The more comp savvy here, need your help and recommendations.

Okay, i was planning on getting a new processor when they announced that whole July 22 price drop fiasco, but it never happened. I guess I felt my comp was fine and I didnt want to dish out the money for it, but as I NEED to buy alot of new parts to improve my non-existent case airflow to prevent summer overheating, I thought might as well.

Right now, SoCal temps have risen enough that my comp can no longer cool itself, and I need to use a deskfan to blow from the sides. Im not sure why this is happening now, as I didnt have this problem before, but regardless its something I have to fix. My videocard is what is mainly overheating, burns to the touch. So im planning on getting the Accelero S2 as a replacement heatsink. Its fanless so good case airflow is imperative for it to be at all effective. Because of this, and also because the new components are gonna need more power, I plan on getting the Ultra X-Connect XVS 500w Modular PSU. The modular cables will also definitely help with airflow I imagine. In that regard, the onyl thing I need is a good case, which is where Im sort of stuck. I need a case that will be able to take the size of the PSU, good airflow, and laid out in a way so I can use the modular cables. Silence is also a plus, looks/design I could care less.


Now on to the main upgrade I want to make, this would be new processor + mobo. Because of the whole July 22 price drop, Im defintely interested in getting a Core 2 Duo, I just dont know what. I would prefer to spend less but also want the best bang for the buck. I wont be playing games, so that should narrow down my choices somewhat, and I really just want it to be a significant upgrade from what I have now, which is an old Athlon XP 2100+. The only intensive stuff my comp will be doing is probbaly photoshop and foobar (ie kernel streaming,resampling,DSP).

As for the motherboard, it obviously needs to be the right socket for the processor. As for that, it just needs to have an AGP slot to take an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro & 5 expansion slots in the back including the AGP slot. I dont need any other features really as im not updating anything else. I do want to stay in the 300 dollar range for both the mobo+processor, though I have no idea how realistic this is....

As far as processors go, any of the lower-end conroes can OC like nobody's bread. I personally found the 2.13GHz 1055 MHz FSB to be well-worth it's price. It runs stable OC'd at 2.97 with the stock cooler (Could probably hit 3.12+ with an aftermarket unit).

A LGA775 socket mobo with an AGP slot may require a bit more digging, as many of them come with PCI-E slots. Although ASUS boards perform well, the quality of the build leaves much to desire. Abit usually has quality boards for prices that are only slightly abreast of the cheapest generic ones. Just make sure it can support the FSB speed of the CPU. I'm guessing the RAM interface is going to be PC2-6400 (DDRII-800).

This is out of order I know, but I've found a new joy in Lian-Li cases. Yes, they are a bit more pricey than most cheap (and fugly) ones, but they are probably of the highest quality as far as mass-produced cases go. All of their cases are made with aluminum so 1) it's light as hell and 2) the chasis doesn't retain heat.
Everything from design to production is just awesome. The one that I have (2nd link) points the PSU exhaust out to the front of the case so that the 120mm intake fan in the back can intake cold air (blows cold air right to the core areas instead of retrieving it from the lower front intake). It has another 120mm exhaust fan in the front and the whole face plate of the case is snap-detachable (awesome!). Everything is just so intuitive (it include thumb-screws, w00t!). Just a glimpse of how great they are.

Newegg has some deals on Lian-Li cases right now. I don't know if you need something bigger than a mid-tower but here are some suggestions:








Hope this helps.

AGP/Core2Duo boards are really hard to get, better upgrade to a cheap pci-express one and get a pci-express mobo.
If you want to save $$$, get
C2D E4400
ASUS P5B-E
= 206$ for cpu+mobo.
The cpu will go to 2.6ghz and beyond with ease.

On the downside, you'll have to get DDR2 memory and a PCI-E vid card. I myself am running C2D E6600 with P5B-E @ rock stable 3ghz, with a passively-cooled 300W (!) power supply and stock heatsink. Massive upgrade from my Athlon 64 3000+, even though I replaced Radeon 9600pro with even crappier geforce 7300le...

Add +30$ for a stick of 1gig of DDR2 RAM (cheap generic stuff works wonders) and $70-80 for a 8500gt (shouldn't be a step down from Radeon 9800pro). Or, since you won't be gaming, get 7300le/7100 like I did and get much more memory instead, at least 2 gigs. I recommend getting as much as you can stuff it into your motherboard, but then you'll have to use XP x64 aka hell if you use 'exotic' hardware.

In the end that's a bit more than $300 but it surely is smoking fast compared to your old system.

Na I was actually contemplating a Lian Li case. The only problem is, some of them seem to not work well with modular PSUs, i.e. having the PSU unit at the bottom sort of cut off. As for AGP, I realized fast its not supported but im still not willing to just scrap my card as its more then I need as I don't even game.

I was thinking of the following actually:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775
ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA LGA 775 VIA PT880 Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard
-this mobo has both agp/pci-e if in the case i want to upgrade, and I can use my old ddr400 in it. I know its not great, but as I said Im not really doing anything crazy with this so Im going to assume this is the best bet cost-wise. I know DDR2 works better with the core2s but its not something I immediately want to get now. Since the mobo can support both, its not a big deal either way.

Together it only comes to roughly 255, which is well in my budget. And if i havent overlooked anything, should work OK with the rest of my hardware.

My PSU is modular, and I haven't run into any problems really.

