Upgrade Dell Dimension 9200 or build my first pc?

Daithi40

Hi,

Just looking for some advice please. I have a Dell Dimension 9200 I bought from the dell outlet in 2007, now running Vista Business 32 bit. It came with XP and ever since I upgraded it to Vista the first time and then to Windows 7 Ultimate, the gfx card has constantly been a pain, BSOD, spending ages trying to find legacy drivers etc, none really working, pretty sure it runs off one GPU and cant get the other one up after trying dozens of beta and whql drivers (specs below)

So, my question is in terms of time and money is this machine worth trying to upgrade, or should I look at building my first pc?

1. What is your budget? €6-700 excl monitor

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Bit of video editting, bit of gaming... Warcraft, Guild Wars 2

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No - have Windows 7 Ultimate

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Hard drive/DVD Drive/Case/PSU/etc.] (If possible state brand and model of the parts to ensure compatibility)

5. Do you need a monitor? Maybe

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.] if I need one, is 24' reasonable/too big etc?

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] Not sure of max resolution, monitor details above, can upgrade if that is the recommendation

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.] No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes]

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]

9. When are you purchasing? [In 21 days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City]

* * * * *

Dell Dimension 9200
2.40 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM_1' has 1024 MB (serial number F14D55EF)
Slot 'DIMM_3' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM_2' has 1024 MB (serial number F14D560E)
Slot 'DIMM_4' is Empty
WDC WD3200KS-75PFB0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB)

Nvidia Geforce 7950 GX2 1GB

Creative SB X-Fi

Intel(R) 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection
RT73 USB Wireless LAN Card
Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R SATA RAID Controller
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
Logitech G15 kb + mouse + n52te

_NEC DVD+-RW ND-3650A [Optical drive]
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDRH10N [Optical drive]

DELL E172FP [Monitor] (17.1")
FLATRON L1718S

ST310005 28AS USB Device [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- FAT32

Eboggles

I'd get a new build, I'd say that thing is slow on 2GB of RAM on Vista...

Item|Price
AMD FX-8120 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€144.19
ASRock 970 Pro3, AM3+, ATX|€66.14
8GB-Kit G.Skill Ares PC3-17066U CL11-11-11-31|€53.43
Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen, 1GB GDDR5|€178.49
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€55.99
Samsung SSD 830 64GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€67.08
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€60.68
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil|€55.01
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€700.00

Right on the money .

Excluding monitor though.

Monotype

It's not a horrible system, but since it's a Dell, you can't squeeze any more out of the CPU through overclocking, unfortunately. The graphics card would also be slow enough despite being top end in its day. 2GB is not really enough either and DDR 2 is a good bit more expensive that DDR 3.

I'd go for Eboggles build. There's quite a bit that you could rescue from the old system if you wanted to. I think the DVD drive is SATA, so you could take that. The hard drive could be usable again. It wouldn't be as fast as a new HDD, but you've got an SSD in that build so your main programs will fly.

Daithi40

Thanks for the advice - much appreciated. Would you recommend I spend money on a monitor? If so, suggestions - maybe 200 or so?

Also, is the hardware in the dell for junk, or any point trying to sell any of it on adverts? Thanks again.......:)

Monotype

Somebody might buy it. Or pieces of it. It's probably not worth over the €100 mark anyway.

Monitor:
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/monitors/20097160/dell_23_u2312hm_lcd_8ms_vga_dvi_d/details.aspx


Don't forget to install 64-bit Windows.

Daithi40

Hi again, have managed to up my spend a little, can I ask if I am missing anything or is there anything that is over-/under- specced? Also, still need to add a monitor.

Also, from reading a bit over the last week or two, am I as well not to pay the extra for an i73xxxk?

Do I need more cooler/fans?

Is the PSU enough?

Again, thanks in advance!


Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155 ready for dispatch 215,26 €

16GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL10-10-10-27 ready for dispatch (only 1 article) 87,13 €

Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box ready for dispatch 99,74 €

Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s ready for dispatch 73,49 €

BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower USB 3.0 black, ohne Netzteil ready for dispatch 54,95 €

be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-530W ready for dispatch 67,83 €

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail ready for dispatch 307,22 €

Samsung SH-222BB schwarz ready for dispatch 16,50 €

MSI Z77A-G45, Intel Z77, ATX, DDR3 ready for dispatch 110,89 €

Total: 1.033,01 €

pcadvice

looks familiar:), change the psu to super-flower amazon is probably going to be recommened. i7 cpu doesnt add anything for gaming, if you are going to overclock get a cooler like the 1 monotype recommened to me http://lb.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=49134&agid=669

Monotype

You probably don't need that much RAM unless it's a lot of video editing that you're doing.

550W amazon is in stock if you want a old reliable:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/500+-+600+Watts/30069/Super-Flower+Amazon+80Plus+550W.article

Daithi40

Great! Don't know what you mean, was off the top of my own little head ;)Going to go ahead and order now... just need to remember where I put the sellotape and blu tack for when I try to put it together...Again thanks for all the advice, much appreciated!

pcadvice

Monotype wrote: »

You probably don't need that much RAM unless it's a lot of video editing that you're doing.

550W amazon is in stock if you want a old reliable:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/500+-+600+Watts/30069/Super-Flower+Amazon+80Plus+550W.article

didnt notice the ram, for gaming with windows 7 64bit 8GB is enough

pcadvice

i edited my previous post with a link to that cooler, if your a 1st time buyer dont forget to add the 3 voucher codes from bargain alerts discussion for a total of €20 euro off

Daithi40

Got it and vouchers - thanks - order gone in... €970 approx... and now for the waiting

Daithi40

Yay - just got confirmation that HWVS have received bank transfer... didn't think I was impatient but it appears I am...But, was just looking throught the order and :facepalm - where's my RAM?? Oops lol - forgot it, so no probs, will order it from komplett or memoryc... so off I go and have a look but then I start to get inquisitive re Mhz, and CL10,9,8,7 etc and now am unsure of which to get? It seems that 1600MHz is the sweet spot...Corsair Vengeance gets pretty good reviews but then so does Kingston Hyper X over here, oh and this reveiw says RipJaws is really really good...aaargh....I know it probably doesn't matter too much, and I am prob being anal but for the sake of a few euros, can I ask what you might recommend? Think I was recommended above that 8GB should be plenty...Thanks

Monotype

Yeah, just get some 1600MHz RAM from memoryc. No need to worry about timings too much unless they're much higher than the other standard ones (lower timings = better). CL9 or so are usually fine, but the low latency CL7 ones usually aren't worth the money.

Get 1.5V RAM if you can. Higher voltage sometimes can cause issues.