Upgrading my computer -- What Will I Forget?

[path12]

For the first time I am going to upgrade my computer by myself.

Currently "rocking" an Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600, 2 GB RAM and a GeForce 9500 GT which has served me well for like five years.

Upgrading CPU, motherboard, memory, video card, hard drive and new DVD drive because the old one is IDE instead of SATA. This will all go into the same box I have now, my power supply is 500W so that will easily take what I'm upgrading to (i3 2120, 8 GB RAM, Radeon 6670).

What worries me most are things like making sure my music, Steam or other licensed games, etc all migrate correctly. Also moving from Win XP to Win 7.

So.......what do I need to look out for? What will I forget? Tips, tricks and general comments welcome.

[Scoobz0202]

How old is the power supply? The reason I ask is because power supplies have an "expiration date." I've heard a good measure is five years. Anything after that can get risky. While it is unlikely, a dying power supply can cause serious trouble for many of your components. Might not be a bad idea to get a new one to be safe.

Also, this is a great site when you start fresh.

http://ninite.com/

Also, might not be a bad idea to save your network drivers on a flash drive and install those right away then go to the manufacturer websites for your hardware. Much better and more current drivers then what would come on the cd's.

[Scoobz0202]

dola -

Have you ordered your parts yet? Would be interesting to see what your getting, prices, and your budget. Not that your going to make bad decisions, but I got input on my initial build and ended up switching a few pieces up due to price vs performance.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by path12

For the first time I am going to upgrade my computer by myself.

Currently "rocking" an Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600, 2 GB RAM and a GeForce 9500 GT which has served me well for like five years.

Upgrading CPU, motherboard, memory, video card, hard drive and new DVD drive because the old one is IDE instead of SATA. This will all go into the same box I have now, my power supply is 500W so that will easily take what I'm upgrading to (i3 2120, 8 GB RAM, Radeon 6650).

What worries me most are things like making sure my music, Steam or other licensed games, etc all migrate correctly. Also moving from Win XP to Win 7.

So.......what do I need to look out for? What will I forget? Tips, tricks and general comments welcome.

If you have your browser save usernames and passwords, make a note of those before you upgrade.

Make sure you deal with any necessary unlicensing, such as iTunes or games, so that you can relicense without issues on the new box.

Steam won't be an issue for you as long as you have access to the email address associated with your profile. When you try to log in, it will challenge you via email.

Those were the biggies for me when I bought a new box last weekend.

Oh, maybe any game save files you might have that aren't stored on the cloud?

[chinaski]

get a SSD HD... best upgrade i've had recently.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

dola -

Have you ordered your parts yet? Would be interesting to see what your getting, prices, and your budget. Not that your going to make bad decisions, but I got input on my initial build and ended up switching a few pieces up due to price vs performance.

Yeah, already ordered. My budget was tight, but my needs aren't gigantic -- FM and strategy are my main genres, which means that I don't need to be at the top of the curve. Here's the list:

1 x ($124.99) Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32120 $124.99
1 x ($79.99) Intel BOXDH67CLB3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $79.99
1 x ($77.99) DIAMOND 6670PE32G Radeon HD 6670 2GB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $77.99
1 x ($69.99) Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - OEM $69.99
1 x ($43.99) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL $43.99
1 x ($19.99) ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM $19.99

Subtotal: $416.94

You also mentioned the power supply. I'm getting that from my brother in law and believe it's about a year old, but I will check on that.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by chinaski

get a SSD HD... best upgrade i've had recently.

No doubt about it. Best $150 I've spent in quite some time.

I would have went i5 processor and SSD HD.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by path12

Yeah, already ordered. My budget was tight, but my needs aren't gigantic -- FM and strategy are my main genres, which means that I don't need to be at the top of the curve. Here's the list:

1 x ($124.99) Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32120 $124.99
1 x ($79.99) Intel BOXDH67CLB3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $79.99
1 x ($77.99) DIAMOND 6670PE32G Radeon HD 6670 2GB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $77.99
1 x ($69.99) Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - OEM $69.99
1 x ($43.99) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL $43.99
1 x ($19.99) ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM $19.99

Subtotal: $416.94

You also mentioned the power supply. I'm getting that from my brother in law and believe it's about a year old, but I will check on that.

Yea, I would check the power supply. The PSU is just something I am maybe more cautious about then most maybe. For your budget I think you did fine. The i3 2120 is a great budget chip. Really the only thing I would have done is maybe threw $30 bucks more at this graphics card:

Newegg.com - ASUS HD7750-1GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

It is a pretty good little budget card. And with your budget a SSD just isn't feasible, imo.




One thing that I may suggest. This may be too late due to you already ordering and restocking fee's. But something I've seen recommended is to order an Inspiron 620 from Dell's Outlet. Replace the card with the card I mentioned above.

Dell Factory Outlet: Error

The bottom one is $380. It's a Scratch and Dent, but it comes with a full warranty. It just has slight cosmetic damage. That has the same CPU you have, but a 1TB drive, 6gb ram. Its power supply can handle the card I mentioned above (doesn't require a PCI-E connector). That would put you at about $500, but new components (new power supply).

Just food for thought.



EDIT: But ultimately, you know your usage. For all I know, your setup might work great. Just 1) Check out that power supply and 2) Maybe consider that graphics card.

[sovereignstar v2]

Speaking of SSD's, I'm going to be putting one of the better models on eBay in a day or two for dirt cheap. If you (or anyone else) have any interest I'll hold off the listing.

85 bucks (including shipping) for this very popular and reliable model. Been used for almost a year.

Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

[path12]

SSD would be nice, but don't have the budget to go there this time. I would imagine my next upgrade will be that.

[stevew]

I think that I have the same SSD that sov does and I have been very happy with it.

[INDalltheway]

I have a 256gb Samsung SSD - best purchase of my life. It makes going back to my desktops HDD very difficult.