Upgrading my pc - Where do I start?

turbobob

That should work fine on current systems.

DazedAndConfuzed

turbobob wrote: »

That should work fine on current systems.

Cool, thanks.

Been quoted £200 for:

INTEL PENTIUM 4 [2 CPUS] RUNNING AT 2.93GHZ
MSI rc410 sb450 motherboard
ATI RADEON SAPPHIRE HD3450 512MB PCI-EXPRESS GRAPHICS CARD
1gb RAM
80GB WESTERN DIGITAL HDD
Speakers and a 19" monitor

Seems good, possibly too good to be true (it is second hand I guess)

Decent spec for the price?

Lil306

Dazed, you are going to be making comprimises in my opinion somewhere. Regarding the PC you have been advised

CPUs - bit low, to me it sounds like they're actually 1 CPU with hyper-threading
RAM - far too low for gaming, 2-4gb minimum now, also it's speed is probably slow
Graphics - Good card
HDD - it's enough, providing it's sata it's fine, it only holds windows / games anyway
Monitor - has one so a good package

Without looking you'd need to think about better CPUs and More memory, does that price include an operating system. If not add another £80 on top of that.

Personally... I'd be tempted to go with the suggestion Billscarab said. I hate to sound like a parrot here, but places like Novatech will give you more bang for your buck all their systems are matched and they have excellent customer service.

The package bill suggestion has an IDE connection so if your HDD from old PC is IDE then you can swap it straight away. This saves you money purchasing a new operating system. Add a monitor / graphics card to the package depending on your budget and you have a much better system for the same price as above....additionally, I wouldn't worry about overclocking because it can shorten the life of the PC without sufficient cooling and it can handle a variety of games. My card is a PCI-Express I bought it for £20 and I can play most games (FPS are obviously slower) so a system suggested like bills you could get that, spend around £100 for a new monitor / card and you'd have a gaming capable system.... not the best, but probably best for your budget....

Remember, you can look at second hand places etc (yellow pages) if your short on money.....for a new TFT / CRT monitor if your gaming, don't skimp on the graphics. Monitors aren't as important as graphics cards for computer games

Additionally, following a post someone mentioned try looking for a "Freagle" group, they basically are people who are giving away stuff for free.

You might be able to score an old pc, memory, cpu, monitor etc for bit of fuel in the car;)

BillScarab

ddoris wrote: »

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.

They tell you what connectors there are if you click on the specification tab.

Even if there was no IDE connector you can get IDE/SATA adapters.

DazedAndConfuzed

After much deliberating (well, arsing about at work to give it the proper title), I've finally realised you guys know one hell of a lot more about these things then me and the novatech bundles will be the best bet.... probably by far!

I'm thinking that the bundle with an E5400 and 2GB of RAM will do everything I need (when put in my old tower and linked up to the CD/DVD drive and existing HDD and I can get an additional graphics card at some point to build it up a bit more?

Not fussed about over-clocking, dont want to push my luck!

turbobob

Yeah the Novatech bundle would be fine.

This is about the closest I could get to £200 for a complete base unit (i.e. no monitor, operating system) with parts from Lambdatek. Will easily handle HD video and light gaming.

DazedAndConfuzed

turbobob wrote: »

Yeah the Novatech bundle would be fine.

This is about the closest I could get to £200 for a complete base unit (i.e. no monitor, operating system) with parts from Lambdatek. Will easily handle HD video and light gaming.

That's quality, thanks! I'm going to transfer over my current HDD, DVD writer and case so may be able to upgrade the spec mentioned for the same price?

JasX

Lil306 wrote: »

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...

OMG don't get an OEM copy of windows, don't touch them with barge poles, any one recommending one deserves to be shot.

you can buy OEM copy of wndows for about £50, you can buy a full RETAIL copy of windows for about £60.

If you get an OEM copy you save £10 up front but can never re-use it for any other PC you use/get, and will have problems if you upgrade you original machine too much.

retail you can keep and transfer to your next PC as/when you upgrade and/or build your next one, or even (legally as per license) sell on on ebay when you scrap your old PC.

in summary OEM version:

(spend £50).... upgrade your PC -> (spend another £50 as you need to buy another OEM copy)... replace your PC with another self build (spend another £50 on another copy)... upgrade that one (spend another £50 on another copy)... you get the idea

with the RETAIL version:

(spend £60)... upgrade your PC -> (free)...replace your PC with another self build (free)... upgrade that one (free)... replace again with a self build (free) ...(free)...(free)...(free)...until...
...no longer need RETAIL copy as PC is scrapped and you bought a pre-assembled PC that came with windows already installed.... --> (sell RETAIL copy on ebay and get £40 odd back)

you tell me which makes more MSE sense

[Deleted User]

Plus, you're not complying with the terms of the OEM licence so you'd be using unlicenced software, which in effect would be no more legal than downloading a dodgy copy from somewhere.

It's a false economy.

turbobob

DazedAndConfuzed wrote: »

That's quality, thanks! I'm going to transfer over my current HDD, DVD writer and case so may be able to upgrade the spec mentioned for the same price?

I should think so yes.

Essentially they are similar. The Novatech bundle has a faster processor (Pentium Dual Core E5400 2.7Ghz). The parts I listed include a Celeron E3200 2.4Ghz. Performance comparisons for all can be found here - http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php (you might like to compare any of them against a Pentium 4). I included a Radeon 512mb HD4650 which is a decent graphics card for £30+VAT - certainly a lot more powerful than the motherboards built in controller.