Looking for confirmation/suggestions...

[RRandal]

My wife is in need of a new computer (she is using an old Dell Dimension 4300), so I am looking at building her a new one with the MB, CPU, GPU, PS, DVD, Memory and HD out of my current system, and upgrading my system in the process.

For hers I am going to use the following parts from my system:
MB – Asus P5B
CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Heat Sink – Scythe Ninja
GPU – EVGA GeForce 7600GT
PS – RaidMax RX-630A
DVD – Lite-On LH-20A1P
Mem - Corsair XMS2 2 x 2G DDR2-800
HD – WD 320G
OS - Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511

The case that I am thinking about for her system above is:
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119137

For my system, I will be left with an Antec 900 case, a Patriot Warp 64G SSD system drive and a Dell 2407WFP monitor. I don’t game, but I do office apps (word, excel, outlook), home finances (Quicken), web surfing, music (iTunes), video and photo editing and use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop quite a bit and am looking for a substantial improvement in overall performance over the system above. I am thinking that I want to stay with an Intel processor and an Asus MB, but everything else is wide open. Not sure if I want to go to an i7 processor or not - don’t think that I can cost justify it. A Quad core will probably be sufficient. I am thinking about the following components:

GPU – looking for suggestion
MB - ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131329
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115041
PS - SeaSonic M12II SS-500GM 500W ATX12V 2.2 /EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power ... - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151056
MEM - CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145215
HD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284
DVD - can't find a SATA burner that is in stock at Newegg... May have to look elsewhere.

Will the above components work well together, and are there any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Rodney

[Khalil]

I don't like the P43 chipset. I recommend you go with a P45 which is the P5Q and P5Q Pro, the CPU you chose is awesome, same with power supply .
For what you mentioned you would like to do with your machine an ATI 4850 will do very nicely.

[RRandal]

Like:
ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131295

I don't see a P5Q PRO that has onboard Lan.

Any recommendations on DVD burners?

Rodney

[glc]

All P5Q series boards have onboard lan.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136167
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136168

[RRandal]

I swear (I think ) that when I looked at those drives not more than 2 hours ago, they were out of stock.

Any specific recommendation of a P5q?

Thanks,
Rodney

[Khalil]

I like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131296 and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131377

[RRandal]

Originally Posted by Khalil I like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131296 and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131377

If I was to go with the P5Q-E board, what would be a good set of 4G memory? I didn't see any DDR2-1200 Corsair mem at Newegg.

I am considering trying to overclock this system a little if that makes any difference...

Thanks,
Rodney

[Khalil]

I make no recomendations or answer questions regarding over clocking. It is a sure way of ruining expensive hardware. Maybe someone else can answer in that regard.
If you get the hardware we suggested for you, you are very unlikely to use the entire capabilities of the Q9550 at standard clock, so why overclock? Overcolcking is a last resort when one has low end hardware and needs more juice out of the rig.

[RRandal]

Originally Posted by Khalil I make no recomendations or answer questions regarding over clocking. It is a sure way of ruining expensive hardware. Maybe someone else can answer in that regard. If you get the hardware we suggested for you, you are very unlikely to use the entire capabilities of the Q9550 at standard clock, so why overclock? Overcolcking is a last resort when one has low end hardware and needs more juice out of the rig.

You're probably correct!
So what memory would you suggest for the P5Q PRO?

For the P5Q-E?

Thanks,
Rodney

[Khalil]

It will work with either motherboard.

[RRandal]

By "it", I am assuming that you are referring to the original set of Corsair from above?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145215

Am I overspending on this, or is this a cost-effective set?

Thanks,
Rodney

[glc]

This is all you need:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

[RRandal]

Khalil, Glc, thanks for the help!

So here is what I think is the final configuration:
ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131296

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115041

ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/1G Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121278

SeaSonic M12II SS-500GM 500W ATX12V 2.2 /EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151056

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136167

Does everything still look good?

I am still going to use a Patriot Warp SSD drive for the OS/Program drive and it currently has WinXP 32-bit and all of my programs installed on it. When I install this drive in the above system, will XP and all of the prorams still function, or will I need to re-install everything?

