Possible Upgrades

Lufbra-Dan · 17 Feb 2009 at 15:23

I have had my system for roughly 3 years and am looking to upgrade. I would invest in a new system if I could afford to, but sadly money is tight. So i am looking to upgrade my current system as much as possible as my budget of £150 allows me to, but also allowing me to upgrade further in the future.

Currently I have:

2.40 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
NF-MCP61 motherboard (?)
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 405 [Display adapter]
2 MB RAM
MAXTOR STM3250820AS [Hard drive] (250.06 GB)

All of this is taken from Belarc Advisor

Is there anywhere where I could improve on this within my current budget that would allow me to gain a significant increase in performance.

I use my PC for work, watching movies, and also games such as Red Alert 3 and Football Manager 2009.

Kennysevenfold · 17 Feb 2009 at 15:49

best bet is something like this mate can use on board graphics like you are just now and use the same cpu. this motherboard will allow a graphics card and cpu upgrade later on down the line as well mate

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Asus M3A78 Pro AMD 780G (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £80.49
(£69.99) £80.49
(£69.99)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX6400D2K2/4G) £42.54
(£36.99) £42.54
(£36.99) Sub Total : £106.98 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £7.99 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £17.25 Total : £132.22

mp260767 · 17 Feb 2009 at 15:55

any chance you can run cpu-z and get some more system information, or if you know is the processor an old amd 64 x2 or a new amd AM2 socket.

if its the newer am2 then the memory will be ddr2 so you can remove that from the spec, and put the money towards a mobo like the Asus M3A78 AMD 770G (Socket AM2+) rather than he matx foxconn.

taking it that its the old amd 64, came up with the following:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200 2.70GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £52.89 (£45.99)

Foxconn M61PMV nForce 430 (Socket AM2/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £37.94 (£32.99)

Asus ATI Radeon 3450 Vcool Silent 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (EAH3450/HTP/256M) £28.74 (£24.99)

OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £18.39
(£15.99)

Sub Total : £119.96
Shipping : £8.49
VAT : £19.27
Total : £147.72

Lufbra-Dan · 17 Feb 2009 at 18:04

I have downloaded CPU-Z as you suggested, and it says that the Package is Socket AMD (940), and it also says under the Memory tab that type of memory is DDR2

mp260767 · 17 Feb 2009 at 18:40

i'd go with something like the following, slightly over you're £150:

Asus M3A78 AMD 770G (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £67.84 (£58.99)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200 2.70GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £52.89
(£45.99)

Asus ATI Radeon 3450 Vcool Silent 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (EAH3450/HTP/256M) £28.74 (£24.99)

Sub Total : £129.97
Shipping : £8.49
VAT : £20.77
Total : £159.23

Lufbra-Dan · 17 Feb 2009 at 18:50

would it be worth getting some extra RAM?

Also how would the motherboard go if I was to purchase an AMD tri core at a later date?

mp260767 · 18 Feb 2009 at 08:27

according to the asus website the mobo will take Phenom and PhenomII.

more memory wouldnt hurt if you could afford it but for around you're budget i'd stick with the processor/mobo and graphics card.

Lufbra-Dan · 18 Feb 2009 at 15:47

Asus M3A78 AMD 770G (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

£67.84 (£58.99)

HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX6400D2K2/4G) Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX6400D2K2/4G)

£42.54 (£36.99)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 Silence "Low Profile" 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11125-02-21R) Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 Silence "Low Profile" 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11125-02-21R)

£27.59 (£23.99)

Is what I am thinking. I reckon this qould allow my to invest in a better processor down the line when more funds become available

Spooter · 18 Feb 2009 at 19:21

This is what I would do..

Sell your old processor/motherboard/memory on a well know auction site that will get you at least £50 at a guess.

This system would give you a very good improvement and im confident it will fit your needs.

Graphics card will free up the memory and you can still play some games be it at a low setting again depending on age.

This board will still allow for faster memory in the future and will take the Phenoms!!

Thats £10 over budget if you dont sell the old stuff but possibly only £100 if you do and thats a great deal imo.

Lufbra-Dan · 21 Feb 2009 at 16:29

Just been looking at the bunldes that are advertised on OCuk, would any of these plus a graphics card be a worthwhile purchase?

Lufbra-Dan · 3 Mar 2009 at 22:25

anybody have any more suggestions before I decide what to purchase?