Upgrade or build ?

[I4n]

My youngest son's PC is a unbranded unit which has had a couple of upgrades.

At present : CPU = AMD Sempron 2600+ Model 12

1.6 Ghz

Ram 1 Gb

GPU = Nvidia GeForce 7800GS

 

The recent upgrade was the GPU , had to use a larger case as well, and increased the RAM to 1 Gb.

 

The main reason we performed the last upgrade was to enable him to run 2 monitors which he is well chuffed with. He is doing an I.T. course at college and has decided that he would like to do video editing, possibly as a career.

 

Now with my very limited knowledge, I realise that this processor and mobo are not exactly state of the art, so would it be worthwhile swopping them out and putting in a dual / quad core and suitable mobo and increase the RAM to 4meg.

 

Very limited budget I am afraid, I am geussing that I could do the above for around £200.

My question is, will this be worth doing or do we break out the stocking masks :D mind you, that might not be such a good idea either as it's my money propping the banks up:rolleyes:

Edited March 14, 2009 by I4n

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

If you get a new motherboard and CPU you might need to change the RAM also depending on what RAM you have now. Make sure the new motherboard can support 4GB, but i think most of the motherboards today should go up to 8GB. I don't know the shops in the UK so i won't be able to help with prices.

 

Prices on the Core 2's should have come down with the release of Core i7.

[Match]

this depends on whether you have a retail copy, or oem copy of windows, oem copies can be only registered to one Mobo, the retail copies can be re-registered,

 

link here look under "will I ever need to activate my current copy of windows again?"

[I4n]

Thanks for the info so far, I have found out this evening that my son would also like to move up to Vista, although using Vista on my Laptop and XP on my desktop, I can't see much of an advantage, maybe it's just me :confused:

 

I have just seen a video of "Windows 7", anyone know how far away that is ? Looks to me that Vista may be short lived and don't want to move to something shortlived. I should have mentioned in my origial post that the machine is on XP Home. He also uses a 500Gb external HD.

 

I have been doing a little bit of searching on this forum and elswhere (sacrilidge !!!!!:D) and realise that to do what is needed on this machine with a £200 budget is a little unrealistic so will probably have to x2 it:(.

 

Found on the nVIDIA site that the GPU we have (7800gs) is at least 3 years old and requires 2Gb, there is only 1 Gb in the machine at present !

 

Anyway, here are my proposals for your perusal and comments please :-

 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 Ghz

 

Asus P5 mobo, either P5Q Pro, P5QE or P5 WS,not sure which of these 3 will be better, comments please.

 

OCZ 4Gb DDR2 1066/PC2 8500 for the RAM

 

Artic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P to keep things frosty.

 

Vista 64 OEM

 

I was hoping to just run with the original OS but geuss I don't want one of Mr Gates lads knocking on my door :o:o

[maynardvdm]

I don't think there is an official date yet for the the release of Windows 7 but rumors are for September or October.

 

Nice spec btw. One of the other mods can give more advice on prices.

[Dalo Harkin]

As Maynard has said end of the year really for Windows 7

If you only have a £200 budget Vista would take up about £70-£80 of that -

I would wait until you have more money if you need a new OS

If you just want a new MOBO and CPU, I would go the Socket 775 route and a 65nm CPU as they are quite cheap now

[I4n]

Thanks for the encouragement, Dalo, what did you think of the spec in my 2nd post in this thread, particularily which of the 3 mobo's, using a larger budget ? Piggy banks going to go into meltdown but it's his education and can't put a price on that !!!!!!!!!!!

[Dalo Harkin]

Thanks for the encouragement, Dalo, what did you think of the spec in my 2nd post in this thread, particularily which of the 3 mobo's, using a larger budget ? Piggy banks going to go into meltdown but it's his education and can't put a price on that !!!!!!!!!!!

 

If you are looking to overclock the CPU - which from the RAM I guess you are :D I would go for the P5Q pro.

The Q6600 will still set you back £140 ish though and make sure you get the GO Stepping one ;) or you wont get a decent OC

 

And I would use the Freezer 7 pro as it will keep the OC stable to 3.3Ghz

[I4n]

Thanks Dalo, it's those sort of details that mere mortals like myself would not know.

I will start a price search and do some ordering once I can catch up with the piggy bank, it's running away in terror at the moment !!!!

Once I put this lot together I have no doubt I will be posting with either whoops of joy and satisfaction or more likely "HELP".

[Dalo Harkin]

I will keep my eyes peeled then lol

DirtyPolo also has a Quad and is more than capable of helping you out, should anything go 'not as predicted' :)

[I4n]

I've put it together and it lives, wow what a feeling :):):)

Just running on a basic speaker setup till tommorow but my son is chuffed to bit's at the speed and grafics etc etc and I am so pleased too :D

 

Anyway, final spec finished as below:

 

Intel Quad core Q6600

Asus P5K Pro

4Gb OCZ DDR2 Reaper

9800 GT 512mb GDDR3

Artic Cooling AC-ALP-7 Pro Fan

Coolermaster Case.

Vista Home Premium 64bit.

 

I have loaded Avast, Superantivirus & Malaware Bytes. Just using Windows Firewall and Widows Defender for now.

Many thanks to those on the forum who have guided me to this point so far.

[maynardvdm]

Good to hear that I4n. Nice spec ;)

[I4n]

Thanks Maynard, rig up an old 5.1 speaker system this morning as well, my son is like a puppy that's just found his tail !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Forgot to mention in the final spec, it's also got a Samsung 1Tb HDD.

 

Once this machine proves itself then I am going to use his old machine to learn a bit more about some of the basics like formatting, partitions, and other aspects of the basic housekeeping routines. Then maybe move on from there.