upgrading pc. advise please.

[Far]

after realising my pc sucks. and i didnt want to buy a new pc (lack of money), i thought i shld just upgrade it.

specs..

AMD Athlon 1.33
ATI radion 9600 128mb
HDD 120GB (apparently crippled)
MB (doesnt support xp)
Creative Labs SoundCard
512 Ram (DDR)


CDRW (almost new)
DVD Drive
2 front USBS


ive got about £100 - £120 to spend atm.

what do you think i should upgrade? and any suggestions on good deals?

i get 10% off pcworld/dixons/currys. so if u kno of any good prices there that wld b gd.

 

[Insane]

Stay away from PC World etc. Although you get discount, you end up paying through the nose for stuff on most occasiona imo.

From www.scan.co.uk

AMD Sempron 2400 + (SoA) (1.667ghz) CPU Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty
Abit NF7-S2G nForce2 Ultra, ATX, DDDR400, Gbit Lan, USB 2.0, 6Ch Audio, SATA, Raid

TOTAL COST £82

Urban might have some better deals up his sleeve, although i think £82 for a full CPU & Board upgrade is pretty damn good like.

I would consider upgrading to a DVD-RW aswell tbh, although thats all down to personal preference.

But you can get a Pioneer DVR-110D Ivory 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) for £32!!!

 

[urbanfox]

http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=308522&cks=PRL
http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=311668&cks=PRL
http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=112665&s=sc

comes to about $130 with VAT+shipping, and I can help you OC it, a hell of a lot better performance then what you got now.

 

[Far]

atm my pc wont exract any file which contains a cab. what would i need to replace to fix that? HDD?

thanks for those sites, sounds like a gd deal. might order it soon.

 

[Slanesh]

I'm surprised you can get hold of a good Socket 754 mobo for that cheap O_o

If you were after HDDs don't get them from ebuyer - I order a 160GB and only got 87GB free space after windows installation (may see if I can get a proper formatting proggy for it)

 

[Far]

@ urban. i just checked that mb and it doesnt say it supports sempron. should it still?

also, i dont know wether all amd athlons are called athlon 64's, or just the 64bit ones, i have a athlon 1.33, just asking because ill be buying the mb first, then a new proccessor later.

 

[¤]´)÷¤--§îr Äürøñ--¤÷(`[¤]

@ urban. i just checked that mb and it doesnt say it supports sempron. should it still?

also, i dont know wether all amd athlons are called athlon 64's, or just the 64bit ones, i have a athlon 1.33, just asking because ill be buying the mb first, then a new proccessor later.

It will support the Sempron.

The only way to get the upgrade done is to buy the components together. While you may be able to get the ram in your current PC, that's a choice down to you.

The motherboard & CPU go hand-in-hand.

 

[Far]

ok ive got a new mb and the amd sempron 1.6 like urban suggested. (cost me £90 all together)

can anyone (partly aimed at urban), help me oc some time? 1.6ghz seems majorly slow compared to my otha 3.2ghz pc

 

[¤]´)÷¤--§îr Äürøñ--¤÷(`[¤]

ok ive got a new mb and the amd sempron 1.6 like urban suggested. (cost me £90 all together)

can anyone (partly aimed at urban), help me oc some time? 1.6ghz seems majorly slow compared to my otha 3.2ghz pc

Well, I got the Sempr0n 3100+, and i tell you now, they're lovely little overclockers :P

If you've got any money left, i'd suggest getting a bigger cooler. Of course, if you're only looking for a 200-300mhz boost, then you needn't worry too much. Get the Athlon 64 Tweaker, and possibly ClockGen. Then just manipulate the speed in software

Use the software to find your limit, then, if you like, set slightly lower settings in your BIOS. All of which should be pretty obvious how to do

 

[Far]

coolers only cost about £20-£30 dont they? i think i could afford that.

its the amd 2800+ i believe, currently at home. so im going back this wkend to fit it.

what kind of boost would you expect i could reach with a good cooler?

 

[¤]´)÷¤--§îr Äürøñ--¤÷(`[¤]

coolers only cost about £20-£30 dont they? i think i could afford that.

its the amd 2800+ i believe, currently at home. so im going back this wkend to fit it.

what kind of boost would you expect i could reach with a good cooler?

Well, my stock speed is 1.8ghz (1808mhz, to be exact).

I can remain stable, on my stock cooler, up to 2.2ghz (~2206mhz). The temperatures get a little.....hairy....though.

In my opinion, you should be ok to reach <edit>About 2ghz, at the least</edit>. Also note that if you get a cooler compliant with Socket 939 aswell, you can use it later on when you upgrade to 939 :P

Realistically, though, your RAM will be your biggest overclocking hurdle. The CPU cooler is really just to try and negate any noise, etc

 

[urbanfox]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Thermalright_120.html

XP-90

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_YS_Tech_60.html

YS-Tech FD9325 92mm Fan

I'll write up a document and send you the link via PM sometime tomorrow morning.

Also, FYI s939 has the same mounting as s754 punk: