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Looking to Upgrade Computer

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doof92

New Member
Hey,

I'm looking into upgrading my current computer, and looking for some advice on any components you can recommend.

Currently I've got an AMD 2.1Ghz processor, and looking to upgrade to probably a Quad Core. I'm assuming that I'll probably need an upgraded motherboard to cope with this.

If you have any experience with a CPU that you can recommend, do tell me. I live in the UK, and so would need a supplier who can ship here.

Thanks very much,
 
Your definetly going to have to update that board if you go for an Intel CPU. And presumably your 2.1 is an old Athlon XP or Semipron so even if you go for the AMD Quadcore CPU, youll mostlikely have to update the motherboard.

Updating the motherboard introduces the new problem. Is your current RAM, Hard Drive, Video Card and even Power Supply compatible?

So if your planing to keep as much hardware as possible from your current setup, you should do some research into exactly what hardware you need.
Most new boards seem to still ahveboth SATA and IDE for the Hard disk, but often only 1 IDE (for 2 drives) so if you currently run for example 2x IDE HDDs and 1xIDE DVD ROM and plan to keep them all you wouldnt be abel to.

What RAM do you have currently? SDRM? DDR2? DDR3? DDR 400?
IS your old Vid Card AGP? Onboard? PCI? PCIE?
Does your powersupply have the extra lil 3.3v lead required by some boards?

Theres a lot to look into. Perhaps if you list all your current hardware, i may be abel to find you a nice cheap way to upgrade or atleast help you confirm compatibility.

Cheers
Fenix.
 
From what I can see, unless your system is a Athlon X2 (2x 2.1Ghz processors) you have no upgrade path without replacing the entire system.

If that is an Athlon XP 2100+ or something it uses DDR ram (DDR2 or 3 is now used), AGP graphics (all graphics are PCI-E now).

Hardrives are probably IDE, we use SATA/SATAII now, most new boards nowadays come with one IDE port for 2 devices. Even our cd/dvd burners use SATA now.

PSU's from the day of the Athlon XP are 5v heavy because that is what was used by the processors back then. Now PSU's must be 12v heavy to run the increased amperages, 5v/3.3v only being used for the peripherals like hard drives and dvd burners, and even they us 12v with the 5v to get the power. So an upgrade will most likely require a new Power Supply Unit.
 
From what I can deduce:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.17GHz
RAM: 1GB DDR (can't find more info than that)]
Hard Drive: Maxtor 6Y160P0 161GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache)
Video Card: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9200 SERIES

If you need any more info, can *try* and find it out.
 
doof92 said:
From what I can deduce:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.17GHz
RAM: 1GB DDR (can't find more info than that)]
Hard Drive: Maxtor 6Y160P0 161GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache)
Video Card: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9200 SERIES

If you need any more info, can *try* and find it out.
Click to expand...

As I thought, you have no upgrade path. You would be sinking money into old parts when you could get a brand new "economy" desktop from the Dell Outlet store and still run circles a million times over your current machine.

XP3000+ is even before 2000 when we starts using AMD64 64 bit processors. It is an old socket, and while you can still buy these motherboards, their price is as high as a brand new Intel/AMD board and are thus counterproductive.

DDR Ram is no longer used, we now use DDR2/DDR3 Ram. They are NOT backwards compatible, thus your DDR is useless in a new system.

That drive is the old ATA interface. Most systems now use SATAII. They will still have one IDE plug in the system for it, but even this is becoming a rareity. Your best bet is again to buy a new system, then if it doesn't have IDE, buy a cheapo 7-14$ USB-IDE converter, or an external IDE hard drive enclosure and just keep it in there for use as a backup unit or portable hard drive. Drives today start at 250GB and go to 1.5TB (1,500GB). The economic sweetspot was 500GB drives, but now it's shifted to 750GB drives.

That graphics card uses AGP. That's out of date. Systems now use PCI-E and even the lowest class PCI-E card will blow that old Radeon out of the water.

Save yourself the headache and buy/build yourself a new system.
 
Yeh, agreed.

Unless your on an extreme budget and willing to search for the bare minimum parts to upgrade, your probly going to find its expensive. Most newer boards that are made specifically to support older hardware are expensive since they arent mass produced. Thats not to say you cant upgrade for under $200, but your better off with a new system.

