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My friend has recently given me his old system which is as follows
Intel Celeron E1200 at 2.0Ghz
1GB Kingston HyperX Ram I think 1066Mhz
9500GT 1GB (only baught that last week so dont want to upgrade that)
HEC 300Watt PSU
What would you advise i upgrade (only one of them) with a budget of £100 in terms of preformance.
and i would overclock the CPU but i dont know how to do that safely unless anyone has an decent well informed websites that advises you what to do.
cheers
Tom
Since the Celeron is based (I suppose) on Core architecture, Clunk's
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...beginners.html should be sufficient.
I think even the stock heatsink should do well with cooling that, if not, try picking up something cheap and cheerful - an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 or Coolermaster Hyper TX2; or Akasa coolers, though I've no idea what the model would be.
The first thing to upgrade I was going to say the graphics card, but since you won't be upgrading that, I think you should add some RAM (at least a gig more; or 4 gigs all the same, it's terribly cheap); if there's not enough storage - that; or, if you are planning on putting something more powerful into the system in the future - why not change the PSU?
Wow! That is not an old system!!Quote:
Originally Posted by watforddude
What are you using the system for??
Are you sure that it is an E1200?? It runs at 1.6ghz whereas the E1400 runs at 2ghz. What motherboard does the system have?? This will the key to whether you can overclock or not.`
What OS are you using?? Buying a 1gb 9500GT will limit the amount of system RAM you can use if you have a 32 bit OS. TBH why did you go for a 1gb 9500GT as there is virtually no difference from the 256mb or 512mb version?
Is the RAM in the form of 2 sticks and how many RAM slots does the motherboard have??
I would go for 2gb of extra RAM.This should cost you well under £30.
HEC make competent but not brilliant PSUs. I would go for a Silverpower 400w PSU:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400w-...2V-6Serial-ATA
It is reviewed here:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/11
Is it not, i thought it wasnt a very good system but maybe not?
It has two memory slot's and im using 1x1GB stick.
well its deffently running at 2.0Ghz so it must be a E1400 which i plan to overclock.
its Windows XP 32Bit i can get vista if needed
Is the CPU worth upgrading?
and like both of you have said RAM is deffenetly one of the upgrades im going for but isnt XP limited at 3.5 or something like that?
cheers
Tom
As CAT said, the mobo will probably be the deciding factor in how much you can overclock your CPU, which in turn will determine whether it's worth buying a new one. What is the mobo? I'd stick with XP though, you don't need to go 64-bit which would be the only benefit to getting a new O/S.
You bought a graphics card with 1gb of RAM so you can "only" use 3gb or maybe less. However 4gb of DDR2 is around £30 to £35 so if you want to upgrade the OS at a later date to a 64 bit or it would be useful.
Also you do need know what model your motherboard is. Many OEM and el cheapo motherboards have NO overclocking options at all!!
Why do you need to overclock BTW?? I assume that you are not doing much gaming as the 9500GT is a very weak card TBH and the sort of games you could play on it won't be limited IMHO by a 2ghz E1400.
I think more RAM would be useful. A PSU upgrade would be good as the one I specified has high efficiency meaning lower overall power consumption.
What is the model of the hard drive which you are using??
Well i know the make is MSI, when i get home later i will open it up and take down the details.
and the only reason i would overclock it a little bit is for that added boost of speed, the 9500GT is a dream for me compeard to the old 6200AGP i used to have :)
it plays call of duty 2 (only game i have at the minute for the PC) at 1080 res at around anything to 70-200fps which is nice for me.
what RAM would you reccomend i get at the minute its a 1GB stick of Kingston hyperX DDR2
and yeah the main reason i baught it off him (80 pounds, dont know if that was a good deal) was the intention to start gaming on the computer again and get rid of the xbox.
and the hardrive is a 80Gb maxtor.
You should have gone for an HD4650 or a HD4670 as these would have been much faster for similar money. The 9500GT won't be that good with newer games at all.
I would first get a newer hard drive as these will be much faster.
