I have a 6 year old alienware aurora that was hit by lightning. I need to rebuild and was thinking about doing it myself.
I mainly use the computer for both business & personal. I use Win 7 64 bit and Office Professional I burn a lot of dvd's for weddings and other occasions) I maintain a rather large music database (on a separate internal drive).
My sata drives appear to be fine, but don't know if I should count on them. 2 500gb and 1 tb. I store operating system and program files on 1 drive, music on 1 drive and my docs on another drive. I was going to add a 4th drive for pictures and videos, but didn't get around to it. I have dual monitors and was thinking about the possibility of another.
I am not interested in overclocking, blu-ray, bluetooth, tv tuners, etc.
I am looking for the fastest (without overkill) motherboard & processor. My system was liquid-cooled, but I don't know if I should just take it out and go with just fans.
I have a combo dvdrw/dvdrom that are ide and would like to use if you think I can. I had 8 usb ports and added an additional 4. I don't have anything that needs USB 3, but wouldn't mind having at least one. I had a soundblaster audio card, but it failed and I never replaced it. Using the on-board audio with surround speakers. Didn't have room either after putting in new video card and usb expansion.
Have an Asus motherboard and amd processor, but, while I've had no problems with them in these 6 years, don't know if they are the best choice for me. I want fast (I have zero patience). I usually have all kinds of programs running at the same time. I had 4 gb memory and will naturally want more. I originally spent $3300 on this machine 6 years ago and have upgraded certain things since, but am now under replacement cost for insurance purposes, so will have to stay within the price range that will be set by insurance company.
Am looking for components that will fit into my case and all play nice together. While I will rip into a case, I have never dealt with thermal paste, heat sinks, etc.
I hope I have given you enough information to point me in the right direction. I know I will need to replace power supply, motherboard and processor and video card, but was kind of hoping I could use my other components (dvd drives, media reader, usb expansion card, hard drives), unless you think it might be too risky.
Thank you for your help!
I mainly use the computer for both business & personal. I use Win 7 64 bit and Office Professional I burn a lot of dvd's for weddings and other occasions) I maintain a rather large music database (on a separate internal drive).
My sata drives appear to be fine, but don't know if I should count on them. 2 500gb and 1 tb. I store operating system and program files on 1 drive, music on 1 drive and my docs on another drive. I was going to add a 4th drive for pictures and videos, but didn't get around to it. I have dual monitors and was thinking about the possibility of another.
I am not interested in overclocking, blu-ray, bluetooth, tv tuners, etc.
I am looking for the fastest (without overkill) motherboard & processor. My system was liquid-cooled, but I don't know if I should just take it out and go with just fans.
I have a combo dvdrw/dvdrom that are ide and would like to use if you think I can. I had 8 usb ports and added an additional 4. I don't have anything that needs USB 3, but wouldn't mind having at least one. I had a soundblaster audio card, but it failed and I never replaced it. Using the on-board audio with surround speakers. Didn't have room either after putting in new video card and usb expansion.
Have an Asus motherboard and amd processor, but, while I've had no problems with them in these 6 years, don't know if they are the best choice for me. I want fast (I have zero patience). I usually have all kinds of programs running at the same time. I had 4 gb memory and will naturally want more. I originally spent $3300 on this machine 6 years ago and have upgraded certain things since, but am now under replacement cost for insurance purposes, so will have to stay within the price range that will be set by insurance company.
Am looking for components that will fit into my case and all play nice together. While I will rip into a case, I have never dealt with thermal paste, heat sinks, etc.
I hope I have given you enough information to point me in the right direction. I know I will need to replace power supply, motherboard and processor and video card, but was kind of hoping I could use my other components (dvd drives, media reader, usb expansion card, hard drives), unless you think it might be too risky.
Thank you for your help!