Upgrading my system for the first time.. Can I get a little help?

[antthedrag]

About three years ago I bought the Dell XPS 630i and since then I've learned much more about PCs. I feel like I'm ready to upgrade my system, but before I spend all this money I want to check with some more knowledgeable people to make sure that everything will be compatable with my system and if the items I listed are the best for my budget. Everything I have in my cart so far is around 500 dollars.

Here's my current specs:
Motherboard- Nvidia 650i chipset with a 775 LGA CPU socket
CPU- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 Ghz
Memory- 4 sticks of DDR2 RAM 1GB each
Video Card - Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT (512 MB) SLI (2)
Monitors- 1. Dell SP2009W 20inch 1680x1050 2. Asus VH192 1366x768
Power- Dell branded 750W power supply
Drives- DVD/CD-RW drive and a DVD RW drive
Hard Drive- 1TB
OS- Win7 ultimate




Okay so that's that. Now here's what I'm looking to upgrade. I'm upgrading so I can play newer games without the crappy frame rate, so pretty much it's just used for gaming and web browsing. Anyway...

New Mobo
Mobo

New CPU
CPU

I went with the core i5 over the i7 2600K because I don't want to spend the extra 100 on the multithreading.

New Memory
Memory

Cooling Fan and thermal paste
Thermal Compound

Fan



Then down the road (maybe in a few months I'm going to sell my SLI's and get GTX 560 Ti



This is my first post on tomshardware after browsing for months, thanks in advance for the feedback. If I forgot some info that you need I'll be glad to provide it.

 

[tiao101207]

Everything looks good to me up there. Personally, I would buy a new power supply because I do not trust Dell hardware on my non Dell hardware. If you are going to buy a new PSU, I personally reccomend the Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W because I own one and it is very good, but there are other PSU's out there like Corsairs, OCZ, and lots more you can take a look at. Graphics card is good to GTX 560 TI. If you are going to overclock, the Hyper 212 is good, but if you have some spare cash, go with a better one. I use the Corsair H80 Liquid Cooler. That would run you about $100~$120. Keeps my Core i7 @ 3.8 GHz around 28C ~ 36C. If you want, You can also buy a new case to suit your new hardware needs, however that is not required. I would buy another case, but that is not required either. And since Thanksgiving and Christmas is near, I would wait till early - mid December to buy your parts.

Corsair H80 Liquid Cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016&Tpk=h80

If you have any more questions, feel free to respond.

 

[antthedrag]

Thanks for the reply. One more question, do you think it's worth the extra 100 for the i7 2600k

 

[tiao101207]

If you are willing to do some overclocking on the Core i7 2600K, you can match it up with the same performance as the Core i7 990X, but with the Core i5 2500K, you can overclock that to get the same performance as the Core i7. Just need maybe a little better cooler like the Corsair H80, like I mentioned above. I would not really get the Core i7 2600K unless you are going to run some power greedy programs. I'd say save your 100 bux for something else good on your computer.

 

[antthedrag]

Okay thanks for the help.

 

[Raiddinn]

I would get something else other than the suggested Thermaltake TR2 750w.

This review http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/902/7

shows that it can't deliver its stated wattage and has ripple charts that are far far too wide.

For reference, the best PSUs will look more like this

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-PRO-650-W-Power-Supply-Review/1165/7

with pass on every line and with ripple charts that are extremely narrow.

Not to mention the tester pulled 820w out of the XFX 650 and couldn't get higher than 584w on the Thermaltake 750w.

 

[tiao101207]

Well, Ok fine, I would reccomend the Corsair Series as my second option for the power supply. Heard they make good ones.

 

[antthedrag]

What do you guys think about this 850W PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

 

[tiao101207]

Based on the reviews, I'd say it is pretty good. I would take a little time to read the reviews a little more before buying it, but overall of 5 eggs, it looks pretty good.

 

[Raiddinn]

The Corsair 850w passes all the standard load tests and has very narrow ripple charts, see here:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-TX850-V2-Power-Supply-Review/1298/7

The reviewer on the next page tried to get 1000w out of it and one 850w burned at that level of load but the manufacturer gave them a second one that they tried again and they were able to get 988 out of it without breaking the PSU.

A 50/50 success rate on 15% more than the stated power isn't that bad, considering most PSU brands can't even make what they say they can make.

 

[antthedrag]

Thanks for the info, I'll be getting that PSU along with my other upgrades.

 

[tiao101207]

No prob!