What to do for upgrade?

[freddie]

oh no, i'm pretty sure my motherboard is fried.

i have a laptop so i'm ok with basic stuff and am in no real rush, but my question would be

A. - Just replace the motherboard (socket 478)
about £30-50

or

B. - Get a new motherboard (socket 775)
+ new cpu
+ ddr2 ram
about £150

This system is a prescott 3.4, 1gb 400mhz ddr, agp graphics.
a cheap and cheerful upgrade.

Originally I was going to sell the computer over xmas but it died
Now that I have to spend some money on it I have a couple of options.

What say you?

[Rishi]

What do you use your PC for?

Before buying a new mobo maybe investigate why it failed, a new PSU needed maybe?

If you got the cash to splash then a C2D setup would be a nice upgrade for you I'm not sure how far £150 would stretch on C2D really.

[iranu]

Hexus have just reviewed sub £50 processors with a view to clocking them to 3Ghz using the stock cooler. 2Gb DDR2 PC6400 is around £40 now which would leave you about £60 for a motherboard. Your only issue then would be a PCI-e graphics card if you are gaming.

Edit: There may well be some mobo/ram/cpu bundles that are available cheap too at this time of year.

[freddie]

ah yes,

internet, a few minor spreadsheets, watching films, a bit of encoding and rendering - not much mind - which is why c2d.

-i was thinking e2160 - overclock it a little
-g33 based motherboard so i can get a graphics card later if i need - i dont play very often. i have no idea if amd do integrated graphics for socket 775 or nvidia.
-2 gig ram as it's really cheap!

theres my £150!

[Rishi]

Indeed it is

Think personally I would sell the old gear, some chump will have in on eBay and purchase your setup or something similar

[freddie]

yup twas a possibility, ebay!

the bundle could be good, but should i wait till 45nm penryn comes out? i mean for the masses....I might be tempted to get a better system then.

also psu is alright, power comes through, but there is a burn mark on the motherboard.

do oem motherboards use the same mounting holes as of-the-shelf motherboards?

but really when i think that even a basic graphics card sucks energy, there is practically no point in being carefull with the chipset and cpu being efficient when you put in a graphics card! thats why i was looking at the integrated side.

any advise would be appreciated in that area!