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Thread: upgrading a pc for £500

  1. #1
    Thundercats Ho! starbuck's Avatar
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    • starbuck's system
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    upgrading a pc for £500

    my friend wants me do a major upgrade on his pc. cannot remember exact specs but suffice to say he has an old P3 and windows 98. He didn't want to spend more than £500 and ideally wanted to include a TFT screen with that.

    Want some advice on what sort of spec/components I can expect for that price. I think I will advise against a tft for that price as I think it would be a major compromise on components. He already has a std monitor so he can cope with that. will also need to get a copy of xp. hard drive prob ok(but may want to upgrade) but ideally looking for mobo, cpu, ram,dvd writer,graphics card etc.

    any ideas?

    also pros/cons of atx vs sff
    I do know everything, just not all at once. It's a virtual memory problem.

  2. #2
    Senior Trouble Maker muddyfox470's Avatar
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    could get a decent athlon system with that
    80gig hdd
    xp2500+
    ok ish mobo (asuan nvidia2 one?)
    in gfx you would have to plump for a 9200 and then save for a better one in say 6 months to keep to that budget, but it should suffice for light (old) gaming etc.
    and cheap benq tft
    u kno the rest! cd and dvd drives ~ £20 good luck

    sorry my advice is short but i have to rush!

    saw someone who got all this etc in a sff for under £500 > shop around but best to buy components from one place!

  3. #3
    john johnnr892's Avatar
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    To a certain extent it depends what he wants to use it for mainly. Have a look at this just for an estimate:
    Asus NF7-s v.2.0 £45
    xp2700 retail £77
    maxtor OEM 80gb £35
    Crucial 512 pc3200 £54
    9800 pro £140
    dvd/cdrw combo AOPEN £28
    XP OEM home cd £55

    TOTAL=434 + about £25 to ship it all which is about £460 pounds.
    You will need the fans etc but they don't cost too much, and with that board he may be able to do a bit of overlcoking as well.
    Cheiftech Matrix/xp 2600@ 2.3ghz/ Abit NF7 v2/1gb GEIL value dual channel pc3200@ 2.5-3-3-6/XFX 6600gt/80gb Western Digital boot disk/80gb maxtor for storage and games/LG cdrw/Nec 3500A

  4. #4
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    Optorite 8 speed dual dvd writer £29.99
    Western Digital 80Gb with 8mb Cache £34.70
    AMD 64 2800 754 £81.91
    Kingston 512mb DDR 400 £50.17
    DEL £ 4.99
    VAT £35.53
    Total £237.09
    From EBuyer

    AsRock Combo Z 754/939 Mobo £47.95
    Nvidia 5900XT £114.95
    VAT £ 29.30
    Total £196.70 inc carriage

    From Planetmicro
    The Asrock mobo is made by Asus as a "budget" line. Have a look at the spec its a via chipset. It has 2 sockets 754 and a 939 socket so your m8 can upgrade to 939 whenever without changing the mobo.

    http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products/K8combo.htm
    The WD drive with the 8mb cache will be nice and speedy.
    Total £433.79 leaves enough for XP and a pint.

    Good luck

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