Spec my dad an upgrade

Jon20

Jon20

Jon20

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Joined
12 Feb 2008
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Shropshire
Hi guys,

My dad has been telling me for a few weeks now that his PC occasionally locks up and becomes unresponsive, resulting in a forced restart. I initially thought that perhaps the hard drive was on the way out. Seeing as I've got a spare, tonight I installed it into his PC and loaded Windows 7 back on to it. Everything was fine initially but it didn't seem to last as it took ages to do the Windows updates. It was actually still going when I left and was still slow. Perhaps the spare hard drive was also on it's way out, I don't know, I haven't used it for good couple of years. Anyway, this has all lead to the possibility of upgrading his PC. It is after all some ancient shop bought pre-built PC, with some dodgy looking Winfast mobo, an even dodgier looking ColorsIT PSU and I think an AMD 4200+ CPU.

He mainly uses it just for Internet browsing, email, Youtube, Office etc work. I've got a Seasonic X400 PSU he can use, will probably re-use the case although I do have a spare if needs be. I've also got a spare SATA DVD drive.

So if you could kindly spec an upgrade that would be great. Just need the motherboard, probably m-ATX as don't think the case could fit a full size one, CPU, RAM, possibly a HDD. Stock cooler should be fine. Intel or AMD, not too fussed. Must be as cheap as possible, say max £200 but preferably cheaper, whilst still using some quality components.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A55M-DGS AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £44.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £35.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £29.99
Total : £166.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).


I'm not too clued up on this Trinity business. However this should do fine, you could even maybe get a cooler in.
 
with 200 you could get a modern refurb, or a serviceable "new old stock" laptop if you looked. you could even get a brand new lower-spec one that would more than qualify for browsing and general light use. i've seen brand new sandybridge i3 laptops for 300, to give an idea. it seems almost pointless to get a desktop when laptops are so much more useful for everyone bar enthusiasts and professionals. so you're getting less power than a desktop... well it's not like your dad needs to play skyrim :p
 
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PorkPieCat said:
with 200 you could get a modern refurb, or a serviceable "new old stock" laptop if you looked. you could even get a brand new lower-spec one that would more than qualify for browsing and general light use. i've seen brand new sandybridge i3 laptops for 300, to give an idea. it seems almost pointless to get a desktop when laptops are so much more useful for everyone bar enthusiasts and professionals. so you're getting less power than a desktop... well it's not like your dad needs to play skyrim :p
Click to expand...

Whilst I'm with with you sort of. OP has a good knowledge of PC's therefore if his dad had a PC he could then upgrade the components as he needs to rather than having to go out and buy an entire new machine like you would need to if you had a Laptop.

Off Topic- Sorry if I bumped, just came back to this thread as I posted before bed.
 
He has thought about getting a laptop but he ruled that out pretty quickly as he prefers a desktop PC.

I've used some of the ideas in here (thanks for giving them) and come up with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-DGS AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £35.99
Total : £180.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Motherboard and RAM are probably overkill, but it at least provides a bit of "future proofing". Are ASRock boards decent? I know they used to be a bit iffy but they seem to have improved recently. CPU capable? I've only ever used Intel since I got into building PC's, so not too familiar with AMD.
 
Jon20 said:
He has thought about getting a laptop but he ruled that out pretty quickly as he prefers a desktop PC.

I've used some of the ideas in here (thanks for giving them) and come up with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-DGS AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £35.99
Total : £180.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Motherboard and RAM are probably overkill, but it at least provides a bit of "future proofing". Are ASRock boards decent? I know they used to be a bit iffy but they seem to have improved recently. CPU capable? I've only ever used Intel since I got into building PC's, so not too familiar with AMD.
Click to expand...

Get the £40 motheboad & you're better off getting 1866RAM to give the APU a boost with the graphics. That should knock off £20-25.

Could always go for a b-grade 500gb HDD, save another £20.

Mobo - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-221-MS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2399
RAM - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-116-KS
HDD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-010-HI&groupid=595&catid=671&subcat=
 
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Both were SATA, the one in the PC was a Maxtor, the one I replaced it with is a Samsung F1. I'm not entirely convinced the Samsung was working properly as it seemed very slow, much slower than when I've used it previously in my PC. But without testing it, I can't prove that. Would save £44 if it was fine.
 
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Jon20 said:
Both were SATA, the one in the PC was a Maxtor, the one I replaced it with is a Samsung F1. I'm not entirely convinced the Samsung was working properly as it seemed very slow, much slower than when I've used it previously in my PC. But without testing it, I can't prove that. Would save £44 if it was fine.
Click to expand...

Then in that case, install them in your system and check their health. If they are okay, that will say you money to spend in other areas.
 
Right, I've been given the ok to purchase the parts, so just need one last check before I order.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte F2A55M-DS2 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £35.99
Total : £165.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



Pity the MSI board isn't in stock and I don't know enough about ASRock to get one. RAM amount is overkill but it's cheap at the moment. Going to get a HDD as he feels more comfortable knowing everything is new.
 
Jon20 said:
He has thought about getting a laptop but he ruled that out pretty quickly as he prefers a desktop PC.

I've used some of the ideas in here (thanks for giving them) and come up with this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-DGS AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £35.99
Total : £180.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Motherboard and RAM are probably overkill, but it at least provides a bit of "future proofing". Are ASRock boards decent? I know they used to be a bit iffy but they seem to have improved recently. CPU capable? I've only ever used Intel since I got into building PC's, so not too familiar with AMD.
Click to expand...

ok. sorry if it seemed like i was pointing out the obvious!
 
Jon20 said:
Right, I've been given the ok to purchase the parts, so just need one last check before I order.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte F2A55M-DS2 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKX) HDD £43.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £35.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £35.99
Total : £165.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



Pity the MSI board isn't in stock and I don't know enough about ASRock to get one. RAM amount is overkill but it's cheap at the moment. Going to get a HDD as he feels more comfortable knowing everything is new.
Click to expand...

Looks good, but get 1866RAM not 1600. You could save £15 by getting a grade B HDD.
 
Placed the order earlier on. I'm sure it'll be absolutely fine for what he uses it for. Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
 
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