

I have returned once again (last built a PC around 2006) because this forum is great and I always receive excellent advice. So I'm here to seek out some opinions on a rather major upgrade.

I have 2 PCs that will be involved.

PC #1:

The first I built in 2003 with the help of this forum and it's still going strong! It's currently a media server/backup server/ORB (to my smartphone) server and resides in a closet w/o a monitor. It's connected to my 46" Samsung LCD HDTV via a DVI/HDMI cable. That PC has a 2.6 Ghz P4, ASUS P4P800SE, 1 GB of RAM, 120 GB HDD, and a 6600GT. It also has a:

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

that I picked up at Circuit City last summer when they had a good deal going. I basically use PC #1 for surfing the web on my TV (with a bluetooth mouse/keyboard) and also streaming Netflix. It has the following PSU: Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 400W ATX12V Power Supply - Retail.


PC #2 (my current regular desktop PC) has the following specs:

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail

2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (in RAID 0)

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner with Replaceable White Front Panel Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHW-160P6S-04 - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100177L Radeon X1950XTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

LIAN LI PC-60BPLUSII Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6700 - Retail (OC'ed to 3.00 Ghz)

OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail



So what I'd like to do is upgrade PC #2 with a new mobo, processor, RAM and video card. I'll be removing the sound card since onboard sound is fine for me. I don't need monitors, mouse/keyboard, speakers, etc. I have 2 legal copies of XP Pro 32 bit as well as Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I used Vista Ultimate on PC #2 for about a year but I prefer XP so I went back to XP Pro until Windows 7 is out and more mainstream.

My plan is as follows:

1) Backup my data (mostly MP3s, documents, photos) to a 3rd source.
2) Remove everything from PC #1 except for the case/PSU
3) Move PC #2s P5W DH Deluxe, processor, RAM, RAID array, and video card to PC #1
4) Install new processor/RAM/video card/existing 1 TB drive in PC #2

So, a couple questions:

1) Will the 400W Antec power supply in PC #1 be OK with running the P5WDH, E6700, 2 GB of RAM, X1950XTX and the 500 GB RAID array, or will I need to upgrade it?

2) In PC #2, I'm looking at going with:

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131299
$129.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115036
$189.99

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145215
$70.00

SAPPHIRE 100269OCSR Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - OC edition - Retail
Item#:N82E16814102831
$259.99

Total: $649.97

3) Any issues with those parts, or suggestions for anything better/more cost effective? Budget maxes out at around $800.

4) Should my existing PSU (OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail) be OK with those?

5) The 1 TB drive I already have (Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM) does already have the 32 MB cache so I'm not seeing a big reason to run out and buy a Caviar Black drive if I already have this one. Is that about right?


I think that's it. Thanks as always for your help and suggestions!

EDIT: I forgot to mention my goals. I do use the PC a bit for work but mostly for Flight Sim (FSX) and Photoshop CS2.

[Alaron]

Sounds like a good plan overall.

1. I would look into a new power supply. The X1950XTX required a 450w unit minimum, so a quality 500w will be a better fit for that upgraded system.
2/3. Those parts look fine. The only suggestion is to swap for DDR2-800 if you don't plan to overclock.
4. A 700w power supply will be fine for that new setup.
5. If you have the 1TB, go ahead and use it. If you ever need to pick up another drive, we'd recommend the WD Blacks.

[greg20]

Excellent, thank you!