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Thread: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

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    Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Hi All

    I used to be up to scratch when it came to computers back in the days of Athlon's (old slot format) and these Pentium 2.4.

    Today the motherboard went pop and initially thought was to directly replace it and maybe even stick in a Pentium 2.8 as they are only a few pounds these days.

    Now my real question is, is it worth upgrading to something more modern?

    It has :-

    Pentium 2.4
    2gb Ram
    3x hard drives (including 1 sata)
    1x DVD rewriter
    Windows XP

    Now I typically only use it for the internet/web browsing/emails/Iplayer and the odd bit of photoshop playing.

    It has done me well but do notice the speed issue with things like CS3 load speeds.

    I wouldn't be looking to spend much as I also have a decent laptop but is there a setup I would be mad not to install instead?

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    You could pick up a dirt cheap athlon x2 or celeron dual core processor and mobo and a couple of gigs of ram, that would suit you fine for anything you might need it for, I would personally go for the AMD based system as the integrated graphics on AMD systems is much better than Intels "HD" graphics, as they can offload flash video playback, and for that matter any video playback.
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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    You could build a cheap system aroung a current gen 'pentium' which would be perfect for you. These modern 'pentiums' have no actual relation to yours, but are just cheaper 'Core'CPU's.
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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Quote Originally Posted by mattyp View Post
    .....

    Now my real question is, is it worth upgrading to something more modern?

    .....

    Now I typically only use it for the internet/web browsing/emails/Iplayer and the odd bit of photoshop playing.

    ....
    IMHO, no, it isn't. But I'll probably be a lone voice. For all but the Photoshop, I'd have thought the current system was more than capable.

    Will a new system be faster? yeah, no doubt. But if all you care about is the PC as a tool, then ask yourself, in terms of the ability to do the job, what will a major step forward actually bring you? Will it do the job any better? Is the existing machine struggling to cope with web browsing, sending mail or iPlayer? I can't see that it is. And if it is, would you be better served by adding more memory, and maybe a faster HD (or SSD) than a complete overhaul?

    For me, there's two reasons to upgrade. First, new tech is MUCH better than what you have at doing the jobs you were doing with it. Second, incremental upgrades to prevent existing tech going too far out of date to be reusable. I think you've already passed that point, and a major upgrade is going to what mobo, CPU, perhaps heatsink/fan, and probably DDR3 memory. Then you're probably going to want all SATA hard drives, and bigger ones at that, and since you're spending out on all that, it'd be "false economy" to stick with an out-of-date video board, and before you know it, you've effectively replaced the whole damn machine. So what benefit do you get from it? And that is the question you really need to answer for yourself. What will I gain, and what will it cost me? If you're CPU is already idling about 90% of the time in those tasks, what will you gain from upgrading it so that it idles 99% of the time instead?

    But it's a personal decision.

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    I think a more useful starting point would be a budget, and not 'as cheap as poss'. Give us a figure to work to that you'd be willing to spend on an upgrade and then you can avoid people telling you to go spend 500 quid on a half decent gaming rig because they deem that to be a 'cheap upgrade'.

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    Bagnaj97
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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    It doesn't sound like you're a heavy user at all so don't splash out too much, but I'd definitely recommend getting (at least) a dual core processor rather than another P4. Many more programs (Photoshop included) are multithreaded these days and your PC will be more responsive under load. I've not been following 2nd hand prices but you can get a new dual core processor, 2gb ddr2 ram and a motherboard for < £90

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    i was going to say mattyp that if the mobo was still alive a nice pentium d 930 (it's a dual core chip iirc not a hyperthreaded one and comes with hardware virtualisation in case you want to try running some vm machines....) but alas the board is dead so really i'd look to a cheap i3 rig or i5 if you can afford it (see how much a new i3 system would be over building something from the bits you have)

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Thanks for all the replies.

    Some very fair points about my lack of description (sorry!)

    Currently the system runs a TI4400 graphics card and in terms of a budget given the usage it gets, I would probably be looking at around £100 to upgrade the processor, ram and motherboard. However for that money I am wondering whether any "upgrade" would actually be noticeable given I used to spend nearly twice that on a graphics card alone.

  10. #9
    Bagnaj97
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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Quote Originally Posted by mattyp View Post
    Thanks for all the replies.

    Some very fair points about my lack of description (sorry!)

    Currently the system runs a TI4400 graphics card and in terms of a budget given the usage it gets, I would probably be looking at around £100 to upgrade the processor, ram and motherboard. However for that money I am wondering whether any "upgrade" would actually be noticeable given I used to spend nearly twice that on a graphics card alone.
    You would definitely notice a cpu upgrade, especially with your occasional photoshop use and if you ever tried to watch anything HD on iplayer or youtube. If you were to upgrade you would also need a new graphics card as yours uses the old AGP slot. That said a lot of integrated graphics cards (but not all) are on par with or faster than your current graphics card, and even a ~£50 discrete card would blow yours out of the water.

    TBH it sounds like your system is so old it wouldn't be a case of upgrading, but replacing it. Your choices are a new pc or replace the motherboard with something from ebay. If it does everything you want at the moment then a new motherboard is the cheapest option, but as you say it feels slow now and it's only going to get worse as software moves on. If you decide to get a new PC then give us a budget and we (meaning CAT-THE-FIFTH ) will find something to fit it.

