New components for MIL's PC

[Smudger]

Hi,
My MIL has an HP Pavillion a6110 PC with a 3Ghz Pentium D, 2x512Mb PC5300 RAM and a 160Gb HD. It's running like a dog, so I thought I would upgrade it to more modern specs, for as cheap as possible. It's used for internet and crafty-type things (card making, etc) so doesn't need the latest kit. I was looking to replace the motherboard, CPU and RAM but I'm not sure whether to go Intel or AMD.
Would the following be any good?

Qty Link No. Description Scansure Available Ex VAT Inc VAT

LN28614 AMD Athlon II X4 630, Quad Core, S AM3, 2.8GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 95W, Retail £59.63 £70.07

LN29161 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM £61.07 £71.76

LN35509 Gigabyte GA-MA74GMT-S2, AMD 740G, AM3, PCI-E (x16), DDR3 1333MHz, SATA 3Gbps, SATA RAID, Micro ATX £33.95 £39.89

LN11596 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £28.50 £33.49

Total comes to around £230 but if anyone knows of a setup that would perform the same or better for around £200, I'd like to know. I was going to keep the HD, case and power supply, and the Motherboard must have onboard graphic.

Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You cannot use DDR2 in a DDR3 motherboard!

I would probably re-install the OS or get a new copy if this is not possible and some more RAM.

Also it will be worth checking if the hard disk is fine too.

[Smudger]

Yep, realised once I'd posted...
The system came with Vista 32bit OEM, so thought it would possible not install with the new components, plus it's rubbish...
More RAM will probably do the job short term...

[Cornholio]

You cannot use DDR2 in a DDR3 motherboard!

I would probably re-install the OS or get a new copy if this is not possible and some more RAM.

Also it will be worth checking if the hard disk is fine too.

As Cat said, the current pc spec she has is fine for " card creating ", will just need some TLC to get it running right.

Also that CPU is complete overkill.

[nibbler]

Why wouldn't you be able to install new hardware on vista 32bit? 1GB of RAM on vista is a bad plan, just upgrade that and reinstall, maybe get win7.

[jim]

I think he's referring to the fact that it's OEM. In fact, it probably will reinstall. It's the same PC at the end of the day, so I wouldn't fret about it.

[CaptainCrash]

I think he's referring to the fact that it's OEM. In fact, it probably will reinstall. It's the same PC at the end of the day, so I wouldn't fret about it.

Just to mention before anyone else does - an OEM licence is tied to the motherboard, so if that gets replaced, then as far as the EULA is concerned it's a new computer and the original OEM licence is invalid.

It will probably activate anyway, but I know some people do get rather stressed over these things.

[Sputnik]

If you were going to upgrade an old machine like that, At the top of the list should be a new decent PSU.

Although the existing hard drive might still be working a new hard drive will probably double your transfer rate to around 100Mbps and that would make the machine feel a lot snappier.

If I was going to upgrade a machine like that I would not re use any of it. You can buy a micro ATX case quite cheaply.

[nibbler]

If you were going to upgrade an old machine like that, At the top of the list should be a new decent PSU.

Although the existing hard drive might still be working a new hard drive will probably double your transfer rate to around 100Mbps and that would make the machine feel a lot snappier.

If I was going to upgrade a machine like that I would not re use any of it. You can buy a micro ATX case quite cheaply.

Seeing as your uses are presumably different to a middle aged woman wanting to make postcards I think that the best thing to do is simply upgrade RAM and reinstall Windows.

[jim]

Just to mention before anyone else does - an OEM licence is tied to the motherboard, so if that gets replaced, then as far as the EULA is concerned it's a new computer and the original OEM licence is invalid.

It will probably activate anyway, but I know some people do get rather stressed over these things.

I don't think it's that clearcut, or at least not from my reading. My understanding was that it was tied to a variety of components, and once a threshold is crossed you have to re-activate. I'm not aware of any specific "It's the motherboard that matters" quote, although I could be wrong.

[Sputnik]

Seeing as your uses are presumably different to a middle aged woman wanting to make postcards I think that the best thing to do is simply upgrade RAM and reinstall Windows.

I was referring to his upgrade list he wrote! I don't think I'd want to be powering all that from some tired old OEM PSU.

LN28614 AMD Athlon II X4 630, Quad Core, S AM3, 2.8GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 95W, Retail £59.63 £70.07

LN29161 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM £61.07 £71.76

LN35509 Gigabyte GA-MA74GMT-S2, AMD 740G, AM3, PCI-E (x16), DDR3 1333MHz, SATA 3Gbps, SATA RAID, Micro ATX £33.95 £39.89

LN11596 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £28.50 £33.49

Of course, I do agree that the original PC is probably going to do everything that he listed if it is all in good condition and had a fresh install of windows.

[CaptainCrash]

I don't think it's that clearcut, or at least not from my reading. My understanding was that it was tied to a variety of components, and once a threshold is crossed you have to re-activate. I'm not aware of any specific "It's the motherboard that matters" quote, although I could be wrong.

OEM and retail are different - the retail version takes a poll of various components and requires reactivating once a certain threshold has been passed, but the OEM version is specifically tied to the motherboard, which MS deem to be the "heart and soul" of the computer.

You can replace the motherboard if it's defective, but otherwise the licence is non-transferrable.

Q. Can a PC with an OEM Windows operating system have its motherboard upgraded and keep the same license? What if it was replaced because it was defective?

A. Generally, an end user can upgrade or replace all of the hardware components on a computer—except the motherboard—and still retain the license for the original Microsoft OEM operating system software. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created. Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred to the new computer, and the license of new operating system software is required. If the motherboard is replaced because it is defective, you do not need to acquire a new operating system license for the PC as long as the replacement motherboard is the same make/model or the same manufacturer's replacement/equivalent, as defined by the manufacturer's warranty.

The reason for this licensing rule primarily relates to the End User Software License Terms and the support of the software covered by that End User Software License Terms. The End User Software License Terms is a set of usage rights granted to the end user by the PC manufacturer and relates only to rights for that software as installed on that particular PC. The system builder is required to support the software on the original PC. Understanding that end users, over time, upgrade their PCs with different components, Microsoft needed to have one base component "left standing" that would still define the original PC. Since the motherboard contains the CPU and is the "heart and soul" of the PC, when the motherboard is replaced (for reasons other than defect) a new PC is essentially created. The original system builder did not manufacture this new PC, and therefore cannot be expected to support it.

http://oem.microsoft.com/script/cont...id=552846#faq1

In practice, all it usually requires to reactivate on a different mobo is a phone call, and an MS EULAbot will ask you "is the OS installed on more than one computer?" - provided you give the right answer you'll have no further problems. Whether or not you *should* is another matter and one I won't presume to comment on...

[nibbler]

Ah I see yeah, don't power that with an old PSU but avoid that issue completely by not buying any of that.

[jim]

Fair enough, makes sense - first time I've seen that in writing, so cheers for posting.

Morally, I see things a little differently to Microsoft, but that's nothing new

[Smudger]

Thanks guys. I've cleaned up the OS a bit, and bought 2Gb of RAM, I'll see how that works. I was trying to avoid a re-install of the OS, but if it comes to it, that'll be the next step. Plus the HD seems a bit 'tired' so that'll probably replaced at the same time...

Thanks all for all your help, and for straightening out a few OEM questions I had...

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, for my 2p it want another GB of ram (which you've covered). A new HD might be an idea if it's been heavily used, and since it's been a 1GB machine running Vista the HD will have taken a bit of a pounding for pagefile, but given it must be less than 4 years old, I'd only replace the hard drive if it's been used on an office-style workload (i.e. 40 hours per week every week).

There's plenty of possibilities in terms of software tricks to try speeding up a slow old computer. Firstly, check that the pagefile isn't defragmented. That'll kill the speed of a Windows PC and kill the hard drive too. Then defrag, and defrag the free space too (defraggler does this, some other programs might as well). If the pagefile *is* fragmented, you'll need to remove the pagefile entirely before defragging the hard drive, then set a fixed sized pagefile to avoid it fragmenting in the future. Do the usual check of start-up programs, services etc. and remove anything unnecessary (particularly with Vista, which is a bit of a memory hog). Check what antivirus she's using: some are better than others for memory usage. If it's Norton or McAfee, run away screaming

And ultimately, consider upgrading to Windows 7, which is a much happier OS on lower end hardware...