Budget upgrade

Ricochet J · 17 Oct 2011 at 22:38

Hi. My current system specs are:
- AMD Athlon 64 3200
- DFI LanParty NF4
- 1Gb RAM (2*512) PC3200
- 160Gb Samsung HDD
- HIS ATI x800xl
- Windows XP

I need to reformat XP. Instead of reinstalling XP, I'm going to buy and install Windows 7.

Will I see any benefit in buying more RAM? I'm thinking of buying some legacy 2*2Gb sticks. These are hard to come by so may settle with 2*1Gb sticks which are more common. I'm also thinking about a solid state drive for Windows and programs.

I have a £100 budget.

It's still a very capable machine. Your thoughts?

fowler002 · 17 Oct 2011 at 22:49

Ricochet J said:
Hi. My current system specs are:
- AMD Athlon 64 3200
- DFI LanParty NF4
- 1Gb RAM (2*512) PC3200
- 160Gb Samsung HDD
- HIS ATI x800xl
- Windows XP

I need to reformat XP. Instead of reinstalling XP, I'm going to buy and install Windows 7.

Will I see any benefit in buying more RAM? I'm thinking of buying some legacy 2*2Gb sticks. These are hard to come by so may settle with 2*1Gb sticks which are more common. I'm also thinking about a solid state drive for Windows and programs.

It's still a very capable machine. Your thoughts?

of? playing solitaire/minesweeper?

Ricochet J · 17 Oct 2011 at 22:57

Apologies, I should have mentioned it.

Surfing, typing, spreadsheets, a small bit of basic programming, MSN, Skype.

No games will be played.

Ricochet J · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:10

Does anyone have anymore thoughts on this?

numatic.nathan · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:16

How much have you got to spend?

Ricochet J · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:26

About £100. Can go to £120.

numatic.nathan · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:36

Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £79.99

**B Grade** MSI H61M-P23 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION**
£37.99

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1333LV4GK)
£22.99

Total inc shipping : £152.38

That will make a massive difference, £30 over budget, £20 over if you get free post. Well worth it, will last longer and you could add a GPU and or SSD down the line

(PS - You could sell your old parts to raise funds for this)

olivier renault · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:37

Tight budget. More ram will certainly help you, that's for sure. Saw a big improvement when I went 2GB to 4GB on XP (E6400). Less disk 'grinding'

so I shudder to think how it performs with 1GB. Bit of a waste of money on DDR2 though.

but one of these?

1 x Xenon AMD Athlon X2 250 3.00GHz Bundle - Dual Core £119.99
1 x Xenon AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.00GHz Bundle £109.98

Note that you may have motherboards that will take your can take your CPU, and DDR3 RAM (nforce). So you theoretically don't need the CPU.

EDIT : wow, i5-2300 for £80.

Ricochet J · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:43

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll be better off buying second hand PC3200 DDR RAM. It will save me from chopping and changing stuff. I can use what ever money I have spare on the SSD.

numatic.nathan · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:45

Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM £49.99

**B Grade** Asus P7H55-M LE/SI Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 (MB-480-AS) £40.40

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £22.99

Total inc shipping: £123.89

Could put on OC on that, upgradability options as well

numatic.nathan · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:48

Ricochet J said:
Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll be better off buying second hand PC3200 DDR RAM. It will save me from chopping and changing stuff. I can use what ever money I have spare on the SSD.

A new CPU and RAM would be definately worth it, old 1GB sticks of DDR RAM are pricey now, over £20 each. For £20 you get 4GB DDR3. Also you are getting a much faster CPU and a CPU upgrade as apposed to a CPU is miles better, will your old mobo SATA controller support the high speeds of SSDs?

For £180 you could have a new i3 system wih 4GB RAM, a nice overclock and SSD.

JTrickle · 18 Oct 2011 at 11:55

Ricochet J said:
About £100. Can go to £120.

Presumably near £200 if you dont buy Win7?

Whilst I think my Win7 purchase at the time of its release was a great buy and I much prefer using it over XP, there is absolutely no way I'd be purchasing it now in your situation. I ran the Win7 trial for a year before it came out and I recommend you do the same with the Win8 free trial that was released last month.

Spend your £120 - £200 on a second hard core 2 duo, mobo, DDR2, hard drive (possibly go new for this) and something like a dual slot 4850 graphics card. You can get that for £120. Spend the other £80 on a 2nd hand TFT monitor instead of on a Windows license right now.

Edit: To hammer this point home, an overclocked £20 second hand E5200 will be about 4 times faster than your current processor. DO NOT spend money on DDR1 memory, please!

olivier renault · 18 Oct 2011 at 12:09

yeah, with win 7 OEM (or try winXP) and nathan's, you'd have a stonking setup. Which you don't need apparently

But you do need more ram!

JTrickle · 18 Oct 2011 at 13:14

Will there be a risk if he buys an OEM license instead of a retail one that he wont be able to move motherboards with it later?

Gib_Gib · 18 Oct 2011 at 15:44

I would only buy a new hard drive and reinstall XP on this, I doubt there is anything worth saving or worth spending more money on it.

If you buy a new mobo cpu etc you would probably need a new power supply.

Personally I would have a look on the members market or the bay, you should be able to buy a complete Q6600 system for £150.

olivier renault · 18 Oct 2011 at 16:53

JTrickle said:
sig.

Apidya woohoo!