Let's upgrade a computer using 700% of our intended budget!

Shurikane · Dim Panties As String Joined: 24 Sep 2002

Surprised?

My predicament is due to part bad luck and part poor planning on my part, resulting in a situation that, if it was to be done again, I could've done in half the time, with half the hassle and twice the knowledge.

First of all, remember how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. physically damaged by graphics card. Following that event, I went to the store and picked myself up a shiny new Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro. Ka-ching!

200$

Not bad, two hundred bucks and I'm back in action, good to last all the way 'till next year. Unfortunately, I run into a new problem: a CPU bottleneck. Old games work much better, but newer games perform worse than before. A bit of chatting around confirms the bottleneck, meaning I got to get a new CPU, the mobo to put it on, the RAM to make the mobo work, and the power supply to handle all that new load, plus a 160 gigabyte SATA hard drive for miscellaneous tasks I needed to have done while I was at it. Cost of the whole thing: eleven hundred dollars. That brings us to:

1300$

I get home and empty my case. I love my case. It's a beautiful case, it's a sexy case, and I want to keep it no matter what. I painstakingly unscrew and unplug everything and place it all wherever I can find spots in my room. Once my case is devoid of parts, I begin reassembling everything.

Then something hits me. There is a single IDE channel. That is a problem: I have two IDE hard drives and one IDE DVD drive. Don't tell me I gotta replace one of those HDs with a SATA one? What's the price of a 250 GB SATA anyway? 75 bucks?

1375$

I plug in the minimum amount of parts: graphics card, a hard disk, the DVD drive and the floppy. Practically, I'll need one of the IDE HDs since it happens to have the boot records stored there but I'll take care of it tomorrow. My only goal right now is to turn on the computer, verify the proper lights are on and setup the BIOS to my liking before I go to bed.

I turn everything on and check up the numbers. Alert: CPU temperature at 40 degrees Celcius and rising. Considering my Athlon 3200 did 40 degrees under the heaviest load, I have concerns.

First, I find out my case isn't "temperature friendly". Ideally, I need a case with a side panel that has one of those pipes that reaches almost near the CPU. Next, minutes after I boot up, WC alerts me of a defect in the CPU's heatsink! I look up possible solutions to the problem but only find pieces of advice that contradict each other. For some, 35 degrees is the apocalypse. For others, 55 degrees is chilly. The CPU's manual tells me absolutely nothing of the thresholds. It's WC who eventually informs me that he found out the maximum temperature for my CPU was 60 degrees Celcius, and hovering above 50 was asking for trouble.

Where does that lead? A new case? A replacement heatsink? Can we say we'll easily reach another 75$ here?...

And thus, I went from what was supposed to be a 200$ quick and easy fix, to a monstruous, integral computer replacement reaching 1375$ and rising.

It's not bad for a new PC, considering the quality of the parts I got and the power I know they are capable of. The problem is: I didn't want to buy a new PC!

shadokastur · Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:05 pm Post subject:

Trash. That set of circumstances is absolute trash. Sorry. But the bright side is pretty easy to see and enjoy.

SirGunslinger · Rebel without a clue Gender: Joined: 21 Jun 2007

Heh you fell victim to the computer "slippery slope" (I ran into that problem myself 6 months ago). I work with alot of desktops and servers at my work, and I can give you a few pointers on heat.

#1 Do you have a power supply that can handle the workload?
This is likely the source of your headache. If you're using an underpowered power supply then it will make your computer into a Foreman Grill in a hurry. If you can, tell me what numbers are underneath the 12V column (There is a small grid on the side of the powersupply that gives excat specs on it). Luckliy, power supplies are cheap if you know what to look for (wattage is crap! Go by the amprage capacity on the 12v rails).

#2 Check to see if there is sufficent thermal grease between the CPU and the heat sink. If there isn't that is a cheap 3 dollar fix.

#3 Ideally, a computer should run around 40 Degrees C. A computer is safe up to 55-60 Degrees C, and dangerous around 70 Degrees C. You might want to consider finding the latest upgrades for your Motherboard, and possibly upgrade the BIOS (espically if it was made before the CPU existed).

#4 If you want to improve cooling capacity without external fans, and you have PCI slots to spare, then you can pick up internal fans for 5-20 dollars that will help out with internal heat (espically for the graphics card).

Good luck with your stone soup =),

Blackmage · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:53 am Post subject:

Heh I always run dated hardware so overhauls are sparse. I remember when I bought DooM III having to buy a lot of new stuff, like new case, new mobo, cpu, ram and power supply. Now I'm still running an ancient AGP 8x mobo with socket 754 and a GeForce 7600 GS, the setup works nicely but for things like Supreme Commander all settings have to be on minimum for the game to run smoothly in multiplayer in late game.

I need a new computer - Delima, PCIe 2.0 is around the corner and so is AMDs replacement for the AM2 socket.

Aiman · Demon Knight Age: 43 Gender: Joined: 14 Jan 2003

Wow dude... sorry to hear. I upgraded my computer recently with just $400. And should last me for a while until I decided to completely build a new system.

Blackmage · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

I just ordered my HDDs yesterday for my box I'm building in January, 2 WD Raptors, $165 each after rebate.