To upgrade or to replace?

xyphic

xyphic

xyphic

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Joined
11 Nov 2003
Posts
1,696
Location
South Yorkshire
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
 
To build yourself something suitable brand new would probably come in at ~£300-400 before you add in the OS. I'd specify you something if I wasn't just about to rush off to work, if no-one has taken it on by this evening I'll do it then. :)
 
came up with this spec, 2gb is minimum for vista from what i've seen, dont run vista myself.

Motherboard is used for crossover so you can go for the core2duo processor but keep you're agp graphics card, at a later date you can update the motherboard and graphics card if you come across a game you want to run.

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £66.99 (£78.71)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £47.99 (£56.39)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £54.99 (£64.61)

Samsung SpinPoint T HD160HJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £28.99 (£34.06)

Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £36.99 (£43.46)

Sub Total : £235.95
Shipping : £8.25
VAT : £42.74
Total : £286.94
 
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! :-D

Cheers,
xyphic
 
right came up with the following, any reason u need vista ultimate instead of premium, would save about £50 to upgrade the case or processor :

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £104.99
(£123.36)

Samsung SM-206BW 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black £149.99
(£176.24)

Samsung SpinPoint T HD160HJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £28.99 (£34.06)

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Soundcard - Retail £39.99 (£46.99)

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £56.99 (£66.96)

Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £36.99 (£43.46)

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black £49.99 (£58.74)

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66R-00838) £97.99 (£115.14)

Sub Total : £565.92
Shipping : £10.95
VAT : £100.95
Total : £677.82
 
This would offer a pretty decent system and fair overclocking potential, if you wanted to drop it below £700 then there are quite a few ways to do so, most obviously by going for Vista Premium rather than Ultimate unless you need the Media Centre facilities (can't remember the other differences offhand)?

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £56.99
(£66.96) £56.99
(£66.96)
Dell E207WFP 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £159.99
(£187.99) £159.99
(£187.99)
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66R-00838) £97.99
(£115.14) £97.99
(£115.14)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Sub Total : £593.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £106.20
Total : £713.07
 
Thanks! Much appreciated. Will take a look at all that tomorrow when my brain's a bit more in gear.
 
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. :-D
 
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