Need suggestions for parts, Help wanted

[nickisonfire]

just recently decided against getting another laptop.. and i bought my first desktop..
it came built like this

hp elite m9077c intel core 2 quad
q6600 2.4 ghz
geforce 8500 gt 512 mb
400 gb hd 7200
3 gb ram
windows home vista premium

has not even gotten here shipped yet.. but so far here is what i have bought from reading for the past 2 days non stop =O

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

Belkin SurgeMaster 6-Outlet Surge Protector (4', 709 Joules)

Antec 380 Watts Earth PSU 80 certified


i'll be doing alot of video encoding,picture editing,music listening.. and i wouldn't mind a medium level of gaming

i don't plan to overclock this as i don't want to complicate things for myself

i need recommendations on what else i can do here reasonably... video card recommendations would be appreciated as well.. don't have any brand preferences or country.. just need compatible suggestions

 

[mpilchfamily]

Would have been better to just buy a better system to start with. But here goes.

First of all dump the cooler and AS5. Your not OCing, nor will the system allow it anyway, and you don't plan on it. So there is no need for a different CPU cooler.

Secondly you don't need a new PSU. The added RAm isn't going to stress the stock PSU and your not upgrading anything else.

Third comes back to my first statement. You should have purchased a better system rather then upgrading that one. If you wanted 4 gigs of RAm you should have gotten it. I'm sure HP had an option to put 4 gig in it from the start.

On the brite side the Surge surpressor is a good idea to have.

Sorry if i came off being rude.

 

[nickisonfire]

i got the core build for $470 and was already pre-built .. would the cooler make the longevity any better?.. i only got the psu because i heard so many bad things about stock ones... will the ram upgrade be noticeable compared to 3 gb of hp stock ram? you're not being rude, i appreciate any suggestions, as i said i'm fairly new to all this.. sorry to bother anyone i keep reading about overclocking on the q6600.. any reason why people keep saying this one can't oc?

 

[mpilchfamily]

The cooler may improve tmeps but its not going to effect logevity.

The things you hear about stock PSUs are the ones included with cases not pre built systems. If you where to go to Newegg and buy a new case with a PSu chances are that bundled PSU is a POS and won't support whatever system you install into the case.

In your case ecoding will benifit from the added RAM. So that upgrade can be a benificial one.

The Q6600 OC's great. Your probelm is you have a pre built OEM system. OEMs like HP, Dell and so on keep the motherboard locked down so that there are no OCing options availible in the BIOS. If you want to OC they you have to build your own system. There are software option to OC inside windows but they are crappy and of little help. So stay at stock and worry about OCing latter on down the road when you build your first system.

 

[nickisonfire]

thanks for the reply again.. i guess i can always just keep the parts i replaced as spares in case anything happens.. thanks for the suggestions.. would you recommend adding anything at all or just leave it as is and save for the future.. i am on a t1350 hp laptop @ 1.86 celeron m now with 786 mb ram and i just want the desktop to be night and day compared to what i'm at now lol

 

[angry hampster]

It will be. If anything, upgrade the graphics card. 8500GT is junk for gaming.

 

[mpilchfamily]

If you do that then you will need to upgrade the PSU. But with all of that you should have spent the money on a decent gaming system. Would have saved you money in the long run.

 

[Rockhound1]

This desktop will be WAY faster than your current laptop. You will definitely see a difference.

I agree with mpilchfamily in that you really did not need to buy a new CPU cooler. If you are not going to overclock, then you can go with the stock cooler and be okay. Also, I am not sure buying 4 GB of memory to replace the 3 GB of memory is really going to be worth the money. Your system will most likely be running 32-bit Vista, and 32-bit operating systems will only recognize/use about 3.5 GB of memory.

From your post, it sounds like you would like to do some moderate gaming on this computer and are open to upgrading your video card. While the Geforce 8500 is more than sufficient for surfing, e-mailing, and office type work, it is considered entry level for todays games, and I would suggest you go with something a little better. This opens the door to a lot of options for you and budget is the main consideration for choosing a new video card. I would suggest a Geforce 9600GT as a minimum which can be had for $95 shipped at Newegg. There is a good deal on a Geforce 9800GT which also comes with Call of Duty 4 for $110 shipped after MIR. If you want to spend $150+, then the Radeon 4850 would be a good choice.

