Any hardware gurus?

RimGreaper5000

RimGreaper5000

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Ok, so 2009 was a good year for me at work, ending with fat bonus that I'll be getting real soon.

So instead of being a responsible adult and pay bills, take the wife out to dinner, and buy some necessities - I'm thinking it's time to upgrade the pc a bit and go for speed.
Hardware stuff is usually my forte, but as for how all of the components work together and use power, etc. - not my strong point.

That being said - a few things:

Mobo:

I have a mid-tower case. Is there a higher end board I can buy that:

  • will fit into my mid-tower case for my HP A6720Y
  • has a chipset that will support a quad-core processor
  • has memory slots that will support speeds of 1066Mhz or higher
  • has plenty of PCI/PCIe slots... well, more than one.

Memory:


  • Will my M2N78-LA (Violet) be able to handle 4-6GB of 1000+MHz RAM (assuming I can find this in DDR2)?

  • If so, will will my processor be able to keep up? That's to say that the factory DIMMs are like 300-400MHz (I think).

Heat:

If I go the memory-only route (if its possible), will the faster RAM cause a heat issue?


Specs:

Here's what I got in the box:



In a nutshell - just want some new found speed and would like to know the best way to go about it... without remortgaging my house. Anyone got any ideas?
 
I don't really have a budget - it's more of a "comfort zone". I know this stuff costs some dough.
 
1. What is the exact case you have. If you don't know, what are it's dimensions?
2. Your MB can handle 4GB RAM just fine.
3. Heat should not be a concern for the RAM at all.
4. Your CPU upgrade options are very limited with this MB, but also very cheap-I saw well under $100.00

Lastly, if you really want to upgrade you'll need a new motherboard. But this depends on your budget, so it goes back to Soulzz question; what's your budget?
 
If you don't have a budget, go for a full tower case with water cooling on the CPU.

Are you planning on overclocking?
 
Way to have your head on straight. You going to daytona with Red for Valentine's Day? :)
 
Seriously, set a price point you don't want to go past, and there's your budget. It doesn't have to be something that's an actual limit, just a comfort point where you say, nope, not gonna' spend more than x.
 
If you want parts which are performance, but price-conscious, I'd suggest dumping your whole PC and buying:

- an i7-920 from microcenter (if you have one nearby) or ebay(new)+8%cashback from bing
- an x58-based mobo (asus, msi, dfi, asrock, gigabyte... doesn't really matter that much - just don't get jetway or foxconn imo and avoid biostar if possible) socket 1366.
- "budget" cas8 1600 memory (6GB or 12GB, 2GB sticks)
- decent cheap CPU cooler - tuniq tower, xigmatek thor's hammer, etc... that kind
- cheapest ati 5770 you can find - it performs on par with the GTX 260 c216 for almost half the price which is astounding (while waiting for Fermi to come out in a couple months for a real upgrade/ownage).
- can keep your current PSU if not dusty/old/low-quality or buy corsair 700W or 800W if not.
- other components whatever you want
- CM Storm Sniper case.

Alternatively, if you don't want new everything, get a phenom 955 (if your mobo supports AM3) and OC it. Of course, you'll be OCing the 920 too... and the video card for sure.

That's what I'd say.

Whole upgrade should cost you no more than $1000 if done right - perhaps even less depending on what sales you hit.
 
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