Computer Upgrade

[AMD]

Hi all,

Just wanted to know what possible upgrades can be made to my current system.

Its nothing special as its an off the shelf pc but i would like to upgrade.

Heres my specs-

Processor - AMD Sempron 2800+ 2Ghz

Mobo - Asus A7V8X-LA (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DDR DIMM)

Mem - 2 x Elixir 256mb PC3200

Hdd - 120Gb Seagate barracuda 7200 Rpm Ultra ATA-100

Gpu - 64Mb Via unichrome intergrated graphics

Drives- Lite-On Cd & Dvd writer combo

IDE-Dvd drive

And some uknown Floppy drive.

Os - Windows Xp Home edition sp2.

I realy want to upgrade my Graphics as 64mb intergrated is nothing today.

And maybe 1Gb memory.

Im just unsure of my Mobos maximum potential of upgrading.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks

 

[JN]

Personally i'd perform the upgrades in this order:

GPU:

Grab a Nvidia 6600GT AGP - anything more than this won't be worth it unless you plan on upgrading your entire machine. They are also going for very good prices nowdays.

Memory:

I'm not sure what your budget is, but if you are on a fairly small one, people have been reporting some good experiences with Corsair Value Select ram. Grab 2x512 of that and flog your old stuff on ebay.

Processor:

I'm not sure what you use your machine for, but maybe consider upgrading to an Athlon XP. It will pack a fair bit more punch than your semapron and should be fairly cheap to pick up.

However, consider saving a bit of cash up to fully upgrade your PC, as spending any more money on your current PC may be a bit of a waste.

 

[FarFarAway]

Hi Mate

Depending on what you want to spend.

Medium Budget:

Overclock the Sempron. Buy yourself a decent cooler like the Thermalright SI-97

2 x 512mb DDR400 RAM or higher. OCZ and Crucial do nice 1gb kits

Maybe a 6800GS 256mb

Higher budget:

The 3200+ Barton Core XP chip if you can find it

2 x 1gb GSkill, OCZ or Mushkin RAM (I think the board can support this @ 2T)

7800GS 256mb

Note: You would need to get yourself a new PSU really. I thnki the form factor is mATX but I cannot be sure. Kustom PC's do mATX PSU's....silenX are decent as are seasonic

If its ATX form factor then get yourself a solid Tagan or something

 

[AMD]

Hey thanks for replying,

I was actualy looking at the Nvidia 6600GT AGP.

Would this card play up todate games such as Far cry or Half-Life 2? and other high graphics demanding games?

I dont have all that much money to splash it out on a new comp or i would but at the moment i just wonna get new graphics and memory so my system will be able to handle todays games.

As for you saying-

Processor:

I'm not sure what you use your machine for, but maybe consider upgrading to an Athlon XP. It will pack a fair bit more punch than your semapron and should be fairly cheap to pick up.

Im quite happy with my 2Ghz Sempron so i dont want to change that.

Will i also have to change my Psu?

My psu is only 250w i think.

 

[JN]

If you're planning on sticking with your Semapron then a 6600GT will do you fine. it wont play the latest games at the highest details, but it will play them with more than acceptable detail.

As your your PSU, 250w is cutting it a bit fine, even for a 6600. Take a look into the brands that Kemp recommended, if they are out of your price range, then a generic 600w (had for about £30), should power your pc ok.

 

[FarFarAway]

For the £90 or so a 6600GT costs it might be just worth saving a very few more pennies and getting a 6800GS 256...very nice cards and cheapest I've seen online is £130ish @ www.scan.co.uk

The GEIL memory is good stuff

Certainly a new PSU would be in order, even if you go for the 6600GT. Clean power is the lifeblood of a stable system

 

[FragTek]

Your Sempron may actually bottleneck a 6800GT so you might be better off sticking with the 6600GT idea unless you plan on upgrading to a faster AXP.

6600GT is more than adequate for FC / HL2. I was playing those games on my minipc which only has a 6100 w/ 128mb of shared memory, didnt look that bad either. The 6600GT is one of nVidias greatest GPU's imo. It's a very high performance chipset with a very low price tag.

