Need advice, small upgrade for old system (£100)

Bgriffin

Bgriffin

Bgriffin

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Joined
29 Apr 2011
Posts
8
Hello all,

So I built a system about 3/4 years ago just as I started university, specs:

Amd 64 x2 4600
Asus m2n-mx se mobo
2x 1gb ddr crucial ram sticks 1x 1gb ddr2 random stick
Radeon x1950 GT gfx
Jeantek 350w generic power supply
150gb HD

Now my problem is that I have only just noticed that one of the DIMM slots has broken on the mobo, and being pretty skint post-uni I don't have much money to upgrade.

My mobo won't support 2gb ram sticks otherwise I would simply buy one of those and trundle through untill I could do a full upgrade, but only running on 1gb is making games quite slow, frequent fps drops in busy scenes etc.

Given about £100, what would you do?

I have though about going for a cheap ddr2/ddr3 combo mobo, so I can utilize my 2gb ddr2 ram for now and possibly some ddr in the future.

Add to this a cheapish 500/600w PSU and a low radeon HD 4xxx or 5xxx.

Do you think this is the best way to spend the £100? And if so/not what would you go for instead? I've not kept up with hardware for the last few years so don't know what is good for the low-budget upgrade.

All the best,

Ben.
 
To be honest I wouldn't upgrade too much without upgrading your PSU as well. Maybe it would be worth getting a replacement motherboard for now (don't sell them here so look around), I've seen one for under £25, and then do a full upgrade when you get some more cash.
 
What about something like this?

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 1024MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99

OR

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB GDDR3 SILENT Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card (H545HR512)
£27.98
(£23.32)

ASRock N68C-S UCC GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard £33.98

OcUK Swift 550W Silent Power Supply £19.99


My question: With the DDR2 / DDR3 mobo,would a ddr3 gfx card be ok even if I am only using DDR2 in the DIMM slots? Or do I have to stick with ddr2 if I am using ddr2 ram?

Also: This comes to under 100, would you change out any parts?
 
I agree with sk82jack that upgrading your PSU is the most important thing you can do. Get a good brand PSU and it will last you a few builds my Corsair VX550 lasted 2 builds until It wasnt giving enough power.

If your looking to buy a new GPU I'd save up and try and get a second hand 4850 / 4870 they'll be more powerful that the 5450 your looking at for not much more £. I sold mine on the bay recently for £30.

If im perfectly honest I'd start to save up and build a whole new system. If you spend £100 here Its just £100 less toward a much better system. Change the motherboard to keep you going and start saving would be my advice
 
gilljoy said:
I agree with sk82jack that upgrading your PSU is the most important thing you can do. Get a good brand PSU and it will last you a few builds my Corsair VX550 lasted 2 builds until It wasnt giving enough power.

If your looking to buy a new GPU I'd save up and try and get a second hand 4850 / 4870 they'll be more powerful that the 5450 your looking at for not much more £. I sold mine on the bay recently for £30.

If im perfectly honest I'd start to save up and build a whole new system. If you spend £100 here Its just £100 less toward a much better system. Change the motherboard to keep you going and start saving would be my advice
Click to expand...

This.

+1.
 
Bgriffin said:
What about something like this?

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 1024MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99

OR

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB GDDR3 SILENT Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card (H545HR512)
£27.98
(£23.32)

ASRock N68C-S UCC GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard £33.98

OcUK Swift 550W Silent Power Supply £19.99


My question: With the DDR2 / DDR3 mobo,would a ddr3 gfx card be ok even if I am only using DDR2 in the DIMM slots? Or do I have to stick with ddr2 if I am using ddr2 ram?

Also: This comes to under 100, would you change out any parts?
Click to expand...

when you do buy parts don't buy an ocuk or any other cheap generic psu's. stick to well branded psu makes such as ocz, bequiet, corsair, xfx, coolermaster and there's probably a couple of other ones that I've forgotten about but the most popular for cheaper, less power consuming systems is the bequiet l7 530w. its about £40 but on my mobile at the moment so I don't have a link.
 
Thanks very much for the advice, I will start shopping around for a better PSU, mobo and checking ebay regularly for a H

What about the whole DDR2/DDR3 thing? Is it worth getting a combo motherboard and a DDR3 GFX card, will it run with my DDR2 memory in? (It says it is compatible with both, but does that mean ALL DDR2 OR DDR3 not a combination of both.


About upgrading the whole system: I'm literally about to finish university so after 4 years money wise I am completely drained, overdrafts etc. And I can't see me freeing up 500/600 to make a satisfactory newbuild, £100 though is something I could spend over 1/2 months because I can't hardly play the games I want to at the moment.
 
DDR2 (or 3) is on the motherboard as the main system memory. The memory on the graphics card is solely for the use of the card itself so you can mix and match. I have DDR2 system memory and DDR5 Graphics memory.
 
upgrade

You could go for something like this:
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2 microATX Motherboard £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Sub Total : £87.48
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £19.15
Total : £114.88
 
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