Budget £100~ upgrade advice

[Gazmondo]

Hi, it's been a while since I've been in the hardware of computing but my auntie is wanting to upgrade her windows ME PC to XP, and in turn requires a hardware upgrade.

It will be used simply for internet browsing and the use of Office applications, nothing intense at all. Looking at onboard GFX & Audio, will need a new motherboard, cpu, ram, and depending on the total of those, possibly even a new HDD.

Having a budget of no more than £100ish, to buy 2nd hand parts (eBay is the likely source) what would people suggest is the best upgrades?

[Sputnik]

What is the spec. of the current machine? Can you use the case or do you need a new one. At a guess I'd say if it is running windows ME then you should be looking at replacing everything bar the monitor.

£100 is a tight budget tbh.

[Gazmondo]

I've got a bigger monitor & a suitable case for her already.

Just been looking at some cheap motherboard/cpu bundles 2nd hand on eBay that should suffice.

£100 is a tight budget, but she rarely uses her pc and it would simply be just to support the running of XP and a few very light apps.

A bottom of the range dual core would suffice, like the 3800x2, or the intel alternative...

[jim]

I think you've almost answered your own question... just bundle together whatever you can get. Sort out 2x512MB of DDR2 RAM, then find the cheapest motherboard and CPU combination you can find with DDR2 support, AMD might be a better option.

I'm assuming you've already got a version of XP available, and the PSU from the old machine is okay to go, so I doubt there's a lot more to it.

[Gazmondo]

Yeah was looking at AM2, DDR2 etc, as their ancestor - the DDR & SKT939 ranges are getting quite expensive....

Yep all software is catered for - just need the core hardware components. Any "extras" like a bigger HDD and optional fans or optical drives can be added later.

Have to check the PSU next time I go, can't see it being anything good - what are the basic requirements of a PSU powering let's say 2 sticks of DDR2 ram, a budget AM2 mobo setup, a hdd and 2 opticals?

[jim]

Wattage is likely to be extremely low, in the region of 100W I would think. I was just wondering if it was a 6 year old Dell special with a good chance of exploding

[smithy1158]

Novatech is a good place for motherboard bundles - Not second hand but as cheap and obviously garanteed to work...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html

There are some very good Core 2 Duo bundles under £100 including ram! They even include a cpu cooler...

Saying that im selling my old motherboard and some ram...

its a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 (Intel 965 chipset) for £30 and my collection of unused ram sticks got some corsair sets and even some crucial ballistix..

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would get:

Hiper 425W ~ £28

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141597

690V motherboard ~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141239

Sempron LE-1250 ~ £25

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141239

1gb DDR2 ~ £11

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/91126

Total: £100.53

Remember there is free postage for orders over £49.99 at Ebuyer.

This spec will do fine for XP. My notebook with a 1.7ghz Pentium M and 768mb is fast enough under XP SP3 for word processing and internet usage.

[Sputnik]

This is what I would get:

Hiper 425W ~ £28

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141597

690V motherboard ~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141239

Sempron LE-1250 ~ £25

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141239

1gb DDR2 ~ £11

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/91126

Total: £100.53

Remember there is free postage for orders over £49.99 at Ebuyer.

This spec will do fine for XP. My notebook with a 1.7ghz Pentium M and 768mb is fast enough under XP SP3 for word processing and internet usage.

You always meet the price!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You always meet the price!

I like keeping to budget!!

[sammorris]

Looking good Cat, cheap system and no terrible component brands, which is always nice to see. +rep for that, however I can do it...

Also, Ebuyer Free Postage is only for 'within 5 days' - fortunately it usually only takes 2-3.

[Sputnik]

I like keeping to budget!!

I went over the budget on my upgrade. Not that I'm complaining. It was still the cheapest upgrade I've done for myself.

[Gazmondo]

I used to own a Sempron and wasn't pleased with it at all, I've seen a few 3800x2's on eBay going for around £25-£30 so I think I'll opt for those.

Debating whether to give away my thermaltake 480w PSU aswel, as that would save about £30 on the build, maybe put that towards 1/2gb of 800/1066mhz RAM?

[sammorris]

Semprons have progressed a fair way since the god awful Socket A ones.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Semprons have progressed a fair way since the god awful Socket A ones.

I agree as the newer ones have 512kb of cache and are pretty speedy for normal use under XP TBH.

[Sputnik]

I agree as the newer ones have 512kb of cache and are pretty speedy for normal use under XP TBH.

Isn't the Sempron you listed the same spec. as the AMD64 athlon 3500+ ?

Edit : not quite the same, It has a smaller L1 cache.