Upgrade options - Ideas / Help

DaveyD

DaveyD

DaveyD

Man of Honour
Joined
19 Jan 2003
Posts
12,645
Location
Warwickshire
Hi guys,

I feel my PC need a bit of an upgrade (for Windows 7 possibly in long term, sticking but currently on XP Media Centre at the moment).

The system spec currently is:

AMD Athlon 64 3200 (s939)
1GB DDR400 RAM (2x512)
ATI X850 XT PCI-E graphics card
DFI LANPARTY NF4 Motherboard
A rubbish 120gb IDE HDD.

What I'm interested in is what are my best options for a relatively cheap (£100ish?) upgrade to the system to make it last a little longer?

I was thinking of either getting 2x 1GB sticks of RAM to replace the 2x 512MB and getting a new HDD.

Also, I had thought of getting a better CPU in there, perhaps an X2? I know I'm limited with what type of CPU I can use.

What would you recommend? I tend to use the computer for internet + movies, but I do still play Half-Life 2/source engine based games from time to time.

Thanks,

Dave
 
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Personally Id go for this for now

Asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.99 (£50.43)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £45.99 (£39.99)
Total : £103.98

Then when you can afford it go for the RAM and then the HDD as you say, this will prob be bigger step up initially, new mobo with onboard gfx which is better than old dedicated card and new cpu support with new athlon cpu
 
95thrifles said:
Personally Id go for this for now

Asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.99 (£50.43)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £45.99 (£39.99)
Total : £103.98

Then when you can afford it go for the RAM and then the HDD as you say, this will prob be bigger step up initially, new mobo with onboard gfx which is better than old dedicated card and new cpu support with new athlon cpu
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I wouldn't be able to use my RAM with this option though would I? It's plain old DDR, not DDR2.

The onboard graphics that good? As the X850XT was top of the range when i had it a couple of years ago (however things could have changed I guess).

Dave
 
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Ahh sry I missed the plain DDR, youd have to replace that too, another £30-£40, depends if your budget is flexible and if you think its worth it
This review of the 785G chipset should show you its gaming performance, at low res it handles modern games with comfortable frame rates so should cope with older games fine
 
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