BleepingComputer.com: Pc Upgrade

Well I finally decided to crack my piggy bank and upgrade this ol' thing. All in all, it's still working rather well, but I've been having some BSoD problems of late and considering the gazillion things I'm trying to do with my PC, I probably need something new.

So I guess it's time to reformat, reinstall and start again... with a few new trinkets. The problem is, while I can find my way around a PC, I'm in noob-land as far as hardware is concerned. So if anyone would be willing to help me out with a few suggestions, I'd appreciate.

Right now, I have this:
- Acer Aspire T660
- ATI Radeon Xpress 200
- Intel Pentium D 820 at 2.80GHz
- 2x 1024Mb DDR2 667MHz
- Sata HD 250Gb
- LiteOn Power Supply 300W PS-6301-08A
- NVidia GeForce 8800GT 512Mb
- SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Audio

Now I'd like to get in a Core 2 Duo, an extra hard drive and a new power supply. Thing is, I don't know if I could keep using the old ATI Radeon Xpress 200 with a Core 2 processor or if I would need a whole new motherboard. I's also not too sure what kind of Core 2 I should use, or how many watts I would need with a new power supply.

For the hard drive I was thinking about getting pretty much the same thing I have now. For the processor however, after browsing through a local retailer's website I was thinking about getting an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16Ghz Bus 1333Mhz. For the power supply I'm not too sure, but something a little over 500W sounds appropiate.

So what do you think? Sounds right or am I completely off the tracks? My budget isn't too tight, but I can't go crazy either, even if I need a new motherboard (which I hope not).

Anyway, let me know. Thanks.

--Dev

Alright. So I did some web shopping and here's what I'm thinking of getting. It's a little more than what I expected to get in the first place, but... if you're going to upgrade...

Here's the ugly details:
- Motherboard: S775 Asus P5N-D NF750i PCIE SLI
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz/1333MHz/6M/S775
- RAM: Corsair 1066MHz DDR2 NO-ECC 2048Mb Dominator

To this I'll add an ATX Antec Neopower 650W (power supply) and a Sata2 250.0 Seagate 7200 16M ST3250620AS (hard drive). I could probably get something better for the hard drive, but it's mostly for data storing.

My biggest question now is if I should get the normal Corsair Dominator or the one with the fan. I don't plan on doing any overclocking, so do I need the extra wind?

Anyway, how does it look?

Thanks

--Dev

I looked up your motherboard, and it says it uses DDR2 800mhz ram. If you use 1066mhz, it will have to either underclock the ram or overclock your motherboard to run at the faster speed. I don't think expensive ram like that is really even necessary unless you are going to do some hard core overclocking, but thats just my opinion.

Sterling14, on Mar 2 2008, 11:49 AM, said:

Hum... guess I missed that. Good to know though. Would you recommend any specific type of DDR2?

This is a a very good brand, and this stuff should serve you well. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231121 .