Upgrade price

[Zampa]

Very ball park figure please...i appreciate this isnt easy

Looking to upgrade our current motherboard to something that will be compatable with a 3.3 gig (approx) processor. On board sound hopefully, possibly on board graphics too (or a 256 card what ever is cheapest)

Current processor is 1.3 gig

Currently have 768 mb of DDR memory..

Im reasonably competent at many comp related tasks but I dont fancy tackling this meself as I dont see why I should treat the neighbours to a firework display!

We dont use the comp for games etc...but slowly getting into Adobe photo stuff etc so higher speed and graphics would be handy

Any idea what im looking to spend?...will be using an independant dealer.

Thanks..
___________________________
Lynda, moderator

sorry but, please note forum rule 9

 

[breezer]

Any idea what im looking to spend?...will be using an independant dealer.

ask the dealer, may have a "special" on or if you buy this this and one of those get this free.

If you make frineds with the dealer dont buy any white stuff in a small bag.

seriously, i made "freinds" with a pc bloke (dont see him now) but at the time he was very good in that he would remeber what you have, and be able to say if a new xyz is compatable with wht you already have (since he did sell it to you) also as i said if you but the whole lot they often give you a nice price.

but then again, maplin do some nice bundles

 

[Deluks]

Spend, possibly £200-£300 (ballpark)

Careful though, if they think you know sod-all about computers, or the price of parts, then they might try and pull a fast one. My mates mum bought a PC from an independent shop, they overcharged her by about £200 and the CPU (an Athlon 1400 *hot*) had an inadequate fan fitted, a poxy little 60mm thing. The machine kept overheating and shutting down until I replaced the fan for her, the replacement cost a fiver. Cutting corners like this can make all the difference. Not to say all independents are like this though, but get recommendations first.

Try building your own, get parts from microdirect, aria, ebuyer etc and you could save a packet. The only thing I'd say is to have another machine you can get online with, for advice from here when things go wrong But it's not too difficult, really.

Maplins bundles are overpriced, much better to try savastore.com They even install and soak test for a small charge.

Dual-core isn't for everyone, but photoshop and premiere will take advantage of 2 cores so a dual core cpu should be on the list. Also, as much ram as you can afford (obviously)

 

[JohnD]

You might consider a "barebones" like this, and transfer your old disks, screen, keyboard etc. I've found its less trouble than assembling from scratch, and pretty cheap. The bundles with case and power supply are very little dearer than the ones without.

This supplier is local to me, but there may be a supplier handy for you.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/dirresults.html?d=CV00&s=barebones

 

[Zampa]

Thanks for that all...

The 200-300 figure looked pretty close.

Its amazing how for just a few (50 quid) more or thereabouts you can get a complete system..complete with monitor anda kyeboard.

We intend to keep everything we have bar the processor and graphics..cant find a motherboard at the moment with 256 grpahics and sound...but then agin it might be cheaper to buy these two things individually.

The 'package' deals on novatch are very intresting...didnt know companies offered those sort of deals.

As are the 'bare bones' deals.

The company I use are straight and honest http://www.easynetdistribution.co.uk/ and will only put together something I need and not something powerful enough to run the next shuttle mission.

Im consdering doing the work myself it will mean saving 50-100 quid which can be put towards higher quality equipment.

Only problem being if I have problems then I have nowhere to turn...ive had customers who turn down a quote only to ring you up a few weeks later asking to put their work right (i wont).

Two questions....

Am I bothering to much wanting 256 graphics?...im currently using the windows XP stuff...will I notice the difference?..is the difference worth the extra?

Would I need to wipe my hard drive prior to installing a new motherboard?..(not a problem)

Thanks again

 

[Deluks]

Am I bothering to much wanting 256 graphics?...im currently using the windows XP stuff...will I notice the difference?..is the difference worth the extra?

Would I need to wipe my hard drive prior to installing a new motherboard?..(not a problem)

Thanks again

Graphics: The term 256 means nothing. Graphics cards can have 256mb of memory, or be 256 bit (or both)

Basically, you get what you pay for (depending on where you get it from) although a 256 bit card with low memory should outperform a 128 bit card with more memory, (all other factors being equal)

Have a read up here for an explanation.
Onboard isn't too bad these days but can affect performance in other areas, so a dedicated graphics card should be considered, if you get a mobo with onboard at least make sure it's got a PCI Expressx16 slot so you can add in a card at a later date.

If you aren't gaming then £50 maximum should be your graphics card budget.


Hard Drive: You should backup your drive, or at least the important data on it before installing a new board. You might get away with just swapping the boards over and reinstalling the drivers, I've got away with it a couple of times and thought it was the norm, but have since found out I just got lucky.
So you will almost definitely have to reformat and install your OS again. Not a bad thing, your system will be cleaner, leaner and meaner for it.


When you re-install, you should create 2 or 3 partitions on the formatted drive. The first should be the smallest (minimum of 5 gig if you're installing XP.) That way any future upgrades you do will mean reinstalling on that 'C' drive only, leaving the rest of your data on the other partitions intact.

I'd recommend.

-An Intel dual core pentium 'D' cpu, on a Core2 Duo compatible motherboard (so you can get a C2D when the prices come down a bit)

Asus, Abit, MSI or Gigabyte are the better mobos to go for.

Both CPU and board for about £110-£120

-£40 - £50 ish graphics card (PCI-express) Nvidia 7300GS or ATI 1300 Pro


-1MB of PC6400 DDR2 - about £90-£100

Total spend, about £240 - £270*, and you'll have a machine that will truly fly, and be upgradable at a later date.

*These are internet prices though, you'll pay more out in the 'real' World.

 

[eggplant]

Its amazing how for just a few (50 quid) more or thereabouts you can get a complete system..complete with monitor anda kyeboard.

yeah but it wont be anywhere near as good as one you may build following the guidlines already posted - see a similar post called "what can I build for £200" or similar.

I'd go WAY over 5 gig for the system partition, XP and office will just about eat that all up and leave you nothing.
As for graphics, unless you are into gaming or video editing, I doubt very much that you would notice any difference between onboard graphics and a £500 card.
I would reccomend installing from scratch, you can get away without particularly if the new board is the same chipset as the old, but in this case that isnt going to be likely, and going cross platform (amd to intel in this case) will be a 99.9% no go.

 

[2scoops0406]

Buy a new computer

 

[eggplant]

Buy a new computer

this is basically what he is doing, minus monitor, speakers, keyboard,mouse, case/psu, possibly hard drive, etc

 

[Deluks]

I'd go WAY over 5 gig for the system partition, XP and office will just about eat that all up and leave you nothing.

Agreed, but it depends on existing hard drive capacity. He may only have 20 gig drive if the system is that old.
I only have 10Gig for my C drive, but that contains windows only, all my other programs are installed on a seperate partition, and data, media and docs on a third partition.
If planning an upgrade to Vista in the future then I'd put 30Gig aside!

 

[Zampa]

Hello..

Thanks for all the superb info so far..

Hadnt considered spliting the h/d (30 gig btw,...but adding an 120 gig to it just for storage...so plenty of space available if we need it.

M/B is a KT333-8233/A via industries.

Cheers

 

[empip]

Get into those drawers !
http://www.techarts.com/products/drivedrawers/default.asp

 

[JohnD]

I've got a pair of drawers on mine, too. I use one for the regular backups and imaging, then once a month (or so) I take that one out and put the other one in.

The really important stuff goes on a CD and I put it off-site.

 

[Zampa]

Very good idea..

 

[eggplant]

not a new idea by any means, been using them for years, BUT remember, IDE drives arnt meant to be hot swappable - people do tho...