Help upgrading PC please.

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2004
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Location
the south
Hello all

Many years back I built my current pc, Athlon 64 3200 754, 6800gt AGP, 2Gb ram, gigabyte mobo.
Since then I've not kept up with new parts so am completely out of the loop as whats new and good.

My pc is starting to show its age and is frustratingly slow even after fresh install of XP. I dont play games much any more but do use photo shop CS3 a lot and it just isn't up to the task.

I have £300-350 to spend on new parts, Im only after a mother board, processor and RAM at the moment but want to be able to add a GFX card and more RAM at a later stange. I Am planning on re-using my hard drives, disc drives, case and PSU.

Im after 4Gb of ram at the moment but would like to up-grade to 8Gb in the future, and also add a half decent GFX card, though this is not essential at the moment as I only really play half-life 2 once or twice a month but would like to play new games in the future.

The pc will mostly be used for photoshop, internet and watching movies.

I would like to up-grade to windows 7. When I built my current pc i bought an OEM copy of XP, Can I get the upgrade version of windows 7? as its a bit cheaper than the retial.

I quickly spected this bundle from another pc, Is this a good buy? or could I get much better. I chose AMD as thats what I currently have but dont mind going with intel if I can get more bang for bucks.


AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £83.99
(£71.48) £83.99
(£71.48)
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £79.99
(£68.08) £79.99
(£68.08)
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.98
(£63.81) £74.98
(£63.81)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Upgrade Version) £67.99
(£57.86) £67.99
(£57.86)
Sub Total : £261.23

Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £47.38
Total : £318.11


Thanks for looking, Hope you can guide me in the right direction
Dan.
 
Associate
Joined
21 Dec 2009
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860
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Gateshead
That look's fine for handling them tasks you mentioned. Two PCI 2.0 16x Slots so you can fit your future graphics cards in on the motherboard too. I think you will be able to upgrade Windows XP that way but i'm not sure. The Windows 7 Upgrade Program still confuses the hell out of me. Hope that helps :)
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
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Posts
3,233
Location
the south
Cheers for your replys guys, so this is looking to be a pretty good set up for the money?

How will the on board graphics handle Half life 2 at 1280x 768? obviously not expecting much but how will it compare to my current 6800gt?

Not sure how the windows 7 upgrade works either, I assume you have to install XP first then upgrade to 7 after?
 
Soldato
OP
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ah ok, like I say not a massive issue for me at the moment, I'm going to concentrate on this part first and add the graphics card later.
 
Soldato
OP
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the south
Hello again,
I've been looking into PSU's, I was planning on using my current PSU for the new spec However its a few years old now.
Im not sure of the make but this is what it says on the side.

DC output 420w
+3.3v
18.0A

+5v
33.0A

+12v
15.0A


It only has a 24 pin plus another 4 pin connectors for the motherboard, Will this PSU work with the mother board above, or do I need a new one?

If I do need a new PSU could you let me know of a cheap solution.

cheers
Dan
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,305
Your PSU should have enough power to supply those components you mentioned.

As for motherboard connections I thought all new motherboards required the standard 24 pin ATX cable, a 4 pin ATX cable and an 8 pin EPS cable. You should have more connections than that on your PSU.

Check this website for quick details http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#atx12v4 it also has pictures of the various connections.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
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Posts
3,233
Location
the south
Cheers for the link Semple that was really helpfull.

My PSU has the 24 pin ATX cable and the 4 pin ATX cable but no 8 pin EPS cable.

I see from the link you can get a adapter to convert two 4 pin molex? into an 8 pin EPS cable. As I'll only be running the above components plus two HDD's and one optical drive do you think it will be ok using one of the adapters.

After that I'll only be adding a budget GFX card and more RAM but I could upgrade the PSU at that point if needed.


sorry for the silly questions, its all moved on so much since i last built a system.
thanks for your help
Dan
 
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