Compatible hardware for upgrade

[Laz de Silva]

Hi,

I have an old PC (specs below) which was not in use collecting dust till recent but now I wish to service and upgrade a few parts since the old laptop I have been using is giving a lot of problems. I got this gaming PC assembled in early 2004 and have played games such as Counter Strike, C&C Generals, and America's Army with no problems but later on kept giving me alot of problems mainly overheating and shutting down.

I don't want to go overboard with the upgrade since I'm not a big gamer no longer but would like to play games such as World of Warcraft and some older games on it.

I'm not willing to spend anything over $200 for the upgrade as I will probably be buying a gaming pc in the near future (probably in 1 to 1+ years). Any help with compatible hardware parts would be appreciated.

* GIGABYTE P4 TITAN SERIES 875P GA-8IK1100 (Rev 2.x)
- Not looking at upgrading the motherboard.

* INTEL P4 2.80CGHZ 1.525V max, 800-MHz System Bus, 512kb L2 Advanced Transfer Cache
- Not looking at upgrading the processor

* ATI RADEON 9800 Pro 128m
- Not looking at upgrading the graphic card

* KING MAX 256MB DDR400 X2 (512mb) RAM
- Will be upgrading the RAM to 2GB(1gb+1gb). I found the motherboard supports 'Dual Channel DDR 400 / 333 / 266 ECC'. Is there a specific brand I should go for which is not too expensive??

* ATX SM400 (12V=15A, 5V=25A, 3.3V=20A)
- Power supply definitely needs to be upgraded. I am sure this must not have been powerful enough to support my hardware, hence the constant hang ups especially during summer months. What would be a good (not too expensive) power supply to support my hardware? I will also need to fix a third fan to the side of the pc casing where there is a slot. I’m assuming it will also need to be a 24 pin power supply? Fan size: 80mm (8cm).

* H: 17inches W: 18inches Case, 8 USB drives (2 infront, 6 rear), 5 slots for hard drives, 4 slots for other drives
- I am assuming I have a Mid-Tower casing. Not looking at changing the case.

Other (not looking at changing these):

* Hard Drive 160GB + 120 GB (280GB) SEAGATE BARACUDA
* DVDR - Pioneer DVD16x, CD 32x
* CDR – ASUS 52x24x52

So basically I’m looking at upgrading just the power supply to support all of the above, as well as the RAM. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Wolfwood]

You mentioned overheating - sure you don't just need to reseat your heatsink, or put a heavier duty cooler on it? P4s did run hot, and if you're running stock it might be a case of just picking up a TRUE and a 120mm fan or something.

$200 is going to be hard to buy the parts you want, unless you manage to pick up your RAM on eBay for a good price. New, 2x1GB will set you back about $130 due to the rarity of DDR. A good quality PSU is also going to lay waste to the double-Dame Nellie dream.

For RAM, it's not going to make that much of a difference what brand you get your hands on since you're buying for capacity, not overclocking. From a quick browse, it looks like Corsair and Kingston are the only ones really left in the market for DDR, and either should be fine. You won't need ECC, it's pretty bizarre to even see support on a consumer board. For gaming, plain old vanilla DDR 3200 will be fine.

A 400W PSU (I'm assuming from the SM400), if it's a good quality one that provides clean power, may just support your hardware well. But that's a big if, and you didn't list a brand name, so it may be one of those nasty cheapo $50 jobs - which is bad news and asking for stability issues.

Your mobo has an older style 20-pin ATX connector, so you'll need to make sure the PSU you buy supports it. Most of the higher end 24-pin ones can split four pins off to form a 20-pin, so just keep an eye out. The motherboard also has a four pin EPS connector - so make sure the PSU supports both four pin and eight pin EPS connectors (this way it covers all motherboards when upgrading), the cheaper ones can come with just one or the other.

Personal choice - I'd be tempted to splash out for a Corsair HX-750 - it totally smashes your budget, but think of it as the first part for your new gaming machine You might be able to go the cheaper 650 and still have room to grow - I have a 600W Seasonic powering a Core 2 Q9550, 8GB DDR2-8500, four 250GB drives and a GeForce GTX 275 and it doesn't skip a beat.

For the 80mm fan I'd recommend the Noctua NF-R8. Pushes some nice CFM considering how quiet it is.

As I said, smashes the budget, but there's just some things you shouldn't go cheap on.