Upgrade my computer

derrick

I am looking to upgrade my computer that is nearly 10 years old and running on XP Home Edition that will lose support from April this year, it is slow to start and invariably runs slow, although when it runs OK it runs quite fast.
The following is what I have managed to find on my computer, ( and below that a spec for a new system): -

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
AMD Athlon XP
Thoroughbred 0.13um Technology
RAM 512MB
Motherboard
ECS M848A (Slot-1) 48 °C
Graphics
i2352Vh (1920x1080@60Hz)
64MB ATI RADEON 7000 SERIES (ATI AIB)
Storage
76GB ExcelStor Technology J680 (ATA) 39 °C
14GB C-DDTEKM obius (USB)
Optical Drives
SONY DVD RW DW-U18A
SONY DVD-ROM DDU1613
Audio
C-Media AC97 Audio Device

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name USER-********
System Manufacturer ECS
System Model M848A
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 AuthenticAMD ~1500 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T, 02/04/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
User Name USER-********
Time Zone GMT Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 140.11 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.38 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF SiS Accelerated Graphics Port
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON 7000 SERIES

IRQ 16 RADEON 7000 SERIES
IRQ 16 SoftV92 Data Fax Modem

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF SiS Accelerated Graphics Port
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON 7000 SERIES

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB SiS Accelerated Graphics Port
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON 7000 SERIES



I have been to a local computer shop and have been given the following spec, the price quoted for this is £489.00, any advice welcome as to if the spec is OK and is it a decent, (or excessive), price

Intel Core i3 3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz Dual-core mATX System
4GB RAM
500GB Hard Drive
OS Windows 7 or 8.1


IntelCore 13-3220 3.3GHZ Dual-Core CPU,
4GB Kingston DDR3 Memory (1 x 4GB, 8GB MAX),
500GB SATA Hard-Drive,
DVD-RW,
USB 3.0 Support,
HDMI, D-Sub and VGA outputs
Gigabit Ethernet LAN,
1 Year on-site collection warranty plus further 2 year RTB labour only warranty

Key Features.
Processor : Intel Dual Core Intel i3 3220 2 Cores/4 Threads 3.3Ghz Intel Smart Cache 3MB
Memory: 4GB (1x4 GB DDR3)
Hard Drives: 1x500GB SATA HDD
Optical Drive: Internal 24xDVD-RW Drive
Motherboard: Asrock H77 PRO4-M
Power supply: High Performance 430W PSU
Operating System: Windows 7 or 8.1
Integrated Intel Graphics
HD Graphics
Input Devices: none
Networking Network Interface: Wired – 10/100/1000Mbps.

derrick

It was suggested that I went for Windows7 as 8 had already had an upgrade to 8.1 and was more aimed at touchscreen technology, whereas Windows7 is more akin to XP.

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GunJack

price is excessive for that, and yes I'd stick with 7 over 8. Have a look at this for example, got one for my youngest for xmas and it's good enough to play CoD:Ghosts on (to give you an idea of bang-for-buck) and will have better graphics probably than the intelHD that'll be on the one you quoted:-

http://www.ebuyer.com/579784-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1213 add £50-70 for Win7

ebuyer have some great pc at the moment, inc some with cashback deals..have a root

zabi89

Have you ever considered building you own? I built one much better than the one you are thinking about buying for about £380. It's not even that hard to build either! Plenty of free resources on the internet to help you with building it. It takes 1 hour at the most.

GunJack

p.s. the cpu in the one I linked to has an almost identical benchmark score to the i3 in the one you've been quoted for locally (actually the AMD out-scores it by around 5%)

somersethillbilly

Give closed's excellent guide a go first...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

closed

spend and hour following the speedup sticky, or backup and reinstall, and it won't be slow, and won't be slow to startup. Use IE instead of firefox, stick some more ram in for a tenner, and don't worry about xp support ending, just backup with macrium reflect - and save yourself £500

PS I would never buy an unbranded machine from a "local" shop.

WTFH

The reason for the thread is that is computer is not capable of running a piece of software he wants to use. He needs a new graphics card and additional memory.

closed

the machine he has should be perfectly capable of playing a video file, and according to this, it apparently is

derrick wrote: »

I can play the videos through Quick Time Player, Media Player Classic, (MPC), and Windows Media Player, but when I try to play via VLC I get, “VLC Media Player has crashed. Would you like to send a bug report to the developers team?


.

the insistence on using a buggy piece of software (vlc) to play it may be the issue, not the hardware

derrick

closed wrote: »

spend and hour following the speedup sticky, or backup and reinstall, and it won't be slow, and won't be slow to startup. Use IE instead of firefox, stick some more ram in for a tenner, and don't worry about xp support ending, just backup with macrium reflect - and save yourself £500

PS I would never buy an unbranded machine from a "local" shop.

I am not confident on doing the back up/reinstall.

My machine was built and bought from a "local" shop and has lasted nearly 10 years, (it is still going), and the only things it has had replaced,(under warranty), are a power supply?, and the DVD writer, however that shop has unfortunately gone, the shop I got the quote from has been in the same position for 25 years.

closed wrote: »

the machine he has should be perfectly capable of playing a video file, and according to this, it apparently is the insistence on using a buggy piece of software (vlc) to play it may be the issue, not the hardware

Maybe so, but I want to use VLC as explained in the linked to thread below.

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derrick

I don’t want to get to bogged down with to much information, the way I see it I have 2 points to address, one is the price, after all this is a money saving site, and the other is the computer system, with that in mind is the system suggested in my OP sufficient for my needs, as I don’t want to go overboard on items I won’t need and if they are then we can keep within those parameters and not muddy the waters by adding this that and the other.

I won’t be doing any gaming but will be using iPlayer etc and recordings from a HD camera that I will prefer to play using VLC Media Player, (see this thread for problems with my computer now),