£100 Upgrade

[atifds9]

Hi all just wanted to pick your brains I’m looking at spending about 100 pounds to upgrade my current system which is as you'll see quite old.

PII 400 , 440bx motherboard

I's ideally like to spend not more then 100 pounds to upgrade the motherboard and cpu i must stress this would simply be a stopgap measure until i save up enough to get the system of my choice (ideally a p4 with all the bits) but seen as that will be a while away yet i figured i may as well c if this upgrade can be done. And also because my system is having trouble handling my broadband connection kazaa and playing divx files all at once the cpu is constantly maxed out at 100% usage.

At this price range i understand I’ll be looking at the AMD athlon xp 2000+ which I’ve just checked on komplett is about £46 and then I’m left to get the motherboard and heatsink and fan !!!

i've seen the following :
Asus A7N8X-X mainboard for Socket A
- nForce2 400/MCP,ATX,ATA133,USB2.0,LAN

£58,81

also

EPoX EP-8RDAE mainboard for Socket A DDR
- nForce2 400/MCP, ATA133, ATX
£47.38

The EPox looks to have all features of the Asus and falls in my budget better leaving change for the heatsink any thoughts on epox.

All are the nForce2 chipset which as i understand from reading on here is the best to go for i'll be basically using all my exisiting equipment aureal soundcard, dlink 10/100 nic, samsung 160gb HD, ati radeon 7200 64mb ddr vivo, 384mb ram sdram i belive 133 or 166 can't remember will check. I'll just be swapping out the motherboard and chip any thought and suggestions on the mobo greatly appreciated.

and finally what heatsink?? preferably solid and quiet (and also not brake the back) not going to be overclocking this machine as i will do that with new p4 system and this will become the family pc for the parents and brothers to use.

[BUFF]

You will need DDR RAM for nForce2 - it can't use your existing.

So, mobo, CPU & HSF + RAM for £100 - I don't think so.

[atifds9]

ohh no, ohh well the idea was nice

[atifds9]

wait surly there must be some way what about the via chipsets will i have any luck with them, i really had my heart set on this what if i increase budget to 150?? i might be able to strech it, can i still work it then.

Atif

[streetster]

lets just say :
£50 athlonxp 2000+ cpu
£60 nforce2 motherboard
£10 generic heatsink/fan
£35 256mb pc3200 (only a few quid more than pc2700) memory

thats £155... dont know if you are wanting a 3d graphics card, or if you are going to keep the (presumably pci ?) graphics card which you are currently using.

i take it your current keyboard/mouse are ps/2 rather than AT and serial, and that the psu you are using is an ATX rather than AT (other wise this is added costs... you probably only have a 200w psu, which isnt really ideal for running a new system, you would be wanting 300w or more....) the costs increase

mark


edit : just had a look on ebuyer :

AMD XP1800+ Thoroughbred Retail Boxed Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year Warranty £36.99

MSI K7N2 Delta-L SKT A 8xAGP DDR400 Nforce2 6ch Sound LAN USB 2.0 Motherboard £46.38

Twinmos (on Twinmos) 256mb Ddr400 Pc3200 Cl2.5 Memory £27.51

excluding VAT and shipping... including VAT and 3-day shipping it comes to £135 which isnt too bad

[atifds9]

That sounds great mate actually graphics is agp 4x, system is a dell dimension so i'm assuming the psu is fairly decent quality and ok although it is about 5 years old mouse is usb, keyboard is a microsoft internet keyboard pro with usb and ps/2 with two usb ports built in.

what would you recommend on the motherboard side the epox from komplett or the msi u found and also i was checking the spec on the epox and it says

"3 DDR SDRAM banks for maximum 3 GB memory DDR333/400; " does this not mean it supports sdram as well as ddr ram or am i just being a muppet??

thanks for the info guys keep it coming it might be on the upgrade on a shoe string

edit:

just had a look on dabs and found the following

512MB 184Pin DIMM PC2100 DDR RAM Non-Parity CL2.5

£50 which seems good and would keep me in the £150 range any good??

(p.s for those who followd my dabs thread i will not be buying this off them just a guide )

[Austin]

There are several factors here as already said. I think it's safe to say your PSU will be ATX (so the right connection) but it may be under-powered for even a slow SktA system, just be prepared if you need somethig better (£25 should suffice). The case may lack adequate ventilation, fan mounts or be on the small side, again be prepared you MIGHT have to upgrade it. What's your current RAM, PC133? If so you could find an old 266FSB mobo sporting either SDR or SDR+DDR, KT266 or SiS730/740 most likely. So long as you're happy running around AthlonXP2000+ type speeds you shoud be fine although most CPUs are now 0.13mu which can be a problem on old mobos. Perhaps you can find a good deal 2nd hand?

It may be easier to simply upgrade the mobo (no need for nForce2 if you aren't o/c'ing), RAM (PC2100 fine), CPU (even a Duron is a BIG step up) and finally HSF. As said you may need a case and/or PSU upgrade too. If gaming is any priority factor in something beffier than Rad7200. So I'd say look to ...

MOBO:
SiS746FX or KT400 if you're happy with 333FSB.
SiS748, KT600 or nForce2 if you want 400FSB.

CPU:
Duron 1.3ghz (minimum, still very fast)
Duron 1.6-1.8ghz or XP1800+ to 2000+.

