Trying to Upgrade/Tweak Old PC

[scaryjim]

... even for light gaming, it's not going to be much better than the 785g onboard graphics.

Given that a lowly HD3450 eats the 785G for breakfast at gaming - a HD4650 will be a *massive* improvement. It'll allow the OP to run at either higher resolutions or with more image enhancement, and it will also make DX10 gameplay available - the 785G really struggles when trying to render DX10. And while the OP doesn't *currently* play modern games, if they suddenly decide to give something more recent a go it'd probably be worth them having a card that can make a reasonable stab at it. £36 is not exactly a fortune (although I accept it's a reasonable proportion of the OPs budget), and it's a sensible choice, with the other budget components, to create a well balanced system.

Of course, the OP may want to hold off buying the graphics card since ATI are about to bring out the low-end 5-series cards, which may not only be worthy of consideration in their own right, but will inevitably see some prices shift in the last-gen stock... but that's a very different argument to saying that a 4650 won't be much improvement over onboard graphics, which is frankly just ridiculous...

[Iron Sights]

I was originally going to build a brand new system but for now I'm waiting for dx11 prices to settle and to see what nvidia has to offer, as well as the new processors.

In the mean time this upgrade will suffice

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

As it turns out i might not need a psu after all, i managed to get a decent one off a friend saving me £30

So therefore the budget is still about £130 (the cheaper the better really it kinda depends on any significant perfomance gain)

but anyway i will stick with that onboard IGP for now and the cpu seems fine just need to find some 2gb ram, unless you guys have any other ideas?

Considering that you don't need to factor in the cost of the PSU here are two builds I can now suggest:

AM3 Build

AMD Athlon II X2 240 ~ £42

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

MSI 785GM-E51~ £55

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-7...Board-Graphics

2GB DDR3 ~ £42

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128494

AM2 Build

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 45NM Phenom II version ~ £36

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

This is based on the Phenom II X4 and hence if the OP is lucky can be unlocked to a quad core!!

Asus M3A78-T ~ £59

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Has the HD3300 IGP which is faster in games than the HD4200 IGP although the latter has better media decoding abilities. The Asus M3A78-T was originally around £100.

2GB 800MHZ DDR2 ~ £41

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129954

[Iron Sights]

again thanks, but i'm not sure now, both are good systems, i'm pretty sure i don't need media decoding abilites. Which one should i go for?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The first setup has a much faster CPU whereas the second setup has a slower CPU but a faster IGP. However if you can unlock the X2 5000+ you will end up with a considerably faster CPU than an X2 240! The Asus M3A78-T also has 128MB of DDR3 on the motherboard dedicated to the IGP whereas the MSI 785GM-E51 has to share system memory.

[Iron Sights]

hmm interesting, i wonder how successful people have been with unlocking it and secondly how easy is the proccess to unlock those cores

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

These threads maybe of use:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=235664

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=236217

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co....php?p=3597694

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1461484

[Iron Sights]

well this is just great that psu i got turns out to be dead so its back to the original plan

but instead of 1gb ddr2 ram would this:

2gb crucial ddr2 work with the mobo
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142399

MSI 785GTM-E45
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/171803
I'm pretty sure its compatible but i just wanted to make sure

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

well this is just great that psu i got turns out to be dead so its back to the original plan

but instead of 1gb ddr2 ram would this:

2gb crucial ddr2 work with the mobo
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142399

MSI 785GTM-E45
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/171803
I'm pretty sure its compatible but i just wanted to make sure

The RAM will only run in single channel so they will be a performance hit but it should od the job until you get another similar DIMM.

[scaryjim]

I run a 785G with 1 2GB stick for my HTPC (which I also do light gaming on) and it runs perfectly

[Iron Sights]

Rights thanks everyone for all the help but I got one last question

Basically since i'm ordering of ebuyer I get free delivery so I might as well get some ram into my old laptop as well. I think another 512mb should do it

According to the manual and CPU-Z its a:

Fujitsu Siemens
AMILO PRO V3505
Chipset: Intel 945GM
Ram: DDR2 PC2-4300 (266MHz) (Currently only has 512mb by Hyundai)

The question is which ram to go for?

Budget? Cheap as possible!!!

thanks again

[roadkilluk]

I had a simular system i recently got rid of, but worked for most games still, try fill the memory, but also you can still get some (ok) agp cards still (im sure its agp only), i think the 4670 is the best you can still get, and its only £60ish

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Rights thanks everyone for all the help but I got one last question

Basically since i'm ordering of ebuyer I get free delivery so I might as well get some ram into my old laptop as well. I think another 512mb should do it

According to the manual and CPU-Z its a:

Fujitsu Siemens
AMILO PRO V3505
Chipset: Intel 945GM
Ram: DDR2 PC2-4300 (266MHz) (Currently only has 512mb by Hyundai)

The question is which ram to go for?

Budget? Cheap as possible!!!

thanks again

You can order the RAM directly from Crucial:

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/List...%20Pro%20V3505

Ebuyer also do the RAM for a similar price:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=2...52&subcat=2062

According to the Crucial website the RAM in your notebook does not run in dual channel so I would look to get a 1GB SODIMM.

[Iron Sights]

Just tried crucial website and your right no dual channel, i even downloaded the program to double check however i may be looking into this waaay too much but on intels website apparently the chipset does support it

http://www.intel.com/products/notebo...M-overview.htm

Any ideas???

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you get 512MB of RAM the motherboard would run it in dual channel mode if it supports it.

OTH,having 1GB more of RAM means the hard disk should be paged less and this may increase performance more.

[Iron Sights]

either way if i buy ram that runs faster than the original 512mb then does this mean the new ram will run at the same speed as the original ram?