Upgrade help for a mate!

County

County

County

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Joined
23 Aug 2005
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Location
Cheadle, Cheshire
Hi all

My mate is complaining of a slow computer. He just surfs the internet and watches stream videos/tv.

His spec is as follows:

AMD Sempron 2600+
512mb Generic RAM
Am not to sure on his Motherboard, obviously Socket A though
He is also running Windows XP Home

He also has 1mb broadband. Is this reason why hes saying its slow?

I think his computer would be benefit anyway from a better CPU and another 512mb RAM.

He has very little money, so would a AMD AthlonXP 2600+ be better?

Also, would he have to sell his stick of RAM and get two sticks of the same RAM?

Cheers :)
 
Athlon XP's are older then the Semprons, though the XP's did overclock better iirc.

Whack some more ram in, that should help, ideally 2gb.

Defrag the hard drive, clean out temp files, disable services you dont need.

If you want a decent boost you're looking at a new motherboard and cpu at least, while still being restricted unless you buy new ram and switch to DDR2.

Cheapest boost would be more ram, 2nd to that perhaps a 939 board and cpu allowing you to keep the current DDR, then add another stick of 512.

The most expensive route would be AM2 or Conroe because you'd need to change the memory to.

You should be able to find an AGP board on any of them platforms or onboard if thats what he has.
 
Unless you can get an unlocked BArton Core socket A of the MM they will cost, two matched sticks of ram are preferable, but not essential, and would make a nice boast. A cheap option woud be

Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (Socket 939 & Upgradable to AM2) AGP & PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-002-AKPrice: £37.99 (£44.64 Including VAT at 17.5%)
and
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3000BPBOX) (CP-117-AM) Price: £49.99 (£58.74 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Just over £100 he could reuse just about all his other components unless his psu wasn't up to the job. All depends on his budget and if he could sell his old cpu and mobo.
 
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Tbh you really need to get him to clarify exactly what he means by slow, he might consider waiting for a video to buffer for 30 seconds is slow and that has nothing to do with the computer.

I'd have thought a Sempy + 512MB of RAM should be plenty for what he is doing, perhaps the computer just needs a good clean out and him a reality check on how streaming videos and such *is* slow.
 
Thanks all

I was thinking of the same route. A cheap 939 board and a AMD64 CPU of some sort is the way to go i think!

Cheers :)
 
How are you sure it's a socket A mobo. There is a 2600 Sempron on 754 as well? It is only 1.6ghz if it is so it is'nt going to be fast at all. If it is 754 you could pick up a brand new A64 3000+ for around £38 and would be much better than a Sempron. As already stated he would be better off with 1gb of ram as that could be his bottleneck. A 1mb adsl connection is'nt exactly brilliant for streaming either. Unless he cannot get a faster service maybe he should upgrade his connection.
 
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