Upgrading Dell XPS 630i

[Shikari]

I have a Dell XPS 630i which I bought in Jan 2010. I only upgraded the OS to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. The problem with my pc is that anytime I try to play a game, after about an hour or two of playing a game (WoW/StarCraft/ and now Diablo 3), pc would freeze and I have to manually reboot the machine. Recently I had read an article in Maximum PC about upgrading this particular Dell XPS machine and pretty much replaced everything inside the pc except for the case.

Do you think it makes sense to use the case but replace everything inside or just upgrading graphics card should be sufficient?

Currently CPU is Q9550, 2.83, 12MB Yorkfield
Graphics card is 9800GT 1 GB SLI

Or Am i better of scrapping the machine and just building a completely new one?

I have never built a pc in my life and don't mind trying to build one.

 

[o1die]

You may not mind building your own, but it's not so easy for a first timer. Everyone here has done it for awhile, so they take it for granted. I recommend you view some videos first and read the motherboard manual you might be interested in before taking the plunge. I also suggest you try selling the dell intact on craigslist or anandtech; I wouldn't part it out; keep it intact.

 

[suteck]

Doesn't make sense to me to do it that way but if you can get a list of specific parts that you know will fit with pricing that might tell you if it's worth it or not. The thing about upgrading laptops is the parts have to be pretty specific to fit within the case. Unlike a desktop you usually can't just go out and get a better graphics card and stick it in. They usually come with a built on heatsink designed exactly for it and to fit in only certain cases. Being a Dell you can probably go to the website and see what upgrade options are available and go from there but from my experience the choice is usually pretty limited. Sure, you can probably upgrade the memory and increase the size of the hdd or go with 7200 rpm or an ssd but, that's probably the extent of it. and then, as far as the ssd goes your laptop will need to be the sata 6 Gb/s rating to take advantage of that.

As for the freezing... I would say that it's probably a heat problem. do you have one of those lapboards with the cooling fans built in? that might help with the lockups. Can you feel the heat in certain areas after playing awhile? Not just warm of course but hot? Check that out and see what it's like.

 

[Shikari]

Doesn't make sense to me to do it that way but if you can get a list of specific parts that you know will fit with pricing that might tell you if it's worth it or not. The thing about upgrading laptops is the parts have to be pretty specific to fit within the case. Unlike a desktop you usually can't just go out and get a better graphics card and stick it in. They usually come with a built on heatsink designed exactly for it and to fit in only certain cases. Being a Dell you can probably go to the website and see what upgrade options are available and go from there but from my experience the choice is usually pretty limited. Sure, you can probably upgrade the memory and increase the size of the hdd or go with 7200 rpm or an ssd but, that's probably the extent of it. and then, as far as the ssd goes your laptop will need to be the sata 6 Gb/s rating to take advantage of that.

As for the freezing... I would say that it's probably a heat problem. do you have one of those lapboards with the cooling fans built in? that might help with the lockups. Can you feel the heat in certain areas after playing awhile? Not just warm of course but hot? Check that out and see what it's like.

Mine is a desktop and not a laptop.

 

[suteck]

ouch, missed that one. What is the price of the upgrade you mentioned?

 

[Shikari]

Keeping the case and just upgrading all the internals including Motherboard/CPU (i5 Ivy Bridge)/GTX560/PSU 750W/memory and other parts it costs about 1200

 

[suteck]

unless you're really attached to that case then I think you'll be just as well off building or buying a new one.