Especially since your no hardware expert, no offence :p
 
To upgrade it would cost about $400-500. My computer cost about $400 to upgrade, and my brother went to Quad-core and cost him a bit over $500 to upgrade. I'm only on a Dual-Core. But, the high end of it. I'm not sure if your going to be gaming or not.

Motherboad: about $150
CPU: about $200
RAM: about $50-100 per 2GB, recommended
Power Supply: about $120 for 750-800 Watt, recommended for Quad-core

Need anymore prices?
 
Thanks for that. If you could PM me where you got the stuff from, and maybe a price of a new video card, that would be good :)

On a related note, I'm looking into possibly a new laptop. I've seen one I quite like, and it has the option between Intel or AMD processor. The options are:

1)Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2390 | clock speed : 1.86 GHz | Front Side Bus : 533 MHz | 2nd level cache : 1 MB

2)AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60 | clock speed : 2.0 GHz

Identical price. Which one would you think is better to go for? Thanks
 
doof92 said:
Thanks for that. If you could PM me where you got the stuff from, and maybe a price of a new video card, that would be good :)

On a related note, I'm looking into possibly a new laptop. I've seen one I quite like, and it has the option between Intel or AMD processor. The options are:

1)Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2390 | clock speed : 1.86 GHz | Front Side Bus : 533 MHz | 2nd level cache : 1 MB

2)AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60 | clock speed : 2.0 GHz

Identical price. Which one would you think is better to go for? Thanks
Click to expand...

Number 2 :D
 
I've used this site before for parts, I just bought some new RAM off there a few days ago. the only downside is, if you live abroad, your shipping will be insane. If you live in the UK it's not that bad, about £3 for shipping.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk
+1 on TigerDirect too, that's basically more exspensive than MicroDirect, but it's in the US, so shipping would be easier.
 
The Core 2 is faster as the Core architecture as a faster instructions per clock setup than the Turions. It's also more power efficient and cooler using a 65nm process rather than the Turions 90nm process. 35 watts power for the 2Ghz Turion. 31 watts for the 2390.
 
Schmarvin said:
For Dual-Core at least. :D For Quad-core AMD! :p
Click to expand...

*sighs* More fanboyism. Read some reviews people, this is old news. Intel has been WHOOPING, and I mean in the most embarrassing object up back end way since the Core architecture was introduced. Intel's cheapest and weakest Quad (Q6600) beats AMD's MOST EXPENSIVE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE QUAD (Phenom 9850). The Q6600 is currently 195$, the 9850 is 210$. The Q6600 can be cranked to 3.2-3.4Ghz on good air, and 4.0Ghz+ on water. I personally help manage a BOINC farm of 15 Q6600's, all of which are overclocked to 3.4Ghz on Tuniq Towers (120mm). That's stable with only two bumps to voltage, one machine is running 3.6Ghz on that. I have a buddy running 4.2 on water.

AMD has finally run a processor that runs neck and neck with the Q6600, the 2.6Ghz Phenom 9950. The 235$ black edition however seems to only like to run just over 3.0Ghz on standard air cooling, requiring either extravagant coolers (Tuniq Tower) or water, although with unlocked multipliers of the black editions, you have the ability to get sky high easier than the non-extreme intels. But taking a 235$ processor just to beat your competitions BUDGET processors is a sign AMD is STILL dropping the ball.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3272&p=8
http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/processors/amd-phenom-9950/index_9.shtml

I'm not lashing AMD at all. I've always been an Intel fan, but they were dropping the ball so much I upgraded my build from a 2.8GHz P4 to a AMD 4400+ overclocked to 2.93Ghz a few years ago. But AMD's got alot of catching up to do at this point.
 
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The main reson people used to choose AMD CPUs was the fact the CPU could often be bought for 1/4 of the price of its Intel equivalent. Intels CPUs were usually "better", but for the MINOR difference in performance, people would not pay en extra $300 unless they are rich bastards or Intel Fanboys.

Intel almost screwed them selves over by arrogantly refusing to lower the prices of new CPUs and AMD, who were selling them nice and cheap started to get a good share of the Market.

Now the prices are quiet similar, so id be looking at wich setup suits your needs more.
 
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