Bargain upgrade

wonder_lander · 9 Sep 2007 at 14:39

Looking for ideas for a slight PC upgrade.

PC is mainly used for data storage as well as photoshop / lightroom use.

Currently AMD XP2400+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Nforce2 board
2 x PC2700 256MB
AGP 128MB 6800LE

Would I be best off leaving as is, adding more RAM or looking for a bundle bargain in MM?

If the later what would be the best bang for buck bundle I should be looking out for?

Teaf · 9 Sep 2007 at 14:39

If you use Photoshop on that it could use some love

What's the budget you were looking at?

SGWills · 9 Sep 2007 at 14:42

depending on the budget will determine whether to upgrade or buy new, with the prices as they are it doesnt cost that much to get a new set up

wonder_lander · 9 Sep 2007 at 14:46

Budget is cheap < £100

Teaf · 9 Sep 2007 at 14:53

£113.94 excl. delivery could get you:

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB)
Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA PCI-E/AGP DDR2 Motherboard
OcUK 1GB (2x512MB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2

Then use your current graphics card in that machine, since Photoshop doesn't really use graphics cards if at all. Slightly over budget, but really I'd consider getting the above to improve the system a lot and give you more options to turn to when you need to improve it again later as currently you don't have much to do with it - especially when DDR1 is more expensive than DDR2 since it's not being produced much anymore. If you wanted to knock the price down some, you can ditch the OcUK ram and use your current but I wouldn't. If you did though, you're looking at £88.10 excl. delivery.

wonder_lander · 9 Sep 2007 at 15:04

Is there any comparison charts that I can see what sort of boost this upgrade would give me?

helpimcrap · 9 Sep 2007 at 15:09

wonder_lander said:
Is there any comparison charts that I can see what sort of boost this upgrade would give me?

think space shuttle (upgrade) and 747 (yours).

wonder_lander · 9 Sep 2007 at 15:13

helpimcrap said:
think space shuttle (upgrade) and 747 (yours).

747, reliable, safe, used everyday without issue
Space Shuttle, falls apart on take off, unreliable, high maintenance

OK although that doesn't quantify it, it sounds like a winning option!

If I go second hand what am I likely to be able to get this bundle for?

Teaf · 9 Sep 2007 at 15:15

There is a comparison chart here, but it doesn't list both chips... the closest comparion would be a 2800+ vs. e4300, which isn't ideal. But you can still see a good difference between those 2 chips and that's near enough gonna be what the difference you'll see is.

The best comparison I can show you is:

http://xtreview.com/review204.htm

Press CTRL+F, and search for "As you see, using the micro-architecture core" and that'll take you down to the bit where they compare a e2160 which is near enough what you are getting, vs. and AMD x2 64 3800+, so far better than your chip but you can still see the e2140 winning so the upgrade from your chip will be huge I'd suspect

If I go second hand what am I likely to be able to get this bundle for?

You could visit the MM and probably get a e6300 / ds3 for £100 which is so much better than the current amd setup that my arm span can't show the width

wonder_lander · 6 Mar 2008 at 08:27

OK dragging this back to the top as my system is dog slow at heavy tasks.

So 6 months on I still have the same kit.

What should I be looking at replacing with a budget of £150 either new or second hand?

I've posted a wanted thread but no replies so I guess I'm going to need to hunt out the components I need!