Tony Hill says...
I was hoping to just do a pretty nice upgrade for maybe
$400, including XP. I hoped that since I have two pretty
new 7200 rpm 80-gb drives, and a 19" monitor, and all the
little stuff like keyboard, mouse, and speakers, I could get
away with that.
That'll be tight, but do-able. Especially if you can add the CD drive
and floppy (if needed) to the list of things you bring over from the
old system.
And I can do that, but not without going with the really low
end stuff. I went over to a local Wholesale Computer shop,
and they had a Biostar M7VIG-400 motherboard with a Sempron
2200 already installed for $118. Of course that's
integrated video. Then I think it was $56 for ram (512, but
I don't know about speed), $35 for a dinky case, and $95 for
XP. Well that's just a little over $300.
A bit of searching and you might be able to do a bit better.
But the minute I start looking at Intel stuff, both the
motherboards and the processors cost a lot more. I was
kinda hoping for a P4 (or is it Pentium D now?) and a
P4 is Intel's highest-end single-core processor, Pentium D is the new
dual-core processor line (dual-core = two processors on a single piece
of silicon).
separate video card, but I think that's going to be a lot
more than $300.
Sadly, yes. I think even the cheapest P4 is nearly $200 all on it's
own. However you can find some deals in the Celeron-D line. Just be
sure to avoid the old Celeron (non-D) line. They are only a few
dollars cheaper but considerably slower.
The strange thing is that someone like Dell, if I catch the
right sale, would probably sell me a complete new system,
including a drive (and maybe even a monitor?), for less than
it will cost to upgrade my system. Plus, I get 6 months of
AOL.
I think that the 6-months of AOL is sort of a punishment that goes
along with the system! :>
Seriously though, it may be an option for you to buy a Dell (though I
wouldn't worry about the monitor unless it's free and you can turn
around and sell it). They are able to get components for a MUCH lower
cost than you or I. The real sticky point with them is that their
components are often real bottom-of-the-barrel and the warranty on
their low-end systems is often non-existent. I know some of their
$300 systems only come with a 30-day warranty.
Well I obviously have a lot to learn before pulling this
trigger. I still wish I could find a Dummies guide to all
this - processors, buses, sockets, motherboards, slots, ram,
video cards, etc. I appreciate all the comments here, but I
still just don't have an organized understanding of what's
currently available. It's just been too long since I paid
attention. I looked this morning, and I bought this system
in 2000. It's been five years since I understood all the
options, and EVERYTHING has changed since then.
That's both the best and worst part about computers, everything is
always changing. Given your needs and your budget constraints, if I
were in your shoes I would probably setup a system that is something
like the following:
Intel Celeron-D 325J, socket 775 - $82
MSI 915PL Neo-V motherboard - $72
MSI NX6200TC video card - $52
Rosewill 2x256MB PC3200 DDR memory - $42
Antec SLK3000 case - $50
WinXP Home Edition OEM - $89
(all prices care of
www.newegg.com)
Total cost comes out to just shy of $387. With shipping it should
just come right around your $400 budget.
A few notes on why I would go for the above:
- Celeron-D vs. Sempron. From your previous message it seems like
video encoding/decoding is your primary reason for upgrading. This is
one of the few applications where the Celeron-D tends to do better
than the Sempron
- Case. The Antec case is definitely not the cheapest out there, but
Antec makes solid cases with good power supplies. Poor quality power
supplies are increasingly becoming a big problem in computers as
various components continue to consume more and more power. This is
the one area where the likes of Dell REALLY drop the ball, they use
absolutely terrible power supplies.
- Video card. The nVidia 6200 Turbo Cache card is one of the cheapest
PCI Express cards out there, but should be quite decent for your
needs. I'm sure that plenty of people will yell and scream about how
terrible these cards are because of their poor performance in games,
but since you've already said that gaming isn't a concern for you it
is safe to ignore these people :>. The real reason I would pick this
card is because it has all the latest and greatest features of more
high-end cards without the extra cost. It also has both a DVI out
port if you happen to have (or plan to get) a DVI-capable LCD monitor.
- Memory. I haven't a clue who "Rosewill" is, but they are a "name
brand" of a sort and they do warranty their memory for life, so it
should be a safe enough choice. Really all I'm looking for here is
the cheapest 2 x 256MB memory pack with a brand name and warranty.
Since the motherboard I selected has dual-channel memory it is best to
get your memory in matched pairs. A lot of people spend lots of extra
money on overclockable memory, memory with low timings, memory with
blinky lights or whatever, but really most of this doesn't do much of
anything. For the budget you're looking at the plain old-fashion
standard memory is your best bet. One word of warning though, be sure
to avoid the total no-name brand memory sticks, they just aren't worth
your time. In fact, I might be tempted to suggest spending an extra
$5-$10 to get a slightly more well known name brand (eg the Corsair
ValueSelect 2 x 256MB PC3200 DDR memory for $50 at Newegg).
- Motherboard. Saving the most important bit for last. Motherboards
are the device that everything else plugs into and the one that will
probably require the most thought. A few points of note about the
board I mentioned above. First, MSI is one of the big 5 motherboard
manufacturers and a company that I've had fairly good luck with in the
past, so I feel confident enough recommending their products. Second,
the i915 chipset is probably going to be your best choice for any
system with an Intel processor these days (unless you're going really
high-end, in which case the i945 is a bit better). The 'P' model
lacks integrated graphics but has a PCI-Express slot. Since we've
figured a PCI-E graphics card into the equation, this is probably a
good choice. Note that the i915PL is also a good chipset solution,
the only difference between the 'P' and the 'PL' chipset is that the
'PL' lacks support for DDR2 memory which I really wouldn't recommend
for your price range anyway (extra cost for no performance advantage).
Another alternative for motherboards is to go for an Intel i915G based
board. A bit more expensive but it comes with fairly respectable
integrated graphics as well as a PCI-Express slot for future upgrades
if/when you want an add-in card. Ohh, another thing about the i915
series of chipsets is that they can support fairly high-end
processors. This is good because it means that 1-2 years down the
road you will probably be able to pick up a worthwhile processor
upgrade for under $100. I don't normally recommend buying things with
upgrading in mind (since you usually end up being disappointed when
technology changes in unexpected ways), but when a good solution for
the task at hand offers some future upgrade possibilities it is always
a nice bonus.
The one real downside to this MSI motherboard I mentioned is that it
only has 2 DDR memory slots. I would have preferred a board with 4
DDR slots, but couldn't find any in the price range we're looking at.
Well, anyway, as I mentioned above, this is just what I would probably
be looking at if I were in your shoes. Maybe this will give you a
sort of starting point for future reading. There are a few websites
out there that have some reviews of computer hardware which might be
of interest to you. A few I know of include:
www.anandtech.com
www.extremetech.com
www.techreport.com
www.xbitlabs.com
But there are MANY others. Just keep in mind that most of these
websites are run by people who make their money from page hits and
advertising revenue, not from actually helping anyone. While they do
try to offer good advice for the most part, you should ALWAYS take
everything you read with a grain of salt. Also, keep in mind that you
will see some things on various websites that seem to contradict one
another, so it's often best to get a sort of general feel for things
rather than focusing on specifics from individual reviews and
benchmarks.
Good luck!
