drjsd

Cue open bag of worms...

Right. I'm considering upgrading my computer a "little" and as I haven't done it for a while, I'm after some advice.

I currently have an Abit AT7 Max2 motherboard, 512Mb Ram, Athlon XP 2.4GHz processor and a PNY/Nvidia GeForce MX440 graphics card, SATA hard drive and a couple of crap DVD/CD drives. I have no particluar penchant for AMD over Intel, it was just bang per buck at the time.

I have a couple of hundred, max say £500 to spend - am I better off just whacking some more memory in the bugger and buying a new CPU (if so which one) or should I be looking for a new mobo etc?

Any advice gratefully appreciated, cos at the mo it's getting pretty slow even after defragging etc...

I mainly use it for MS Office, occasional photo manipulation and the odd graphics hungry game, so pretty broad really.

I see these dual graphics card systems and wonder whether I'd be better off with one of those, or is it a case of them not being much use unless you have programs written for them, like the Athlon 64?

Cheers!

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

For a start, upgrade the gfx - even Windows will be slowed by running on that card. Look at a 6600GT, which IIRC are about £150. Increasing the RAM will make little difference (I'm still happy with 512MB), except maybe a little in serious graphics apps. A CPU upgrade will at least be cheap: an XP3200 now goes for about £85.

If you plan to go further, you are talking new motherboard as well as CPU, which will work out £90-150 for the m/b, and £150-300 for the CPU, depending in both cases on whether you go AMD 64-bit or Intel, and if AMD, which format.

With your budget, I'd say gfx, then CPU, then RAM if you still have money.


M

iain atkins

I sell refurbished Dells and Compaqs, a 3 ghz 512mb system would probably be in the region of £400/450, quite a saving over a new same spec dell. Let me know if interested

I'm based in Gloucs.

Otherwise do as Meridian suggests, you'll probably need to budget for a new power supply as well.

Cheers


Iain

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

True if your current one is less than 400W. Budget £50 for a fairly good one.

Only catch with the refurbed Dells is finding one with a gfx card that is worth anything: most will use things like on-board graphics (spit!) or a Radeon 9000 or something.

M

iain atkins

Sounds about right Meridian, avoid the Antecs, as they seem to run very hot!!!

How about the refurbed version of the dell 'gamers pc'. Or just change to another graphics card, would still work out less than high street price, just!! lol

Cheers



Iain