I would go either of the following:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158688
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms
I would then clone your XP partition using the folloing software:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloa...isk-manager-se
I would get the following RAM:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...d-CAS-5-5-5-18
I would go for the following PSU:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400w-...2V-6Serial-ATA
Remember as a Hexus member you can free Scan postage and Ebuyer has free postage for orders over £49.99!
The only reason i got the 9500GT and nothing higher was mainly due to the PSU and i doubt that it a HEC 300W PSU would fry with anything better.
Is Silverstone a good PSU you make becuase there is a 400W on there for around 30 pounds i think it was.
And also cant i save money getting 2GB not 4GB seeing as im with XP can only have a max of 3GB RAM?
but i will post my MOBO specs on here later.
Get this instead:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728
With Supersaver postage it comes to £20.57!
Here is a review:Quote:
Originally Posted by watforddude
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/11
Sorry Post Deleted
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Quote:
Originally Posted by watforddude
Sorry im at college, i went off for a ciggerette and obviously some idoit did that. sorry.
The two most important things are RAM and PSU but becuase im not happy with whats running on the PSU at the minute worrying its going to go any time
also a PSU that will have room for upgrading
+1 to the OCZ Gold that CAT suggested.
If you get your new PSU from ebuyer too and spend more than £30 you'll get free supersaver shipping too! I'd make a suggestion but then everyone else would laugh at me for being an Antec fanboy... ;)
p.s. Also, that PSU is less than £30 so you'd still have to pay for postage. I'm off my game today... :(
Looking at the budget again you could go for a more powerful PSU if you want to go with more powerful components down the line.
I would go then for the following from Ebuyer:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735
You could change the hard disk to a Samsung F1 which is faster:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms
However I think that the WD hard drive will have better reality then the F1 as I know a few of the 500gb F1 drives had some issues.
The total comes to just under £105. Upgrading to a newer hard drive is recommended as it will improve performance. A slow hard drive wil become a bottleneck in the system. You can clone the existing install using the software I linked too.
The RAM and the PSU are defo's
but i see on here people dont really like the OCZ make becuase its unrealiable.
the hard drive isnt a nessesity depending on the preformance increase i would get from it?
Or possibly just go for these two and save the RAM till later.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715...roduct_reviews
and
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928
what kind of preformance increase can i expect from that?
Again whether you can use an E5200 is dependent on your motherboard. The RAM will give you a bigger improvement in performance TBH. I would not go for that PSU TBH and the Silverpower 400w is what I would go for.Quote:
Originally Posted by watforddude
This Enermax 350w is the minimum PSU I would go for:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ATA-80plus-Eff
OCZ do not make rubbish PSUs as PC Power and Cooling are owned by them and they are one of the best PSU companies out there.
Upgrading the hard disk makes sense as it can be a major bottleneck. Your system will keep accessing the hard disk when you are playing any games so a slower hard disk will slow your system down.
Sorry took so long for the motherboard specs it is a
Manufacturer: MSI
Model: MS-7267
Chipset: Intel i945G/GZ
Southbridge: Intel 82801GB
what kind of CPU would i want to upgrade with that motherboard?
cheers
I had a look at the support page:
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...odel=945GZM3-L
1066mhz processors are only supported by overclocking and this is not recommended by the manufacturer.
As a result you are stuck with 800mhz FSB Core2 processors. It also looks like 45nm processors are not supported due to the chipset used.
Hence the maximum processor upgrade you can have is the 2.6ghz E4700. Basically the only Core2 processors you can use are the E1*** series Celeron processors and the E4*** series Core2 processors.
Also only 2gb of RAM is supported too!! It also has to DDR2 RAM running at either 400mhz or 533mhz!!
I would get this RAM instead then:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/63623
Also the PCI-E slot seems to only run at 4x electrically so this means anything over an HD4670 is going to affected.
Actually it may be this motherboard.
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...ZM6-F&class=mb
See what the Version number after the MS-7267
Which model it is will change you options.
I still see both boards having the 800mhz FSB limit,the 2gb of RAM limit, the compatibility with only 400mhz and 533mhz DDR2 and the fact that the PCI-E slot is only 4x electrically.
