upgrading/rebuilding from Dell XPS 420

crawlb4uwalk

My 8 year Dell XPS 420 up and died today.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_420
Nothing happens when i try to power it up. Recently all the USB ports have been failing and drivers for mouse, wifi adaptor, tablet etc are not reading. I'm guessing the motherboard died. Other than that it was way to slow with only 4gb RAM. The motherboard is not a regular shape and the case has the same shape to accommodate that so I'd have to replace the case anyway if only replacing the mb.
From the specs in the link above if there are any parts I can use I will but I'd like to get as much power as possible into the new machine with new parts if needed.
So I think I need:
Case
Motherboard
CPU cooler
RAM (16-32GB) I have 1GB x 4
Processor
Power Supply
Graphics Card
am I leaving anything out??

1. What is your budget? [€600-700]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Adobe, Autodesk softwares and Internet]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No, will use Windows 7]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [I hope my two 500gb SATA hard drives are ok otherwise I need everything?]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [n/a]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080] [No, its fine for now.. Let's keep the prices down!]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [No]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [sorry i don't know what that means ]

8. How can you pay? [ Card]

9. When are you purchasing? [very soon]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [No thanks]

Digital Solitude

Antec One 45
Termaltake Berlin 630W 60
16gb Ram 120
i7 processor 300
Motherboard 90 (going higher prices)
1tb hard drive 55
Second hand GPU 150
€830 total
8gb ram and a cheaper CPU will knock 80 off immediately. Cheaper motherboard if CPU won't be over clocked will bring into budget. I'll do up a full parts list and links tomorrow

Digital Solitude

Realised you won't need HDD so 775 total so far

crawlb4uwalk

thank you. This is looking good!

I could live with 8gb of RAM as long as there is room in there for more later. Right now I need to get this back up and running.

Digital Solitude

Can you tell me if your old HDD is SATA or IDE? If you know the difference

crawlb4uwalk

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Can you tell me if your old HDD is SATA or IDE? If you know the difference

SATA

Digital Solitude

Item|Price
Antec One, ATX, no power supply|€€ 45
16GB Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€€ 114
Thermaltake 630W Berlin|€€ 58
Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3, LGA 1150, ATX|€€ 83
Intel Core i5-4690K Box, LGA1150|€€ 246
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€560

Leaves €150 to get a graphics card. If you want a new one, then a 750 Ti is your best bet. You can get second hand Radeon HD 7950's on adverts for the same price, or R9 270X for €15-20 more.

Other options are drop to 8Gb Ram, and get a second hand Radeon R9 280X or new GTX 960, though I think the RAM would benefit you more. I know little about the work you do so I'm hoping my advice is somewhat relevant

crawlb4uwalk

thanks for this. Saved me a lot of trouble looking for components that may or may not even fit together!!
I'll let you know how it goes

Digital Solitude

Its an i5 processor so its not optimal for multi core processes but given your budget it was the best I could do. In future, if the processor is letting you gown you can upgrade it to an i7, essentially an Octa-Core processor, or over clock the one you've got to squeeze another bit of life from it.

Overclocking from the start may be an option too