But yea, sounds like a good roundup there.

hmm ok I guess the Final Setup will be this:
Case: LIAN LI PC-65B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
PSU: Ultra X-Connect XVS 500w Modular
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe + ZALMAN CNPS9500
Motherboard: ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA LGA 775 VIA PT880 Ultra ATX

in addition to what I already have:
Videocard: Radeon 9800 Pro + Accelero S2
HDs: Western Digital Caviar SE 80gb (Master) + Seagate Barracuda 320gb 7200.10 (Slave)
Memory: 1gb DDR400

that comes to a total of 530ish USD. haha thats definitely more then I would have guessed I needed to spend....
im probbaly going to do this in two purchases, the first of just the case, psu, and vga cooler since thats the stuff i really need now. Then a month from now after recovering, ill go and get the mobo and cpu.

EDIT, went ahead and made the first order, came out to 271.43 USD....Im gonna go cry now....

Haha, yea it gets pricey. I think I spent like $600 something when upgrading to the current rig I have now, but that's including everything AND RAM.

But it's so worth it. Core architecture rocks.

yea its defintiely worth it anyways. My comp needed an upgrade for the longest time, Ive just been putting it off. Ill probably actually throw in some DDR2 ram and an external DAC once this is all done too...

forgot to check FSB, getting the E6420 instead. Na whats a good heatsink to get for the core 2 duos? I was thinking of getting this:


but im honestly not sure if i want to spend 50 bucks if i dont need to, not to mention im not completely sure how well this will fit.....

Oh and guess I should ask, since I wont be overclocking at least on this mobo, is stock heatsink efficient?

For sure. If you're not going to OC, don't bother spending money on a heat-sink. I'm still using the stock heat-sink and my processor is OC'd : 2.13 -> 2.90. Runs at nominal temperature/stability. I actually like the stock unit, it gets the job done and runs a bit quieter in comparison to other after-market models.

But if you were going to get a heatsink, yea, I would recommend the one that you linked. It comes with different socket adapters, but it would definitely fit a 775.


is also something I would recommend if you wanted something a bit cheaper, but it'd be fan-less. There's also an ultra-120 version that I've heard good things about, if there's room for it in your case.

If you have good circulation inside your case (which I'm sure you will with that case you just got), I'd go fan-less. I was/am just too lazy/poor to go and get one for mine.

Oh also, I would recommend getting this
500GB SATA drive over the Seagate. It's value-priced, but it only gets good reviews (I have one myself).

haha fuck it then, stock heatsink it is. I actually looked it up and i was shocked to see that the stock heatsinks for dual cores arent that bad. Ive just had such bad experiences with prior ones from the likes of Athlon....
What I meant by fitting though wasnt the socket but if the actual size of the heatsink would fit in my case. My motherboard wasn't listed in the compatibility list, but some other ASRocks were, with a good number not having enough space. As Im sure you know, the Lian Li case is pretty fucking wide so I dont think Id have trouble fittign anything in, in that respect. But yea whatever, I rather not spend the extra money for a heatsink if i dont need to so I can scratch that off the "to buy" list.

Oh and Na, the HDs, card, and memory is what I already have. I bought that seagate ages ago. But yea that SATA doesnt look bad, Ill keep it in mind when/if I need more space.

Oh and randomly, do the dual cores come with sufficient thermal paste? Or should I just spend the extra few dollars for a tube of arctic silver? I know I had like 3 tubes of this shit, but as I havent installed a cpu in so long, I have no idea where I put them.....

It doesn't come with a lot of paste, but it's enough for it to work without problems. If you feel like you need more after you see it, then go for it.

just waiting on my motherboard currently but looks like xp decided to be a bitch. deactivated, so i tried to crack it since i dont have the cd anymore nor anymore codes for it. it seemingly worked but the only problem was the day ticker didnt go away. so now i cant log on without it telling me to activate first, and if i try to activate, it says its already activated.

i probably should do a clean install anyways but since im in midst of finals and studying for gres, i dont want to waste my time reinstalling and shifting over all my files if their is a way to possibly get around this. the only thing i could think of myself was reseting bios and the clock, didnt do shit...

ok...i pretty much got all my parts finally and assembled it. but i sort of ran into a problem. the psu I bought didnt even allow me to power on my comp nor did its 12v connector really fit into my mobo's socket.....which I imagine could have been the problem. Anyways, I put in my old 350 psu and this managed to power it on with some tinkering. Once its on, it seems to run fine at least far as I can tell.

Now the actual problem.....I can't really power this comp on how it is by simply pushing the on button. It takes a combination of pressing the button, and jiggling the 20 pin connector on the mobo for it to turn on. once its on, i have to be careful not to move the comp or it will end up going into a cycle of i believe....reseting before it can load anything up. Its pretty fucked up.

So a few questions, is 350 even enough for my new rig? and secondly and probably mroe important, wtf is wrong with my power? Im kind of guessing at this point the connection of the mobo is faulty which would explain why the new psu simply didnt work and why the old one only works by jiggling the connector.

also one last question, probbaly not important. strangely, the power led connection on this mobo only has two pins, while the connector itself has 3. should i just leave it unplugged, does it matter what i do with this? right now i attempted to just plug it in with only 2 pins so the first part is just sticking out to the left. It was a longshot and obviously didnt work but I just left it like that....