Gaming rig - does this work and can I reuse these components?

[gabb]

Heya,

you can see my current system (yea, quite outdated) in my signature and since I need some new power I was thinking about a system like this:

Case: Antec P182
PSU: keep my Seasonic S12 (not II) 430W ?
Board: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
RAM: A-DATA Vitesta 4GB Kit (2x 2GB) PC2-6400U CL5 (2x, so 8GB in total)
GFX: Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GTS TDH (512MB, G92)
HDD: keep my two Samsung SP2504C (SATAII, 250GB) ?

I've got two LG drives (CD-RW and DVD-RW) which I'd keep using, as well as keyboard/mouse/speakers/display.

Any suggestions on what to improve and/or if the components I want to reuse will or will not slow down the system significantly?

Any input welcome, cheers guys!

[Linchpin]

I'd say go for a bigger PSU like the Corsair HX520.

[SoulsCollective]

You need a new PSU.

Other than that it's looking good, although my strong recommendation would be to go with 4GB of faster RAM - 8GB is complete overkill at present and won't give you any tangible benefits over 4GB.

[gabb]

I used http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine to get a vague idea of how much power I need and it gave me W344 as a result, which is coincidently 80% of W430. Given a efficiency rating of >80% I thought that'd be sufficient or am I calculating it wrong?

[gabb]

8GB is complete overkill at present and won't give you any tangible benefits over 4GB.

I figured that for 4GB I'd need Vista 64bit anyway, so I'll have to say bye-bye to XP unfortunately. Given the new way memory is (pre-)allocated with Vista and the larger need for memory address space with a 64bit system, I was hoping to get a performance boost out of (the relatively cheap) additional RAM by avoiding the use of hdd-swap-space.

Once again, this have just been my conclusions based on semi-knowledge on the topic, so please enlighten me. :)

[zanzabar]

8GB needs duel phase power and u have to get a dq6 for that, i would suggest teh dfi p35 UT or something simmilar or go with 2 sticks

and how much age are u giving ur psu u should be at a 10-25% loss since it looks like 3 years of use

[SoulsCollective]

Given the age of the PSU, I'd just be a little leery of pushing it that close to its limits - particularly if you want to overclock. While it has all the connectors you need (EPS and PCI-E) I'd be feeling more comfortable if it were me with using a newer PSU - something reasonable yet cheap like a Corsair HX (as recommended above).

[SoulsCollective]

I figured that for 4GB I'd need Vista 64bit anyway, so I'll have to say bye-bye to XP unfortunately. Given the new way memory is (pre-)allocated with Vista and the larger need for memory address space with a 64bit system, I was hoping to get a performance boost out of (the relatively cheap) additional RAM by avoiding the use of hdd-swap-space.

Once again, this have just been my conclusions based on semi-knowledge on the topic, so please enlighten me. :)
You'd think so, yes. However, 4GB is large enough already that there is really no gain from doubling again to 8GB unless you use very memory intensive apps - like a virtual machine server or something. 4GB of fast RAM will perform better than 8GB of slower, because you won't really be getting any use out of the extra GB.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=165425
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=173646

[gabb]

Thanks for the answers! I did not considered the age of the PSU at all and it makes sense to go for something with more reserves. I'll probably go with the HX520, except there is one thats more efficient (I'm a efficiency-freak :P), like 80+ certified.

As for the RAM, which one of these would be considered "better":

1) A-DATA Vitesta Plus Series DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-8500U CL5-5-5-15 (DDR2-1066) (AD21066E002GMU)

2) G.Skill DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-8500U CL5-5-5-15 (DDR2-1066) (F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK)

The first is supposed to run at 2.2-2.3V, the second at 2.1-2.2V. I assume the same timings at lower voltage means better?

[vcp-cur]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

^^^^^^

good enough..

[Donnie27]

Even better!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731

At only 1.8v and cas 5, 5-4-4-12 it begs to be overclocked instead being overclocked already like the GSkill;) MIR sucks.

[gabb]

Those two are DDR2-800 thou, while the ones I posted are DDR2-1066 or isn't that relevant with the C2D processors and motherboards when overclocking? (haven't OC'd in a while)

[masterg]

you can get some OCZ 1066 for cheap~~~....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289