As for the PSU, I think you were smart by buying 380 watt Antec Earthwatts. HP tends to put the bare minimum PSUs into their systems - often ranging from 200- to 300-watt PSUs. The Antec you have specified is going to be a much superior PSU to the one that comes in the sysem, plus the Antec is a certified 80-plus PSU which means it is an efficient PSU (saves you electricity/$$) and stays cool as a result. And if you decide to upgrade your video card, then you would definately need a new PSU like this one. A word of caution here - if you decide to upgrade your video card, make sure the PSU will have enough juice to run the new card.

These are just my opinions...

Good luck! :beer:

 

[nickisonfire]

thanks i really appreciate the responses.. just learning all this stuff i feel kind of lost at times.. do you guys know which vid card would be able to be installed with the system the way it is now without having to worry about power issues?.. i'm not too hard into games but would like to play some cool stuff on med settings

also if i did go ahead and upgrade to vista ultimate, if i'm not ocing would putting the hp stock ram in with the g skill to make it 7 gb be ok?

 

[Roguestar]

7GB would be fine as long as you have enough slots for it, and are running the 64-bit version of windows.

 

[Rockhound1]

Your motherboard has 4 DIMM slots, so conceivably, you could add the 4 GB (two sticks) to the existing memory in the system. Your motherboard supports DDR2 667 MHz and DDR2 800 MHz memory. Your motherboard will support a total of 8 GB of memory.

I could not find any specifics on the wattage of the PSU that comes in your model computer. As a result, I can't tell you if you could upgrade your video card without upgrading the PSU. My gut tells me that you will need to upgrade your PSU in order to upgrade your video card.

 

[nickisonfire]

it's an antec earthwatts 380 80+ or w/e

 

[Rockhound1]

Okay, so you decided to replace the stock PSU with the Antec 380-watt Earthwatts PSU. I think that is a smart move on your part.

If I were in your shoes, I would probably get the Geforce 9800GT that I mentioned in one of my earlier replies. It is not that expensive, and it will have no problem running on the Antec PSU. It has enough horsepower to run most current games at high settings (not all, but most). Plus it comes with a really good first-person shooter game, Call of Duty 4.

What size monitor will you be using with this computer?

 

[nickisonfire]

i have an acer 22 widescreen i got a year and a half ago.. it's cool for now i'll be in the market for a 24 inch this black friday or w/e.. with the video card am i able to just swap it out with 8500 gt and that's it? should i be worried about installation,power or other compatibility issues?

 

[Rockhound1]

Drivers for the two cards are different:

175.19 for the Geforce 8500GT
177.79 for the Geforce 9800GT

Should not be a problem.
- Unistall the Geforce 8500GT drivers
- Power down the computer
- Unplug the computer and open the computer up
- Remove the Geforce 8500GT
- Insert the new Geforce 9800GT
- Plug the PCI-E power connector into the card
- Close the computer up and plug it back in
- Power up the computer

Now there are several ways you can install the new drivers. You can let Vista go find the drivers for the new card, or you can cancel Vista's installation and install the drivers yourself by going to nVidia's Web site and downloading the latest drivers for the Geforce 9800GT. It is all pretty straight forward.

 

[nickisonfire]

i understand that concept of physically putting it in.. just am i going to have issues for heat or not enough power to the card with the 380 w antec

 

[betasub]

:thumbsup: for Rockhound's comments above.

The Antec PSU should be good for mid-range cards like the 9600GT, 9800GT, HD 3850 and HD 3870. Make sure you are familar with the PCI-e power cable on your power supply - most mid-range cards require a 6pin connector.

As for heat - the HP case is reasonably well designed for removing heat from the CPU/motherboard/RAM area if you do not overclock. If the pre-installed 8500GT is passively-cooled (i.e. no fan, heatsink only), there will be some air-flow provided by the case layout. Even so, the graphics cards above all control their temperature fairly well with active fan speeds.