Upgrading my pc - Where do I start?

marms

I had a computer with 2 xeon 3Ghz processors about 7 years ago and upgraded to one of the old athon x2 4200 processors which was a lot faster, any modern dual core processor will outperform the old xeon processors by quite a bit so don't waste your money on them.

DazedAndConfuzed

Cheers for the advice all, it's amazing how people dont tell you these things when you ask for details on the pc!

All I want is one to use as a second pc across a home LAN to play music, videos and maybe, just maybe some low power games.... for about £200. Is that too much to ask for?

I'm thinking that it just might be!

spakkker

Well, have you got your own os ,xp, vesta, if so you could maybe get in for £200.
An e5200, e5300, cpu just over 50 quid ,gigebyte motherboard g31-es2l £30
2gb ddr2 -£35+
power supply £20+
SAY Ati 4670 graphics £55
A 500gb h/d maybe £30+
You can overclock this combo to 3.3 -3.8ghz and it will play any game.

DazedAndConfuzed

BillScarab wrote: »

Cheers for that.

So basically the OP would be better getting this bundle from Novatech and using some of the bits from his current PC then getting a graphics card to go with it.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-634G

Thanks for all your help folks, it's really appreciated! So which is the better option, going with the Novatech bundle or getting the seperate bits Spakker recommended?:beer:

Lil306

DazedAndConfuzed wrote: »

Thanks for all your help folks, it's really appreciated! So which is the better option, going with the Novatech bundle or getting the seperate bits Spakker recommended?:beer:

Finding a prebuilt bundle like Novatech

You won't be able to build a decent PC like they can because they get parts at a discounted rate. That's why they can sell good mixtures of CPU/RAM for a cheaper price

If you buy a barebones kit (CPU/RAM/M/B) you need to find the hard drive, case, operating system and monitor k/b and mouse

If you buy a barebones kit pre-built, all you need to do is find an operating system and monitor. You can get OEM copies of Windows for around £40-50

OEM are cheaper because they don't come with any packaging or support, they're designed for system builders who know what they're doing and just need a copy of Windows to install.

It's good having an OEM copy because you have a legal copy of the software whenever you want. I believe when you purchase OEM however you cannot transfer the license to someone else as you need a retail for this... not sure I've never looked into it because I only wanted to install Windows

I've seen a DVD Pack at Novatech of Windows 7 Ultimate OEM 32-bit / 64-bit DVDs...guess what I'm buying next :P

Also don't forget to look at places like ebuyer.com, comet, currys, dixons, argos etc. They all have different packages for around the same prices (some with pre-installed Windows)

BillScarab

Buying a bundle simplifies matters and the parts are ready assembled.

Buying parts spearately may save a few quid or but if you buy things from different suppliers P&P costs can eat up any saving.

It's really up to you.

Here's another bundle from Novatech with an E5400 and 2GB of RAM for £125

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-542G

or an AMD option for £115

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-2402G

Both would be fine for general use and combiend with a decent graphics card will play games.

Yet another option is a 'barebones' PC. This one at £150 is basically the same as the AMD option above but includes a case and PSU. All you owuld have to do is swap over your old optical drive, swap over your old hard drive (or replace it) and fit a graphics card. Then install Windows.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-2402G

EDIT: Forgot to say the big disadvantage with bundles is that generally the motherboards are fine but probably won't have all of the overclocking options so if you're looking to overclock you CPU they're nto ideal.

DazedAndConfuzed

That's awesome thanks! How do I know if my old HDD will transfer across? It's a NVIDIA STRIPE 76.33G

ddoris

Well you don't know for sure because the m/board bundle sellers aren't telling you what m/board they are selling you -prob. the cheapest-some m/boards don't have ide connect.

turbobob

NVIDIA don't make hard drives. Is that some sort of RAID array (the "stripe" term suggests this). i.e. 2 x 40gb drives striped to show as 1 x 80gb drive.

DazedAndConfuzed

Oh yeah, I'm having a really stupid day today! The HDD is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80GB SATA150..... I think!!