Hey all @ bit-tech, New user here, so salutations and all that first! Now, I'm a student with little to no cash, but I've inherited a (rather dated PC) from a family friend. I'm just curious to know if there were any suitable upgrades that I could do to it to make it run any better? I've never done any work to a PC previously, but I'm comfortable that I could handle a few simple upgrades. My main question is this: Is it worth upgrading any of this kit? Or would it be better to just lay it to rest? Anyways, here's the spec: Budget: approx £300-£400 Main uses of intended build: Casual Gaming/Everyday use. Parts required: New GFX, Additional RAM, HDD Upgrade Previous build information (list details of parts): Mobo: ASROCK AM2NF6G-VSTA CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ GFX: Radeon X1950 Pro RAM: Unsure on brand/model but only...1GB (333 MHz) HDD: 60GB (Desperate need of an upgrade) Monitor resolution: 1280 x 1024 Storage requirements: Will you be overclocking: not considered it. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): NA Extra information about desired system: Like I said, I'm only really interested in a fairly cost-effective upgrade. If there isn't one to be had, I can live with it - the rig didn't cost me a penny as it is ^_^.
Worth keeping, absolutely. Worth spending a fortune on - no. First thing - RAM. Ditch your 1gb and buy this:- http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=DD3210CCA5CA7304 Or similar. Then get yourself a 1TB Samsung F3 and a Radeon 5770. Finally a copy of Windows 7 64bit and you'll be well under £400 and capable of doing any of the stuff you mentioned. In fact, at such a low res, you don't even need a 5770. You could probably get away with a 5670 or so, but depends on your budget.
Yeh upgrade to 2-4gb and you should notice a pretty substantial increase. What games do you play and what do you use the PC for?
Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm glad to hear that it's not complete junk . The resolution on the monitor does simplify things, which is good. Okenobi, thanks for the advice I'll definitely pick up that RAM, and I'll look into the GPU. Sotu, I mainly use it for CSS at the moment, but I'm a big fan of the Dawn of War franchise, and I'd like to be able to play DoW2 without it being terribly slow (as it is at the moment). Thanks again for the input, guys . Concerning the GPU, would this be suitable: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...DDR5-GPU-775MHz-400-Cores-D-Sub-DL-DVI-I-HDMI
I'd say sell it for a reasonable price, get a bit-tech recommended build (maybe slightly tweaked) and clock the nuts off of it. It's not a bad machine, and worth keeping (or selling to somebody) for daily work, but for gaming the new Intel CPUs will make a huge difference.
@ Aterius, I've not the first clue how I'd go about selling it and I don't have the foggiest how much it would go for. On top of that, wouldn't it mean buying a new monitor as well?
The HDD, GPU and Windows could all be carried over to a new build, as and when. Only the RAM will be lost in this machine. A £300-£400 budget build isn't going to bring that much value at this point. Later on when more money is available, a 5770, F3 and Windows 7 means than another £300-400 would give a nice core spec. That CPU will not be a total bust for gaming and will cope perfectly well with Windows and multi-tasking. It's simply a question of priorities. Go a bit at a time and you afford yourself more options.
I've decided to go with a 500GB Spinpoint F3 instead of the 1TB. Reason being that I do also have a 1TB external HDD, so the additional space isn't entirely necessary. Plus, the 500GB HDD is £22 cheaper, so I'm happy with that. So far, here's what I'm considering: ATI Radeon 5670 : £66.16 Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB : £37.58 4GB of RAM: £68.90 Total: £172.64 (not including P&P) *Mistake Corrected* All from Scan. That gives me the option to put away the remaining money for a decent build after I finish uni. Any word on the GPU I picked out? Buy or avoid? (I know it's only pre-order at the mo, but it is dirt cheap).
Brilliant, that's good to hear. Any particular version of x64? Will Home do? Thanks for the tip, Abhorsen ;-)
