[Advice needed] or recommend upgrade/new rig

[nuahster]

HI, appreciate any advise on my problem and if i should upgrade?

Currently using a 4+yo Dell Studio XPS 9100, seems like its slowly dying on me, sometimes it works perfectly fine, and other times it randomly crashes and restarts on its own upon startup, or sometimes it hangs mid usage and I'll have to do a hard reset.

I also notice lately the CPU & PSU fans are operating rather erratically and noisy too, the fans are old so perhaps i can account the louder noise to worn bearings, but i find that it weird that they randomly power up and down, increasing and decreasing in speed frequently even with light surfing usage.

Tried to troubleshoot the ram, all seem to be working. I did a upgrade with the gpu and ssd 2yrs ago, no bad sectors on the 1tb hdd too, and i've been using McAfee all this while too so there's no virus or malware detected, hence I'm not sure if it's my mobo or psu that is giving problems.

I mostly use it for surfing, watching movies, some light video/photo editing, light gaming with latest games but don't need the ultra settings, and I usually multitask a lot.

Seeking advice if i should replace the Mobo/PSU, but i also read online that Dell uses proprietary parts/case so I'm in a dilemma if i should just build a new rig and try to recycle some parts?

Dell studio XPS 9100
Intel Core i7-930 processor (8MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz)
Dell Motherboard 5DN3X
6.00 GB Tri-channel, DDR3 1333Mhz (3x2GB)
1TB HDD
Intel 520 SSD 120GB
AMD Radeon HD 6870
Dell PSU: think its rated at 525W
Windows 7 Home Premium

 

[nuahster]

oops forgot, if have to upgrade can budget ard 1.2k without peripherals and reuse ssd/hdd, OS & gpu. don't need OC.

 

[Alternative X]

Did you Memtest 86+ to test your RAM? If your RAMs are fine, then it is your PSU that is dying. As Dell uses a standard ATX PSU with no proprietary connecters, you can just get a 500W PSU from SLS for your rig.

 

[bermudas]

I mostly use it for surfing, watching movies, some light video/photo editing, light gaming with latest games but don't need the ultra settings, and I usually multitask a lot.

Intel Core i7-930 processor (8MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz)
6.00 GB Tri-channel, DDR3 1333Mhz (3x2GB)
Intel 520 SSD 120GB

U gotta be kidding bro.

I also use the PC mostly for the a/m tasks (with some light Photoshop work) but am on a C2D 2.4GHz & 4GB DDR2 RAM. Works fine so far on Win 8.1.

I would love to get a rig like yours if i have the money to upgrade. Maybe, culprit could be your RAM.

 

[nuahster]

Did you Memtest 86+ to test your RAM? If your RAMs are fine, then it is your PSU that is dying. As Dell uses a standard ATX PSU with no proprietary connecters, you can just get a 500W PSU from SLS for your rig.

ok thanks, just did the Memtest86+, Ram seems to be fine, will try replacing the PSU and see if problem persist. anyway curious to know if I replace my ram with a dual channel kit, can it work with a triple channel board?

U gotta be kidding bro.

I also use the PC mostly for the a/m tasks (with some light Photoshop work) but am on a C2D 2.4GHz & 4GB DDR2 RAM. Works fine so far on Win 8.1.

I would love to get a rig like yours if i have the money to upgrade. Maybe, culprit could be your RAM.

used to do some heavy stuff, but in recent yrs not so much, feel my rig should still be able to serve me, just can't figure out what is the problem.

 

[Alternative X]

ok thanks, just did the Memtest86+, Ram seems to be fine, will try replacing the PSU and see if problem persist. anyway curious to know if I replace my ram with a dual channel kit, can it work with a triple channel board?

It will, just that the RAMs will run in Dual-channel mode.