I just recently nabbed a SUPER deal on some parts you may be interested in trying to find. I picked a Mobile Athlon 64 3000+ DTR for $75 and an uber nice EPoX s754 SLI mobo for $89.99. If you could find a combo like that and a 6800GT you would have the perfect platform to then later upgrade with a second 6800GT and really tear through games.

Good luck on your quest to upgrade

 

[AMD]

Your Sempron may actually bottleneck a 6800GT

Ooh Why is that then?

Can someone please explain to me exactly what the diffrences are between the Athlon Xp and the Sempron?

Ive heard that its basicly the same but with a few differences is this true?

 

[FragTek]

Ooh Why is that then?

Can someone please explain to me exactly what the diffrences are between the Athlon Xp and the Sempron?

Ive heard that its basicly the same but with a few differences is this true?

The main differences between Semprons and AXP's are: Clock speed and amount of L2 cache. Semprons only have half the amount of L2 (256kb) that the AXP's do which makes a huge performance hit. The jump between 256k and 512k is rather large whereas the jump from 512k to 1mb is rather small. This is what keeps the cost of these chips down so much. On top of that they aren't clocked as high as AXP's which don't make them the prime candidate for a gaming rig.

 

[RollerCam540]

I read an article at Tom's Hardware where they compared the AMD Thorougbred XP processor and the AMD Barton XP processor. Now the Barton had 77k more cache (333 total, i think, could have been 512...). I know for a fact the Thoroughbred had 256k cache (or 333, lol, this was an old article).

The point is, they compared they two processors to see if the extra cache really made a difference and it turns out that a AXP Thorougbred 2800+ was faster than a 3200+ Barton despite the Barton's increase in cache.

Food for thought

 

[AMD]

Ooh so thats the differances,

Thanks for all the details.

Im gonna have a look around at some Psu,s and Graphics cards and see if i can get some at good prices.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Tec]

How much are you looking to spend. Give us few price ranges maybe we can offer better suggestions for performance vs money combos.

 

[FragTek]

I read an article at Tom's Hardware where they compared the AMD Thorougbred XP processor and the AMD Barton XP processor. Now the Barton had 77k more cache (333 total, i think, could have been 512...). I know for a fact the Thoroughbred had 256k cache (or 333, lol, this was an old article).

The point is, they compared they two processors to see if the extra cache really made a difference and it turns out that a AXP Thorougbred 2800+ was faster than a 3200+ Barton despite the Barton's increase in cache.

Food for thought

Thats Athlon to Athlon, not Sempron to Athlon

 

[FarFarAway]

Yeah plus it was on Tom's hardware

 

[AMD]

How much are you looking to spend. Give us few price ranges maybe we can offer better suggestions for performance vs money combos.

Well i know this may seem stupid but i realy dont have a set price limit yet as i want to have a look around to see how much graphics cards are at stores like Pc world and other computer stores.

Please be honest all do you realy think its worth upgrading my current computer?

 

[Ham]

If your not a tech nut or power freak then upgrade. Once upgraded itll run most things with no problem. Just not at rediculously high graphics settings.

 

[FarFarAway]

And by the way - you will find that PC Stores/PC world are very expensive compared to online stores like www.scan.co.uk or www.overclockers.co.uk or www.overclock.co.uk

 

[Tec]

However, consider saving a bit of cash up to fully upgrade your PC, as spending any more money on your current PC may be a bit of a waste.

Listen to him upgrade to socket 939 platform.

And by the way - you will find that PC Stores/PC world are very expensive compared to online stores like www.scan.co.uk or www.overclockers.co.uk or [URL="http://www.overclock.co.uk"']www.overclock.co.uk[/URL]

Like kempez suggested , never buy from those kind of stores unless it is very very emergency situation. Last time i went to pcworld 3 weeks ago they > only < had Ati X300 on the shelf with a price tag of £79.99. Jokers!

 

[FragTek]

Yeesh! That's highway robbery Tec!! There are a few stores around here that do that, usually the big stores like BestBuy which only have a shabby selection of cards for the most part. They will usually cary one type of next gen / current gen card and way overprice.

Now the little mom & pop computer shops I've found to be pretty darn competitive. I have one place locally called "Ken's Computers" and they have all of the hot new stuff barely marked up over what I can find it online for. I've bought quite a few things from them in emergency situations (for a while I was having a LOT of emergency situations, lol). Anyone remember that?