Upgrade price

[breezer]

another 2p worth

cds for backups i think are a pain, i use flash drives, but how about what i have for an idea.

2 hard drives, (cant remeber exact sizes) 1 small 1 big

o/s on small hd, bigger hd partitione into 3 /4

my logic is that as a hd spins it must wear out, if o/s is on same drive as stored info its a pain, if my o/s hd gives up, buy another small one, reinstall o/s, if big one goes pete tong, no need to install o/s as its on the other hd

 

[eggplant]

cds for backups i think are a pain, i use flash drives

flash drives arnt as reliable as cd's, but cd's/dvd's arnt 100%

my logic is that as a hd spins it must wear out, if o/s is on same drive as stored info its a pain, if my o/s hd gives up, buy another small one, reinstall o/s, if big one goes pete tong, no need to install o/s as its on the other hd

but you would still need to reinstall your programs but your registry would still be full of the previous entries so this would probably do more harm than good.

 

[JohnD]

CDs are very cheap, and secure offsite storage is really easy

 

[leecope3]

first off im new here so hi guys

When upgrading pc hardware there are more things u have to think about that u might first think

first off obviously there is the mobo (motherboard) u have a couple of choices to begin with AMD or Intel personaly im an amd fan as the price performance ratio is generally better than intel

then as we speak there are 2 main AMD sockets The socket 939 which is slightly older than the newer AM2 socket if you would like to use your ram u have now which im assuming is DDR then the 939 is the option you will need as the AM2 uses DDR2 which using your old ram will save you money and be perfectly adaquate if you have 768MB im assuming 3x256 strips in which case you can buy another 256MB which is cheap now a days and have 1 GIG as most socket 939 mobos have 4 DDR slots a decent midranged 939 board will set you back about £50 although these are getting harder to find ebuyer is ur best bet ASUS Gigabyte and DFI are ones to aim for

onboard GFX is getting a rarer thing these days and finding boards with them is hard work. if you are not interested in gaming like an earlier post said the 7300GT will be a fine choice if gaming is your thing then a 7600GT or higher will be more suited pci express is the way forward.

as for cpu being an AMD fan i would reccomend the athlon 64 3700. this cost approx 60-70 pounds online scan.co.uk ebuyer.com and overclockers.co.uk are places i use regularly they are all pretty fast and reliable services

your current harddrives cdroms etc will all work fine

i think for a mobo cpu and gfx card you could do that pretty easy for under £200

or there is the intel option which i dont deal with
there is allways somthing like this too
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/103758
with onboard vga

if you wish to go for the AM2 option you will also need some new DDR2 memory which just adds to your cost