What can i upgrade?

Joel Harley · 4 May 2007 at 08:14

I have an advent T9306 with the follow spec, what can i upgrade on the computer to make it va va voom?

Intel Pentium 4 650 Processor

3.4GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2Mb Cache

2048MB DDR RAM

360GB Hard Disk Drive

M-F Dual Layer DVD-RW / DVD-ROM Drives

256MB ATI Radeon X600 Graphics

4 USB connections

4 PCI Slots

What are my options, i like the way that the VIIV's turn on quickly the current startup time of this machine is around 2 minutes!

Thanks in advance,

Joel

semi-pro waster · 4 May 2007 at 09:30

Welcome to the forums. What is your budget here and what parts do you want to keep from your existing PC? i.e. is your case a standard ATX or is the PSU a special model that only fits into it?

schnipps · 4 May 2007 at 10:05

Looking at the specs from the purple shirt site its running XP so more ram wouldnt really be beneficial, also you cant go anywhere CPU wise as C2D wont work on that board. Best bang would be some sort of X1950Pro ATI card which would trounce that X600 card in there now, or maybe a 8800 GTS should go in. All depends on how much room you have though as pre-made jobbies tend to be in small cases.

What specifially about it now isnt fast enough as its more then capable for most thing just not games with that card, also what resolution do you game at?

Slinky1989 · 4 May 2007 at 10:09

I'd also get a new power supply as they tend to put the bare minimum that they can get away with.

One person I know had to change their power supply just so it would run a 7600gt.

It'll probably be only 300-350watts so if you want to upgrade, that would be my first job.

schnipps · 4 May 2007 at 10:11

justinwilkin said:
I'd also get a new power supply as they tend to put the bare minimum that they can get away with.

One person I know had to change their power supply just so it would run a 7600gt.

It'll probably be only 300-350watts so if you want to upgrade, that would be my first job.

True although dont jump the gun, i have a premade packard bell and i stuck a x1800xt card in it and it was fine and thats on a standard 350w supply.

Slinky1989 · 4 May 2007 at 10:13

schnipps said:
True although dont jump the gun, i have a premade packard bell and i stuck a x1800xt card in it and it was fine and thats on a standard 350w supply.

Aye, agree with you there, but remember this is a pentium 4 we're talking about, not the lovely power efficient beast that is your core 2 duo

Joel Harley · 4 May 2007 at 12:33

Hey guys,

I have a budget of around £300

,

Can i upgrade the MOBO + processor to a core 2 duo for that?

Its an advent standard case and PSU, my farther was told this was the TOP SPEC! liers at pc world

Thanks,

Joel

semi-pro waster · 4 May 2007 at 12:42

If your Ram is indeed DDR then I think the below specification might be your best option. The graphics card is pretty good and the CPU should be a jump up as well.

Akasa Ultra Quiet 460W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel with Blue LED Fan £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
Sub Total : £235.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £42.86
Total : £287.77

Deiwos · 4 May 2007 at 12:42

Joel Harley said:
Hey guys,

I have a budget of around £300,

Can i upgrade the MOBO + processor to a core 2 duo for that?

Its an advent standard case and PSU, my farther was told this was the TOP SPEC! liers at pc world

Thanks,

Joel

Everything they sell is top spec, of course

Joel Harley · 4 May 2007 at 12:47

semi-pro waster said:
If your Ram is indeed DDR then I think the below specification might be your best option. The graphics card is pretty good and the CPU should be a jump up as well.

Akasa Ultra Quiet 460W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel with Blue LED Fan £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
Sub Total : £235.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £42.86
Total : £287.77

So the thinking is all of the other components will fit into the PC?

Good idea, i can have a bit of computer mitosis using the old components to build a back up PC

EDIT: is it possible to get a Mobo that supports the cheap DDR2 RAM at the top of the forums? and keep the existing DDR for a seperate PC?

semi-pro waster · 4 May 2007 at 13:31

If you can stretch to get the new Ram and motherboard then certainly you you would be better going for both, I'd recommend the Gigabyte S3 which is more expensive but offers better overclocking and only supports DDR2.

Joel Harley · 5 May 2007 at 11:00

semi-pro waster said:
If you can stretch to get the new Ram and motherboard then certainly you you would be better going for both, I'd recommend the Gigabyte S3 which is more expensive but offers better overclocking and only supports DDR2.

Is there a motherboard i can get that currently does core 2 duo but can be upgraded to a quad core processor at a later date?

semi-pro waster · 5 May 2007 at 11:29

There are quite a few that will cope with quad core but my recommendations would go to the Asus P5N-E 650 SLi or the Gigabyte DS3P which is a revised version of the S3 that I recommended before plus it has solid capacitors which in theory means it lasts longer.