Windows 7 on following system - workable?

The system currently only has 512mb so I'd need to spend £50 to get it up to 2gb. They also want a blu-ray drive added (£67) so I'd end up replacing the gfx card anyway (another £70).

You reckon it would be better to just upgrade mobo and cpu to make sure it can handle win7 properly?
 
For sure, get a new CPU and MB if it's going to be used for blu-ray as well. That old P4 system will be slow, hot, noisy and consume lots of power. Not worth spending money on an old P4 box.
 
Thats what I was thinking clv101. It'd only be about an extra £85 too, so be worth it. I mean what option would you take....

Current system
P4 3ghz
crap motherboard
geforce fx5200 128mb
512mb ddr1 ram
80gb hdd
dvd/cd +rw
micro atx case and 300w psu


Option 1
Blu-ray drive: £67
Upgraded memory 2gb ddr pc3200: £50
Upgraded graphics card hd4650 agp8x: £70
Adaptors: £10
Hard drive £33 (160GB... currently 80GB)
Windows 7 Home premium: £85

Total: around £315


Option 2: For a new system...

Motherboard gigabyte am3 (with onboard gfx): £67
Processor athlon x2: £52
Memory ddr3: £89
Hard drive 500gb: £40
Blu-ray drive: £67
Windows 7 Home Premium: £85
Use existing case/psu

Total: around £400
 
I dont think that cpu can handle bluray cos I had a P4 @ 3.4ghz that stuttered heavilly when playing 720p videos
 
I ran windows 7 on a P4 3.4GHz no problem, but then it had 2GB ram and an HD4670 behind it. Dont know how well that system will cope tbh, especially if you want to add bluray as Temi_D mentions.

Ultimately if it's that expensive to expand the older tech, then your friend's probably best off investing in newer tech which will have some longevity to it rather than something which is already essentially obsolete.
 
For £85 extra, the 2nd option above looks like a much better choice. You may even be able to flog some of the old bits for a few quid narrowing the price difference a little.
 
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