    The new AMD processors are aimed at people just like you imho - an incedible upgrade over your current setup and enough grunt to last you as long as your current PC has.

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Have a look at a llano build. Low power and the CPU and integrated gpu should be much better at more demanding things such as photoshop.

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bagnaj97 View Post
    You would definitely notice a cpu upgrade, especially with your occasional photoshop use and if you ever tried to watch anything HD on iplayer or youtube. If you were to upgrade you would also need a new graphics card as yours uses the old AGP slot. That said a lot of integrated graphics cards (but not all) are on par with or faster than your current graphics card, and even a ~£50 discrete card would blow yours out of the water.

    TBH it sounds like your system is so old it wouldn't be a case of upgrading, but replacing it. Your choices are a new pc or replace the motherboard with something from ebay. If it does everything you want at the moment then a new motherboard is the cheapest option, but as you say it feels slow now and it's only going to get worse as software moves on. If you decide to get a new PC then give us a budget and we (meaning CAT-THE-FIFTH ) will find something to fit it.

    The new AMD processors are aimed at people just like you imho - an incedible upgrade over your current setup and enough grunt to last you as long as your current PC has.
    Thanks, amazed the integrated graphics could be more powerful than my current card! I really have been out of the game.

    Given I have no use for blu-ray but a power upgrade could be useful, would something like:-

    AMD Athlon II X2 250 3ghz £43

    Asus M4N68T-M LE V2 Socket AM3 DDR3 Geforce 7025 VGA Out 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard £35

    2x Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory Module Unbuffered £28 for pair

    So that's £105 and includes everything, is that a good spec (particularly graphics?). That's the kind of ball court im looking in.

    Suggestions/revised specs welcomed

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    3ghz Athlon II £44.70
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail

    MSI 880G mobo, onboard vga £49.54
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-8...a-unlocked-cpu

    2gb Corsair Value select £12.92
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-c...d-cas-9-9-9-24

    Total £116

    I only looked on Scan, you could prob find some of this a few pounds cheaper elsewhere, for example saverstore are doing 2gb sticks of OCZ gold 1333mhz ram for £9.99 right now: http://www.saverstore.com/product/20...33MHz-Gold-OCZ, so with a bit of hunting you could get it under the £100 you have set, have a much faster cpu, and even though it is intergrated a much faster gpu (with the option to simply pop in any graphics card you like in the future)

    Edit: you posted as I was typing this out, tbh the 880G chipset is a far better choice than the nVidia chipset, the graphics are better, and it is a much more current chipset so you can expect driver updates for a longer time.
    Last edited by Golden Dragoon; 08-07-2011 at 01:48 PM.
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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Quote Originally Posted by Golden Dragoon View Post
    3ghz Athlon II £44.70
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail

    MSI 880G mobo, onboard vga £49.54
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-8...a-unlocked-cpu

    2gb Corsair Value select £12.92
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-c...d-cas-9-9-9-24

    Total £116

    I only looked on Scan, you could prob find some of this a few pounds cheaper elsewhere, for example saverstore are doing 2gb sticks of OCZ gold 1333mhz ram for £9.99 right now: http://www.saverstore.com/product/20...33MHz-Gold-OCZ, so with a bit of hunting you could get it under the £100 you have set, have a much faster cpu, and even though it is intergrated a much faster gpu (with the option to simply pop in any graphics card you like in the future)
    Thanks for the motherboard recommendation and great price on that ram!

    I presume another option on the board front would be this one Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 AMD 770 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard as it also runs the Radeon 4250, but then it seems to have a slower chip so MSI still looks the best option.

    For £100 that looks great value.

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    The 7 series are using HD 3000 graphics, still good enough for your needs as it will still be a step up from what you have, but I would pay the few extra pounds and get a 880 based board.
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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    Biostar A780L3L 760G Socket AM3 Onboard VGA and DVI 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard:
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255208 £32.99

    AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.00GHz Socket AM3 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor:
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237554 £43.31

    Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 1333MHz i5 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V
    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152979 £13.28

    Total: £89.58 with their free (slow) delivery.

    Graphics can be roughly compared here. It shows the integrated HD3000 series graphics on this motherboard as faster than your card and you can add a PCIe graphics card and upgrade to a quad core CPU later on if you want more performance.


    Edit:
    Complete wildcard: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/267867 It's low end but still an upgrade over what you have. You'd need a copy of windows as well, but you would with our previous suggestions anyway. Oh and an external DVD drive, but they can be had for <£20
    Last edited by Bagnaj97; 08-07-2011 at 02:20 PM.

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    Re: Pentium 2.4 - worth upgrading?

    I just wanted to give an alternative solution:

    Motherboard: H61 chipset mATX £45.
    CPU: Pentium G620 £53.
    RAM: 2GB Corsair DDR3 £13.

    Total is £111, which is obviously more than others, however i'd recommend a read of this article (or at least the summary):
    XbitLabs review of Pentiums.
    Pentium G850, G840 and G620 ... will be a great fit for inexpensive gaming machines, as their advantage over dual-core Socket AM3, LGA1156 and LGA775 CPUs is more than obvious
    Granted, you are not after gaming, but I think it holds non-the-less.
    Just FYI.
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