thanks for reply.
i havent seen a fx 4000 series cpu specifically, im just thinking cheaper than an fx 6 core and i havent seen any specific motherboards, just researching.
i did originally think of upgrading the xps, i gave him my 2gb gt 610 as an improvement over an old hd 2600 and i did think to upgrade his 4gb standard memory to 8gb which i think is the max, but finding decent price 2gb ddr2 and needing 4 of them hadnt been as easy to source like before, not to mention he runs 32bit windows 10 for some reason.
as for an ssd, i was going to salvage the 64gb kingspec from my itx system as i havent sold that system yet, but typical of his dell it only has 2 sata ports which has 2x500gb hdds connected to which he needs regardless of one having the os on the one which means i would have to find a sata expansion card which at £20 i dont see justifiable.
for how much i could spend on upgrading it, i would probably be better off with a whole build using older but better parts, ive already seen a brand new cheap brand atx case for under £25, i was going to use my supernova in it as this is going to come out of my pocket, so want to keep costs down as much as possible.