Thanks for the help,
Rodney

[flanzig1]

Before you shutdown the old machine, would uninstall drivers for the video card,NIC,sound and any other options that may be on the old Asus motherboard. Also uninstall IDE drivers and load the generic set. Doing this will eleiminate driver conflicts with the new parts. You will need to reactivate XP. Worsed case, you may need to do a repair XP install, your programs will be still there.
For the old machine, would consider a better quailty PSU than the Raidmax.

[RRandal]

Originally Posted by flanzig1 Before you shutdown the old machine, would uninstall drivers for the video card,NIC,sound and any other options that may be on the old Asus motherboard. Also uninstall IDE drivers and load the generic set. Doing this will eleiminate driver conflicts with the new parts. You will need to reactivate XP. Worsed case, you may need to do a repair XP install, your programs will be still there. For the old machine, would consider a better quailty PSU than the Raidmax.

So... go into Device Manager and uninstall? Like, under "Display Adapters", remove the Nvidia Geforce 7600 driver?

What about the IDE drivers? Under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" I have "Intel(R) ICH8 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2825", "Intel(R) ICH8 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2820", 2 entries for "Primary IDE Channel" and 2 entries for "Secondary IDE Channel". Which should be removed?

After these are removed, will the system still operate long enough to shut it down?

The RaidMax PSU was a quick and cheap attempt to rescue the system from a recent series of mishaps.

Thanks,
Rodney

[glc]

If you don't mind spending the money, the Corsair 520HX modular power supply is really sweet in a RC690. The bottom mounted PSU in that case needs long cables anyway, and a modular makes for a much neater installation. You might consider one for the Antec 900 too. It's made by Seasonic and has stronger +12v capability than the 500 watt Seasonic.

Here is the thread for moving a hard drive and a repair install if necessary:

Repair Reinstallation of Windows XP (using XP CD)

The preferred way to uninstall a driver is add/remove programs, if it's listed. If not, then it's done through device manager.

[RRandal]

I think that I will stay with the RaidMax in the wife's new system - it is only about 2 weeks old, but I have replaced the SeaSonic with the Corsair for my system. The RaidMax is modular and all of the cables were plenty long for the Antec 900 case. Hopefully they are long enough for the RC690 as well.

Thanks for the link to the hard drive moving article.

So, what about the IDE drivers? which ones get removed - see previous post?

And the system will still run after all these drivers are removed?

Thanks,
Rodney

[glc]

You do not remove the storage controllers, you update the drivers for them and choose standard dual IDE controller. This will allow you to boot the new system as long as the SATA controllers are set to IDE mode in the bios. If you wish to use AHCI mode, you will need a floppy with the AHCI drivers on it and you will have to do a repair install.

[not important]

Raidmax PSU's are VERY low quality.

[RRandal]

OK OK, you guys are about to convince me to ditch the RaidMax, even though it is only 2-3 weeks old. I guess she deserves a good system.

Thanks for the help all. I think that I am going to go with the above components.

Rodney

[glc]

Look at the label on the Raidmax for a UL code - it will be an "E" followed by 6 numbers. It will be in very small print. Please post it, we can research who really made the PSU. Some Raidmax units aren't bad and could be trusted as long as you don't have a high end power hog video card. Case in point - I have a 600 watt Ultra in this machine that works fine, my video card is an old ATI Fire GL and before the Ultra, it ran fine on a 350 watt unit. We just advise against Raidmax in general because they do have some pretty crappy units.

[RRandal]

Hey GLC,
I finally received all of the parts and am in the process of rebuilding my system and building my wife's. The RaidMax PSU that I have has a UL code of E243838. Is it a good one or a bad one? Where are you going to determine this?

Thanks,
Rodney

[glc]

http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/t.../gfilenbr.html

Raidtronics. So-so. It won't blow up, but it's not really that many usable watts. Shouldn't be a problem with a 7600GT, those run okay on 400 watts.