To upgrade or to replace?

[xyphic]

Hi all,

I've had my current PC for getting on for 5 years now, and it's beginning to show. It's been patched up with extra RAM, new graphics card, etc. but I'm now wanting to upgrade to Vista, increase hard drive capacity, generally try to speed things up.

My current specs are:

AMD Athlon 1800+
1500 Mb RAM
20 Gb + 80 Gb hard drives
ATI X850 XTPE 256Mb AGP graphics

I'm looking at somewhere in the region of £250 if I want to add extra RAM, replace hard drives, and get Vista Ultimate. But would it be worth at this point getting a new PC? Budget isn't really a problem (though I don't want to be spending too much!), and I don't need a high-end machine. I would like to be able to play new games if one comes along I like, but it's certainly not going to be my main use. I'll be doing photo retouching and manipulation, code development, maybe some music stuff.

I know you can't mention competitors, but a rough idea of what kind of system might be appropriate (and rough cost) would be useful.

Appreciate any thoughts.

xyphic

 

[xyphic]

Thanks for that... I'm pretty much set on going for a new PC now, as it'll be more expensive in the short term, but will benefit me in the long term. Now I can't decide whether to build my own again or just buy a bog standard pre-built one from another retailer.

I would enjoy building my own again, but might turn out to be more expensive. There are a couple of bits I can cannibalise from my current PC such as a decent Tagan PSU, the X850, probably the DVD drive, keyboard, mouse, etc. Assuming those will be compatible with whatever system I get.

So, I reckon I'm after:

Case (current one is a bit battered)
Mobo
Processor, HSF
RAM
Hard drive(s)
Monitor (20" or 22" LCD I reckon)
Sound card
OS (Vista Ultimate)

If anyone fancies speccing that up for me, it'd be appreciated. If not, I'll have a go this evening and post back my ideas. I guess with the monitor, I'd be looking at something in the £700 price range, lower if possible!

Cheers,
xyphic

 

[xyphic]

Thanks! Much appreciated. Will take a look at all that tomorrow when my brain's a bit more in gear.

 

[xyphic]

Thanks again for all the advice. I went with pretty much the exact spec. that semi-pro waster came up with. Currently installing Vista (went for Home Premium in the end) after checking out the temps and whatnot in the BIOS. All looking good.

Gave me an almighty scare when the alarm went off though. I thought I'd put the "CPU Fan Failure Warning" on just in case, but didn't expect it to go off... but turns out that the CPU fan stops to keep noise down when it's cool enough and the motherboard thinks that's a fault. They should tell you this in the manual! Hehe...

On a related note, I'm liking the monitor... it's almost as big as my TV.