The first one is my one, i know becuase it has the same amount of audio ports at the back of PC, am i better of just buying a new motherboard and going from there?
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...odel=945GZM3-L
Scan were doing a bundled deal the other day for an E5200 and motherboard, it was something like £80 in total... maybe keep and eye out for somthing like that?
I would probably go for the following motherboard as a minimum:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148802...ctype=extended
It is known to be a very good overclocker although the chipset prefers the use of two RAM sticks over 4.
Here is a review:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/575
You should get this RAM:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728
Also there are some great PSUs still left on Scan Today Only!!
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx
There is an FSP 400w for £28(instead of the usual £40) and a Silverstone 350w for £23(instead of the usual £31).
I would get the FSP as for the price it is excellent value for money as it has 85% efficiency.
However the offers will be changed at midday today so you only have an hour or so left - perhaps you could add it to the basket before then??
You can also make use of the free Scan postage too!!
This should keep you to your £100 budget!
Thank you very much, you have been more than helpful, im going to go for the new mobo ram and psu you have just advised,
i assume the cpu and gfx card will still work on it?
Quick thing! The new motherboard is full sized though so check that your case is big enough as the previous MSI one was a micro-atx.
Basically the Gigabyte motherboard is 30.5cm x 21.0cm in size.
The PSU has got a good review too!!
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/8
Edit!! The review says that the cables are a tad short which can be a good or a bad thing. If your case is huge it is not so good but if it is smaller it means less mess. Also it seems to be a bit noisy too.
Here are the lengths:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/2
The graphics card and the CPU should be fine!
Its quite a small case, i might have to hold off on the RAM and invest in a case, but my budget went to 150, which i shall be recieving in the easter holidays so maybe il be able to buy a "OK" case with 30/50 pounds. or il win that Antec one in the competetion ;)
The Antec P180 mini is only mATX anyway, so won't fit CATs suggested motherboard! In fact, it sounds possible that your case is mATX, in which case you'll either need a new case or a different motherboard...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139978
its 50 pounds more expensive but, if i got a new case it would have to compromise in something else, like the PSU or RAM
I would at least get the PSU before the offer runs out for today!! Add it to your basket - hopefully it will not revert to its full price!!
This motherboard is the same size as the old one:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152225...roduct_reviews
It is a reasonable overclocker too:
http://www.overclock.net/intel-mothe...overclock.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=51534
Someone got a 1.6ghz E1200 to 2.5ghz. People who had issues were probably trying to overclock while using the integrated graphics!!
Not bad for around £46 which will bring you under budget.
The other way forward would be to get a larger case like an Akasa Zen or a Coolermaster Elite:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa...U-(NEW-Version)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=COOLERMASTER+ELITE
[QUOTE=CAT-THE-FIFTH;1665966]
Someone got a 1.6ghz E1200 to 2.5ghz. People who had issues were probably trying to overclock while using the integrated graphics!!
QUOTE]
Overclocking on integrated is actually more stable, not sure what that is supposed to mean? It loads the PSU less, so the outputs are more stable.
[QUOTE=Badbonji;1666097]Quote:
Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH
It is nothing to do with power and is due to the chipset itself. I have had experiences with using 945 and G31 based motherboards before and having a separate graphics card always improves the maximum FSB speed attainable. This is probably since the system RAM is also being shared with the graphics chipset too and it leads to instability when running a high FSB. Also the P31(which does not have integrated graphics) is generally a better chipset for overclocking than the G31. However since a 320mhz FSB can be even achieved with the G31 Gigabyte motherboard the OP's E1400 can be overclocked to 3ghz easily(hopefully) so it should be enough for their uses.
Unless you cannot lock the PCI-E frequency while overclocking using a separate graphics card will always be better with G31 and 945 based motherboards. If anything thing this is why some people may get higher overclocks using integrated graphics since particular motherboards do not have this PCI-E lock and hence it is run out of spec when the CPU is overclocked.
Any of the PSUs suggested will provide more than enough power for the OPs system especially with an celeron dual core and a 9500gt.