Spec my dad a CHEAP upgrade!

sk82jack

sk82jack

sk82jack

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At the moment he has a Dell Dimension 1100 which has:

Intel Celeron CPU @ 2.53GHz
512MB of RAM
Intel 865 GV chipset motherboard with Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2
250W PSU

This system is painfully slow at times and I told him he needed to something about it so he's looking at me for options.

I could just put in 2GB of RAM (thats the maximum it takes) but that costs £46 so I thought if he invests a bit more money he could upgrade the whole thing and it would perform a lot better.

He is only looking to spend £100 and I've seen something just over which is a barebones bundle consisting of:

AMD Sempron 145 Processor
2GB DDR3 1333Mhz Memory
ATX Tower Case With 400w PSU
NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Graphics

It's a family PC so it won't be used for any games or any photo/video editing software or anything like that. It will literally just be used for web browsing, uploading and storing pictures and syncing with itunes.

Already got HDD, DVD drive, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, OS (32-bit)

So, to sum up, just looking for the cheapest thing going that will enable general PC use without it freezing constantly. Thanks.
 
id prolly look for something abit more powerful for 2nd hand

perhaps a core2duo or athlon based system

if u could pick up a cpu/memory/mobo bundle 2nd hand, then just add in a cheap case to go with it

if u go for the sempron u'll only upgrade it again later
 
Only problem with that is I can't get into MM until the end of June and don't know whether to trust other second hand sources.
 
i had a sempron 140 as a stopgap for about 6 weeks. I wouldnt put them down like that - they're actually quite nippy for what they are. Got mine upto 3.3ghz but anything higher was bus limited (my board didnt like anything above 240mhz when running off the igp for some reason)

plus theres also the potential to unlock ... which unfortunately mine didnt :(
 
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Is the 140 better than the 145?

The only thing is that I have the original dell case so I don't really know whats compatible and everything? And would I not need to upgrade my PSU if upping all of that?

Looking at the option of a new CPU and then upping the RAM or something, would the Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood) 2.8GHz be compatible with my motherboard?
 
actually the 140 is worse :p (but not by much)

identical chips, just the 140 is at 2.7ghz and the 145 is at 2.8ghz

and i doubt a p4 would make a huuuge difference in performance
 
Get this board ASRock N68C-S UCC I have overclock and unlock a 140 to 3.4 with this board the tricky part is getting good 140 that will unlock to dual.
I got 4 140 and only 2 unlocks to dual so unlocking this chip is 50-50.The board also accepts ddr2/ddr3 so you can use ddr2 if you got some spare but ddr3 is cheap atm if you can grab some when ocuk got some on its weekly deal.
 
I've been reading about and I think the max I can upgrade my CPU to is Intel P4 3.2GHz and to upgrade the motherboard I'd need a new case, PSU, CPU and RAM.

Sounds like its not really worth upgrading the CPU if it won't make too much difference and adding a SSD isn't an option as my motherboard isn't SATA compatible and the case only has one HDD slot anyway :(
 
What about an Intel bundle that I've seen:

Intel Celeron Dual Core E3400
2GB DDR3 1333Mhz Memory
ATX Tower Case With 400w PSU
Intel G41 Chipset Motherboard

for £120

Would a system like that be able to run windows smoothly and have no freezing or anything for the next couple of years? What are my overclocking options on something like this too?
 
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