Golden Oldie

[Marvin Martian]

Following my recent successes (with Hexus members help, of course) I offered to look at my Dad's "Golden Oldie":
Amptron M810LR-H Rev 7.1 motherboard
AMD K7 Duron 1100Mhz CPU
Akasa AK760 fan, that never stops
20GB Maxtor HD
128MB PC133 SDR/CL3 memory
300W Advance PSU
CD & floppy drives
XP-Pro
17" CRT monitor
Mainly used for internet with a bit of photo editing.

Initial thoughts:
new HD - 500 GB Hitachi Deskstar P7K500, IDE (PATA), 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.5 ms - Scan £51.08
new memory - 2x 512MB SDRAM PC133, 168 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered - Scan £15.90
new DVD drive - Samsung SH-S222A/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, IDE Black OEM - Scan £17.26
new monitor - 22" Acer V223Webd Black, Widescreen, 5 ms, 1680x1050, 2500:1, VESA - Scan £117.25
Total £201.50
Or bin the lot and buy new? (He seemed quite interested in a £199.99 laptop on the TV).

I'm sure Hexus can do better than that!
All suggestions welcome.

[alsenior]

bin the whole lot and start again. if all it is i just a bit of browsing + photo editing a acer revo will suit him down to the ground if that monitor has a hdmi input you can have the pair for about £350 new.

Probably best to stay away from any £200 laptops as they are going to have a very bare spec and all things considered in real terms there not going to feel faster than the machine they are replacing

[Marvin Martian]

Alsenior, thanks for that, looks smart. My Dad keeps a lot of his photos on CD, he'd need to get an external optical drive as well. But it's definately worth mentioning to him.

[dirky]

Do you have a budget?
Really no point in flogging that horse

[Marvin Martian]

Hi Dirky, I said I'd look at his PC and give him an idea of costs. So far I've got £200 to upgrade his system or £400 for Revo + monitor + DVD writer. I'm open to all suggestions!

[mr_anderson187]

I would advise against that particular HDD from my own (and quite a few other peoples) opinions, the Deskstar is nicknamed the Deathstar if you google it, known for their poor life..

First HDD i lost was a Deskstar, ironically the second HDD i lost was in my laptop - a Travelstar, the 2.5" version of the Deskstar

Just my 2p

[Marvin Martian]

Thanks for pointing that out mr anderson. Swap for - 500GB Western Digital WD5000AAKB Caviar Blue, IDE (PATA), 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms - Scan £62.24

[scaryjim]

Is the CPU upgradable? A quick google suggests that on some of the M810 boards (I believe I have basically the same motherboard but branded as PC-Chips) the CPU isn't upgradable. If you can't drop a new CPU in then scrap it all and start again.

If you can upgrade the CPU, then pick up a second hand Athlon of some description for < £10 (ebay is your friend ). It'll make a big difference compared to a Duron of a similar clock speed. I'd also look to get your memory on ebay - and you should be fine with 2x256MB: 1GB for WinXP is overkill. I'd get the DVD drive and hard drive new, but you shouldn't really need 500GB, and as has previously been mentioned it's generally a good idea to avoid deskstars.

Also: as long as it still works, I don't see why you'd want to rob him of a decent 17" CRT. My next monitor will almost certainly be a refurbished CRT, and for web browsing / photo editing I don't think a widescreen gives any advantage, so I'd save the money and stick with the existing monitor too.

SO, the shopping list now looks like:

AMD Athlon CPU - £6
2x 256MB PC133 SDRAM ~ £10
320GB WD Caviar Blue IDE Hard Drive - £51
Samsung DVD+-RW IDE drive - £17

Total upgrade cost: £84 (if you opt for a large 320GB HD - that cost can be brought down considerably).

[dirky]

Over specced but could check out this spec by the almightly CAT:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ml#post1897620

[Marvin Martian]

scaryjim, Amptron, PC-Chips and ECS appear to be the same company, from what I've gathered so far, but I'm not sure which board - mine is copper (stamped rev 7.1) not orange or red as I've read.
How can I tell if the CPU is upgradeable? I'm happy to try to change it, if possible.

dirky, CATs cheap PC comes in around £300, good call. Do you mean over specked for my needs?

[scaryjim]

Basically, if you take the CPU heatsink off you should see a little lever next to the CPU socket that pulls upwards, and then the CPU should lift out of the socket. If there is no lever / the CPU won't lift out of the socket, then it can't be upgraded and you're almost certainly better off with a complete new build. If you're not sure, take the CPU heatsink off and take a picture of what's underneath and I'll have a look at it for you

If you can upgrade the CPU, then I reckon there's life in the old girl yet for what your Dad needs, and at significantly lower cost than you were originally planning. I reckon the upgrade I recommended should keep him happy for at least another couple of years.

[dirky]

yeah you could probably drop down the cpu a tad, maybe drop to 2gb ram - and hope ram prices drop

edit: yes, maybe slightly over specced, but hey can never have enough powah

pps; 500GB F3 was in stock yesterday at ebuyer

[Marvin Martian]

scaryjim, heatsink & CPU removed, no problem, duh! I'll recommend your
suggestion to my Dad in the morning. Any thoughts on the fan? Should it be permanently on?

[scaryjim]

On an old Athlon / Duron system, yes. They didn't have the Cool'n'Quiet technologies or active fan control of newer AMD processors.

It may be worth looking into getting a quieter CPU cooler, but unless your Dad's actually bothered by the noise I wouldn't bother. However, if you're upgrading the CPU anyway, take the fan off the CPU cooler and give both the fan and the heatsink a really good clean to get rid of dust and muck that will reduce the cooling performance. This can actually get a CPU running several degrees cooler. Also, clean the bottom of the heatsink and apply some new thermal compound when you upgrade the CPU. I'd also recommend checking the disk usage your dad currently has and how many photos he got archived that could do with storing on his PC - ideally you want to get a drive that's about twice the size of his current storage requirements, so a 320GB might be more than he requires and you could save £10 - £20 going or a 250GB or 160GB instead...

[Marvin Martian]

Dad's happy, £85's less than he imagined!
Thanks to all for suggestions.
Any recommendations for cleaning heatsink? Alcohol wipe do?

[spac3d]

Yeah just make sure you use a lint free cloth, I'd even do mine with a J-Wipe tbh.