Do i upgrade my pc or buy a new one?

rjbell

rjbell

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Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz
2.8gb memory
NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i

Is it just cheaper to buy a new tower than replacing processors and ram etc..?

Would just increasing the ram improve things significantly?

Anyone recommend a good value tower, for around the £300 mark?
 
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I recently built a new tower for just less than £400 I think, it did include an SSD though and a Windows licence and compared to my old one it flies

All the bits from Ebuyer, I'll dig out the list when I'm at home if you're interested. The only thing I salvaged from my old one was the DVD drive and 8gb of RAM (current one has 16gb).
 
Yeah cheers ok. If i stick with my hardrive. Would windows and all my software run with a new processor?
 
look at your mother board specs online and see if it will take a faster processor, it might need a firmware upgrade.
Also look at Ram as well, what OS are your running as a 32bit OS will only use up to 4GB anyway.
 
bung in 8 gb ram and a ssd and upgrade your op sys to 64 bit if it isnt already and put "Windows 10 it.
 
praxis said:
bung in 8 gb ram and a ssd and upgrade your op sys to 64 bit if it isnt already and put "Windows 10 it.
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yep that's what I would do and also see if you can ramp that old processor up.
although lots of uber cheap W7 64bit out there for pennies
 
Posting up your motherboard model will help,so we can see what CPUs it can handle.What O/S are you using?.
What will you need the PC for mainly ?.
 
Generally speaking, more ram, an SSD, and a new windows installation often speeds things up massively.
 
SSDs are just so unbelievable and so reasonably priced as well as @omens says I defo agree.
 
Looking at that spec your motherboard will be just as old. Id say time for a new one.
 
it is an old processor but worth checking its specs still.
I am running a mobo from about 5 years ago with a Pentium 940 phenom II or summat like that and its blimmin brisk
 
If you build a new pc round the old hard drive you'll have to spend some time getting windows to accept/upgrade all the drivers and you 'might' have to reactivate windows.
You haven't said what you want to use it for, you'll not need blistering fast graphics unless you're a gamer in which case the gfx card might be just fine.
If you buy a new mobo you'll almost certainly need new ram as well as a new processor.
 
Thanks guys. I'm not that clued up on computers. How do i check what motherboard i have? I'm running 32bit. Can i upgrade that to 64bit without losing my programs?

its a medion ms-7366.

If i can just update a few things i'd be happier with that. I'm no gamer so do not need something crazy fast.
 
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rjbell said:
Thanks guys. I'm not that clued up on computers. How do i check what motherboard i have? I'm running 32bit. Can i upgrade that to 64bit without losing my programs?
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Get used to the fact that you're going to end up with a new install. It's actually a good thing.
 
I facepalmed as soon as I saw "medion". That PC is from 2008. The max you'll get ram is 4GB. For SSD, you won't get the best benefit of SSD but you'll still see a massive improvement.

For me, it'd all depend on what I was using the PC for. Some internet surfing and a bit of work, I'd upgrade. For newer applications or software, or for modern games, get a new system.
 
neil_g said:
no, you cannot upgrade to a 64 bit OS from a 32 bit OS. you will need to clean install.

p.s - computers section ;)
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just to add, If you do a clean install of Win7 on a new PC using your existing licence, you can install the 64 bit version, then you can do an upgrade to Win10.

The other path is to do an upgrade to 32 bit Win10 from where you can get a licence key to do a clean install of 64bit Win10.

Whichever way round you'll end up with a clean install of Win10.
 
According to a quick google here is the mainboard

http://www.amazon.co.uk/computers/dp/B006HIMH78

It will take a Pentium 4 Processor used off ebay for £10 plus a bit for some cooler compound and a sink.
Add a 120gb SSD for £50 and get a cheapo licence for W7 and you could rebuild a fair bit quicker for £90.

forget 64x if just for surf and email it would improve a lot.
 
or take it to your local cheapo computer shop and let them do the above for an extra £30

edit

just an afterthought you say it has 2.8gb in it?
That could mean it has 2gb and a 1gb stick which could be replaced with another 2gb.
The missing 200mb is probably reserved for the internal graphics card, do you have 2x monitors attached?

anyhoo if you popped 2x2gbs in it and popped W7 64bit you would get an extra 1gb of memory available.
 
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Mr Bump said:
According to a quick google here is the mainboard

http://www.amazon.co.uk/computers/dp/B006HIMH78

It will take a Pentium 4 Processor used off ebay for £10 plus a bit for some cooler compound and a sink.
Add a 120gb SSD for £50 and get a cheapo licence for W7 and you could rebuild a fair bit quicker for £90.

forget 64x if just for surf and email it would improve a lot.
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the manual says Core2 Quad on the 775 socket type. the q9550 was always a good chip, I ran one before an i7. (it can also be clocked if your board allows)

a modern processor will still blow that out the water though. a 2nd gen i5 quad is 2000 passmarks better.

W7 on less than 3gb ram is borderline usable imo.

e: board manual here btw - http://www.manualslib.com/manual/293496/Msi-Ms-7366.html?page=10#manual
 
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@neil_g yes there are many things fatster I was just offering up dirt cheap upgrade options to think about that would still meet his needs with a bit in reserve.
After all in most PC's how much of the processor actually spends its life running hard?
 
board only takes a max of 4gb on 2 slots too. save your money OP and get a new system.

bump - subjective. assuming photography usage (because Talk Photography) Lightroom loves CPU and fast disk. batch processes will tax the CPU (one reason i ditched the 775-Q9550 as the CPU was maxed on batch tasks of 5Dmk2 RAW).
 
Mr Bump said:
or take it to your local cheapo computer shop and let them do the above for an extra £30

edit

just an afterthought you say it has 2.8gb in it?
That could mean it has 2gb and a 1gb stick which could be replaced with another 2gb.
The missing 200mb is probably reserved for the internal graphics card, do you have 2x monitors attached?

anyhoo if you popped 2x2gbs in it and popped W7 64bit you would get an extra 1gb of memory available.
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Would this make much difference?
 
agreed but OP asked for options and which is cheaper and would put money back in pocket.
that machine could be upgraded for very little and be a spare PC for instance and performance is subjective I agree but he would get a good lift with a Pentium 4 processor and SSD for a lot less than other options.
 
have to agree to disagree there. upgrading would be flushing money that could be put towards a new machine.

board does not support P4 by the way - "Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium, Celeron". There were socket 775 P4 but unless specifically mentioned in the manual I would avoid in favour of a C2Q.

there is also potential for wearing the SSD (reducing life) from repeated swap file usage on a low spec machine.
 
neil_g said:
have to agree to disagree there. upgrading would be flushing money that could be put towards a new machine.
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Agreed, why I also recommended a new machine. £350-420 for a brand new Chillblast with warranty and a real performance upgrade vs a slight bump for £100 and relying on other old parts that could fail, fans, MB, HDD, PSU etc etc.

Sometimes it just makes sense to buy new instead of applying a fix. I can see youre offering options though Mr. Bump which is very useful as its going to be down to the OP ultimately.
 
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Not heard of Chillblast i'll check them out.
 
rjbell said:
Not heard of Chillblast i'll check them out.
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See post 11 & 12 for a couple decent budget machines. Ive only heard good things, as said though, I can highly recommend CCL as per my last post and that i5 looks very well specd for the money.
 
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