Looking to upgrade my system

[snowman]

OK - I've got a pretty low spec PC and figure it's time to upgrade it a little.

The current spec is :

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.20 Ghz
2GB RAM

1TB SATA disk drive
ATI Radeon HD 4300 Series graphics card.

Win 7 Ultimate.

I'm thinking a Mobo and Processor upgrade and 4GB RAM will be a decent spec for me.

I'm not looking for a gaming monster and am thinking of £200 as my absolute maximum limit for budget (incl VAT and shipping).

So, what should I be looking at? I've not got a clue where AMD and Intel processors stand relative to each other or whether more RAM is really going to deliver any usable advantages.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Cheers.

Mark

[iGoD ReLeNtLeS]

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/6937/capturesa.png

I think this will be a worth while upgrade, although a little over budget, that Athlon can possibly, if you get a good batch, unlock to a 4 core and the motherboard will support all the way up to the Phenom II x4s im certain about and i believe it will also support the X6's with a bios update, but not too sure on that, so dont take my word for it.

Games are just starting to cut into the 2-3GB recommended so i think 4 will see you into the next couple of years and i think with the upgrade of a graphics card your computer will be up to speed to play some of the latest games at the higher graphics end.

[Bigian88]

i definately recommend the x3 435 CPU, its what i bought last month and unlocked the 4th core and overclocked it very easily.

so a 3 core 2.9Ghz CPU can be unlocked to a quad core 3.3Ghz pretty easily providing you buy a separate cooler (recommend cooler master hyper 212 plus) :)

[snowman]

Thanks for the quick reply.

What about this bundle?

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.0GHz (Socket AM3) Processor
ECS Geforce 6100PM-M2 V2.0 (Socket AM2+) DDR2 Micro-ATX Motherboard Arianet 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module

Comes in under, rather than a little over, my budget - Seems OK at first sight, but maybe there's something poor that I'd be better off avoiding?

Cheers,

Mark

[Smifis]

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/smifis/lgaquad.jpg?t=1276354061
It's just an extra £14.93 for a quad core and i'm sure you'll be able to overclock this to at least 3.00ghz

[Smifis]

Thanks for the quick reply.

What about this bundle?

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.0GHz (Socket AM3) Processor
ECS Geforce 6100PM-M2 V2.0 (Socket AM2+) DDR2 Micro-ATX Motherboard Arianet 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module

Comes in under, rather than a little over, my budget - Seems OK at first sight, but maybe there's something poor that I'd be better off avoiding?

Cheers,

Mark
You wouldn't see much difference IMO.

[snowman]

You wouldn't see much difference IMO.

By comparison with my current system, do you mean?

Your £214 system only has 2GB RAM, I think, so it's another £30+ on top of that - £250+ is too much.

Thanks again

Mark

[Smifis]

I was thinking about using the ram you currently have have,unless you need it elsewhere.

And yes, i eman by comparison but you'll have to take that with a pinch of salt, i haven't used an AMD since the AMD Athlon Ages.

[snowman]

OK - I figured I'd need new RAM, as mine's probably not compatible with the latest CPUs/Motherboards (or, at least, not optimal).

I think I'm convinced on the 3/4 core point, but I might wait a couple of months and see if I can squeeze it into my budget :)

Thanks for your help.

M.

[Smifis]

Most LAG775 and AM2+ sockets use DDR2 and looking a bit deeper, i see you have a socket 939 board. i mistakenly mistook it to be an AM2 board in which case you would have to add extra ram to my bundle.

Out of the two systems posted, this would make the AMD iGoD ReLeNtLeS put together a good value build and as he said, you may be able to unlock a 4th core.

[Iaink]

if you do indeed have an socket 939 athlon x2 4200+ then you're sitting ona gold mine! they sell for around £60 on fleabay as they're quite rare and quite desirable

[Smifis]

Wow.

I really need to swat up on my AMD :L

[wonderlust]

939 boards sell for silly prices too

[snowman]

Really? Well, I can only go on what windows tells me - I specced the PC up when I bought it, but it was a few years ago now and I can't recall exactly what I ordered.

To be honest, it seems to perform reasonably well, but you can never have too much speed :)

M.

[wonderlust]

you can use CPU-Z or Everest to tell you the motherboard details.

I prefer CPU-Z as it doesn't require installing.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

[snowman]

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/sn0wy194/cpu1.jpg

That's what it says.

M.

[Smifis]

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/sn0wy194/cpu1.jpg

That's what it says.

M.
huh?
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/a64-x2-4200/

There must be two different versions then.

Depending on your motherboard, you could just pop a six core in there and an extra stick of ram and still be within budget

[wonderlust]

The mainboard tab will tell you which motherboard you have and then check the manufacturers web site to see if it's phenom compatible.

and as for there being a cross over between 939 and am2 chips that did happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Athlon_64_microprocessors

[Smifis]

Ah i see. Different cores. bad AMD!

[snowman]

https://www.aria.co.uk/WishList/y42TxqkGXpB5J3UDX-eOZw,,

OK - can't quite keep away and saw this combo which is only a tenner over my budget - Can anyone see any glaring errors of combination or any problems with this combo?

Thanks again for all your help.

M.

[El Wayneo]

Looks pretty good for the money.

[snowman]

Cool thanks - I'll give it a go then :)

M.

[snowman]

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/sn0wy194/amd3is4.jpg

Installed it all (had to do a clean Win 7 install too) and unlocked the 4th core - Seems fine so far!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/sn0wy194/ptest.jpg

And there are my before and after results from PassMark Performance Test.

Thanks again for your assistance - Total spend was £203.74.

M.