Motherboard Upgrade Advice

frugal_matelot

Can anyone out there advise me. I have a computer that is now slow campared to the PC's of today (7 years old). It has a Pentium 4 in it. Can anyone recommend an upgrade solution for a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I am looking for an economical way so any advise of how and where to get items would be greatly appreciated.

superscaper

What's your budget?

phanco

Dont know what your budget is but I amin the process of rebuilding DS PC with :

PCCHIPS M870 Motherboard (AMD Socket 754)
AMD Sempron 3000+ CPU
£32.63 delivered from ebuyer including £10 google

Speeze CPU Cooler
WD WD800JB 80GB PATA Disk drive
£31.37 delivered from ebuyer including £10 google

so £63 for the basics (I have a usable Graphics card, DVd drive etc)

Now need to find some cheap DDR 3200 memory !!

opportunity_cost

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 £73.07
Motherboard: ABIT IP95 £30.46
Memory: Corsair (VS1GBKIT533D2), 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) DDR2, PC4200 £30.50

It would make sense to go for a complete new build and use your current PC as a second computer or donate it to a family member. You can get all the other components that you'd need to complete the new build (video card, hard drive, DVD±RW, floppy disk drive, PSU, case, keyboard and mouse) for just under £100 (or around £200 if you want a good gaming rig).

Source your components from Ebuyer and Scan (scan.co.uk). They're the cheapest UK retailers for computer components.

frugal_matelot

I don't really have a specific budget. It just slow. The Specs of the computer are:

Processor
2.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board Board:
MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6534
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz

1024 Megabytes Installed Memory.

I don't know if I can just put a faster processor on this motherboard

frugal_matelot

Just checked motherboard website says I can go as high as a pentium 4 Northwood socket 478 400fsb 2.8 GHz CPU. All I've got to do is locate said item. Does any body a) Know where I can source one and for how much and, b) is it worth the effort.

superscaper

From my own experience (I have a socket A motherboard and therefore limited to Athlon XPs) I'd say it's not financially worth locating legacy processors. You're better off putting the same money towards a new motherboard and processor. Legacy processors tend to be quite expensive for what they are compared to new ones.

An asrock 4coredual motherboard costs about £40 and will support pretty much any socket 775 processor you can afford right up to the most expensive quad core. It also has slots for older DDR memory as well as DDR2. For graphics it has an AGP slot for your old graphics card and a PCI Express slot for when you want to upgrade. Best motherboard in my opinion for working with as much modern standards and legacy standards.

frugal_matelot

Thanks Superscaper. Had a quick look round on Ebay for Core 2 Duo processors. Just going to see what the currentl lot close at and maybe check the pennies and see what I can do.