Add In – Yay rambling posts from random viewers XD. If you've got the time and willingness to help, please read. If not, ignore this wall of text ^^'
Hey all, long time lurker, few time poster here – something I hope to change. Before I get started – I know if I don't get straight to the point I'll end up telling my life story, and leave you all confused. So I'll do that, get straight to the point of this thread.
My main computer, that I use for basically anything is the same one I bought back in 2006. Other than a few Graphics card, PSU and case changes, it has remained completely stock. I believe it was an HP Pavilion, and I really am surprised that it is still running perfectly fine, and suits me for the tasks I use it for; and despite it's age, it runs faster than the brand new laptops my Mother and two sister's have. I blame that on Windows 7 and Vista though.
Anyway – Since I'm a bum and still living at home with a nice full time job; and I hate to say it, but I have more money than I honestly know what to do with. See where this is going? Yeah, I want to do some serious upgrades to my computer. I'll start off (I'm just starting? See – I'm bad for rambling on and on) by listing my current specs:
Motherboard: Asus P5Lp-LE
CPS: Pentium D 2.8Ghz
Memory: 2GB DDR2
HDD: 320GB Maxtor and 1TB Western Digital
Graphics Card: XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M700 700W
Now, I've taken apart my computer several times just to say I have, transferred cases a couple times etc. So I am comfortable working within it; but I've never taken the stock heat sink off of the CPU, and I've never upgraded my Motherboard; both of which are things that I am wanting to do – and since this is my first time I've got a couple questions.
I know I want to upgrade my CPU, Motherboard and Memory; so with a little bit of researching on NewEgg, I've come up with the following:
EVGA P55 LE
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66
Corsair Dfominator 4GB DDR3
My first question would be: are those all compatable? I'm sure the MB and CPU are; but I'm completely confused as to how to tell what RAM is good for what MB. The MB linked above states that “DDR3 2000MHz+ “ is the Memory standard; but in reviews for the same board, people have said they used 1600. I know I need to match the number of pins and whatnot, but that bit I just explained has my completely befuddled.
My next question would be: What other options are there for me? Those items I listed above were selected with my limited knowledge on those items – if you guys know better products at a similar price range please tell me. I'd like a black/red combo for the MB to match my case and lighting, but I really am not picky, and would like your opinions.
And now some less generic questions. What's a good brand for a heat sink? Both the CPU and MB I listed have excellent reviews for Overclocking - something I've never tried, but I might if it's as simple as claimed. I'm not interested in water cooling at this time, so I was just curious as to what a good brand name/price range for an after market heat sink would be.
In the regards of heat sink/CPU – Thermal Compound would be required for adding that correct? Since I have none, I should get my hands on some? This is in my NewEgg cart right now, but I can change it if that's not the right stuff.
And I think that's all for my questions/annoying rambling for the moment. Any help at all is appreciated, especially if you read this entire post and plan on responding I've stalked this site so much that I know all the regular posters by their sigs/avatars too well; hopefully I can stop being a lurker and give back to this wonderful community