PC advice

[Simon Pieman]

I'll look at some mobos when I get home tonight. I have a board with that chipset and whilst it runs and overclocks nicely, it was probably overpriced and overrated compared to the intel boards.

Try the E6750 for your processor. You'll get more bang for buck if you overclock it.

[magicroundabout]

is that better than the E6850 then?

also i prosume that with changing the mobo my BIOS wont be the crappy (all useful stuff locked) dell BIOS

[Simon Pieman]

Well it's cheaper and if you buy a heatsink (wait for it Sam!) like the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 (under £15) you can overclock that processor by miles by just changing some options in the BIOS. If you're unsure I can give you advice how to overclock or find a guide for you. It's really easy, but can be time consuming if you want to push your computer to it's potential limit.

My processor (E6400) runs happily at 3.1GHz which is a massive 1Ghz increase on stock clock speed. The only limiting factor is my memory, which will be my next upgrade and I should be able to go higher. No point in doing that yet as my computer is still really fast.

[magicroundabout]

looking at prices that E6750 is £60 cheaper  :shock:

thats money to play with and get some 800mhz ram

With my machine, i have two fans which sit opposite the heatsink.
I take it if i get the larger heatsink i can remove these fans and do away with them?

as for overclocking i'm all for it. if i can save £60 and tweek it a bit then deffinitly interested.

[Samdy Gray]

Well it's cheaper and if you buy a heatsink (wait for it Sam!) like the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 (under £15)

  I'm well impressed with mine.

Magic - I've got the E6750 and like Si said it's a lot more bang for your buck. I'm just waiting to get a new PSU then I'll be overclocking it.

[magicroundabout]

i was only ever selling my pc cos i was informed by the dell forum i couldn't upgrade my mobo. but now the guys at the XPS helpline said i could then away we go  

i take it 650w is plenty of power?

[Samdy Gray]

i take it 650w is plenty of power?

More than enough really.

[magicroundabout]

shitty green case holding the fan

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/magicroundabout/xps4.jpg

i take it everything else will fit in just the same?

[Simon Pieman]

Faster RAM will help you overclock too.

The fans will be a personal choice really. If your computer runs faster and more stable with them still there then you may want to keep them. Don't forget that the motherboard gets hot too, so air flowing from front to back of the case will help the board and all the other components (memory, graphics card etc). If you want to run them at slower speed there should be options in the BIOS or you could get a fan controller or a device such as the Zalman fanmate (basically these are voltage regulators).

I can't see the pic, but I was near certain that case was btx. Is there more room on the back tray for a larger board?

[magicroundabout]

yeah it's massive. loads of room.
apparently the xps 700 onwards produce BTX boards

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/magicroundabout/xps4.jpg

is the link to the picture if that helps?

[Simon Pieman]

I'm at work so it's blocked, will have a look later. Worst comes to worst you buy a new case for £30

[Peter Venkman]

I'm at work so it's blocked, will have a look later. Worst comes to worst you buy a new case for £30

Got my new case brand new with a 400w PSU for £9.75p! a bit of rough cutting on the edges but it looks fine.

[magicroundabout]

if i had to buy a new case i'd have to get a new psu as mine is integrated into the base of the case.

so just an extra £60 for case and pcu?

[Peter Venkman]

Easily Magic, a good PSU can be bought for under £20, or rehash your old one maybe.

[flammableBen]

Make one out of string.