Lost touch with current tech, please help me work out what and how to upgrade?

Chopper

Chopper

Chopper

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Location
Peterborough
Hi all, basically I have a desktop computer, that has been serving me well since I built it several years ago. I have been away from home working for several years and have lost touch with current tech. I now want to update my desktop computer but have no idea what and how to upgrade?

Current Specification:
  • Coolermaster Praetorian Case
  • Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.2GHz (2 CPUs)
  • MSI Motherboard
  • 2048MB RAM (2x1024MB DDR Corsair Memory Modules)
  • ATI Radeon X850 (400MHz) 256MB on a Dell 2005FPW (Digital)
  • 2 x 200GB Hard Disk Drives
  • 2 x Sony DVD Drives
  • 1 x Sony CDRW Drive
  • 1 x Sony DVDRW Drive

Current Setup:
coolermasterpraetorian.jpg


I reckon I am going to have to upgrade the CPU, Mobo, Ram, GFX and Hard Drive, possibly PSU (not sure on this one), anything else I need to replace?

Any ideas as to what and how to proceed? Upgrade is to improve performance, storage space, I would like to "rip" all my DVDs and view them on my big TV in the living room? I play all my games on the Xbox 360, but may like to play the new MMORPG Star Wars game that's coming out?
 
You could quite happily replace it all for under £500, any particular budget your working to ?
 
This would be a nice little upgrade for you:

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £77.99
(£67.82) £77.99
(£67.82)
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD 770 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £76.99
(£66.95) £76.99
(£66.95)
OCZ Platinum AM3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P1333LVAM4GK) £47.99
(£41.73) £47.99
(£41.73)
Sub Total : £246.06
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £38.33
Total : £293.89
 
Was looking to continue down the Pentium and ATI route unless there are any good reasons not to? Also what are the best configurations on the go at the moment? P4 what? What type of motherboard and ram (type not manufacturer) should I be looking at?
 
by pentium, I presume you mean intel as pentium is long dead
with intel you have 2 chioces, budget would be a 775 setup, however thats a dead socket now so youd have no upgrade route, if you can afford it then i7 is the high end option, not particuarly cheap tho. shadowake recomended the AMD setup as its better performing than intels 775, nearly as cheap, and has future upgrade path too. As before whats your actual budget? then can do you an AMD and an intel spec and see which you prefer
 
What are your main priorities with it? Gaming?, Video editing?, all rounder?, are your current drives IDE or SATA?, what make / type is your PSU, how much moneydo you want to spend?.
Is your board socket 775, if so, and if gaming isn't a priority (I'm assuming AGP graphics card), then there may be a BIOS update allowing you to simply plop in a multi core E8600 or better.
Need all the above for accurate advice.
 
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