HSF:
Coolermaster CP5-8JD1F-0L (£7ish)
Volcano 9 or Coolermaster Xdream (£10ish)
Volcano 11/12 (£15ish, you get what you pay for)

RAM:
256MB PC2100 (fine if you're happy at 266FSB)
256MB PC2700-3200 (probably costs very little more and happy to run as PC2100)

You can always start a little lower and add to it a little later.

EDIT: Being on a budget and given the likely uses of the PC it would make most sense to get 256MB now, maybe add more later if needs arise (prices will almost certainly fall). Also look at BioStar/DabsV nForce2 mobos for £37 at www.dabs.com ... outstanding value. Rad7200 is below a GF2MX, given the much faster GF4MX (yuk), Rad9000-9200 or GF-FX5200 come in around £30-40 it would make sense to think of that too, at least at some point in the future. BTW DDR is AKA 'DDR SDRAM'. SDRAM (SDR) is 168pin IIRC, 184pin is for DDR but you'll only find SDR on the very old 266FSB mobos.

[streetster]

theres never much to say after a post from austin as he will cover everything i would just add that with system i 'made' from ebuyer, with the addition of another 256mb of ram, and a decent (£100+) graphics card it would be a nice gaming machine, possibly saving you money in the future, but its your money, and your choice, and going for austins duron/kt400/pc2100 will be the cheaper option but at the obvious sacrifice of performance

mark

[digitalis]

Sdram motherboard - Jetway V266B - normally about £35 - ish, if you can find one. Basic, but it works.

S.

[da_ging]

errrrrrm being a dell machine wont it be a custom motherboard and therefore u wont get a normal atx board in the case?

this would be a good 1 ,would take sdram untill u could afford ddr

V770 Modding Case Silver/Green ATX 350W With Built in Side Window

PC Chips Syntax SKT A AGP Via KT266 DDR/SDR ATA 133 Sound/LAN/USB 2.0 upto a 2.6+ CPU Retail Box

Coolermaster CP5-8JD1F-0L Upto XP3200+ Silent Skt A Heatsink & Fan

AMD DURON 1.6 266FSB CPU - OEM

total £95.55 including delivery costs from Ebuyer

nice and cheap ,guarenteed stability and not bad performance (a heck of a lot quicker than ur existing setup)

l8r on u could change board for an nforce 2 and overclock the cpu to 2.2gig+

[Lexeus]

I have a Radeon 9000 Pro 64mb going for 35inc if you are interested ?
But that aside, I would go with something more like da_ging's suggestion if you want to buy new. But look out on the for sale sections of the forums, on here, and on kustoms and others. There are always bargains to be had, and with ocmputer stuff it either works or doesn't, so if its second hand and it works, you are just getting a price reduction really, no need to buy new.

I know this is a bit over the £150 even, but its more than you want so you could sell some stuff off if you wanted, but just to give you an idea of the deals you can find:
http://www.findit.co.uk/pc/hardware/903880.htm
i know buyer has to collect so it isn't ideal, but there are things like that being sold off all the time

ohh: just found somethig which may actualy be ideal:
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/forums/sh...threadid=11932
The mobo and the 512 RAM
Probably get the two for £75, if not £70, then all you need is a second hand 2000XP for £35 and a £20 -£25 case from ebuyer with a 350W PSU, or existing case with an ebuyer 400W PSU for £11, and thats all you need.
That would give you a decent mobo to upgrade from and some Ram which apparently runs at PC-2700, is quite realistic, which will last you for as long as you want, no need to go overboard if you plan to build your dream system later.

[atifds9]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys it's amazing what you can get for quite little money these days the solutions all sound ideal as i don't want to go overboard when a few months down the line i'll be building my system and giving this to the family, got a lot to think about.

At the minute i quite like marks idea as it would give me a very decent mobo with a little bit of future proofing and a good xp cpu and the memory will be nice and fast and more then enough for the use my family will make of it, which to be honest will be a bit of internet surfing and word processing. It would also allow me to use my existing case and psu(hopefully else a scan job good old CTX austin) which would be better and i think i should be set then. And if needs be i can upgrade the cpu and ram later if their needs increase.

Thaks again for all the info and suggestions


Atif

p.s can anyone confirm wether the dell case will take a atx mobo or is it a custum in there it's a dell dimension xps r400 case i thought it was a atx board in there looks normal sized to me?

[SilentDeath]

i just got the bits for my dads new comp, his old one similar spec to yours. i got him a duron 900 for £8, a k7s5a, (sis 735 - most stable amd board available) for £20, also got another one of these in my other comp, this can use either ddr or sdr ram so im going to use the ram from old pc then i will give it a stick of pc3200 ddr which i dont need form this pc. ive already got the other bits like psu heatsink and drives from old pcs

[bledd]

mate, cases are SOO cheap on ebuyer, like £11 upwards!

[Agent]

Originally posted by cky2k
mate, cases are SOO cheap on ebuyer, like £11 upwards!

Just dont use the PSU's

[Rythmic]

Be very careful if you're going to use the old PSU - a fair few dells of that era have what looks like an ATX PSU - and the plug looks the same, but the wiring is different, and could muck up your new mobo.

Full ATX boards should fit fine in that case