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Upgrade Kit

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($350 Intel)
($350 Intel)
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If the machine you're upgrading still uses a BabyAT power supply, chances are it's past being upgradable (the rest of the system would be ancient), and you'll be looking at a completely new machine.
 
If the machine you're upgrading still uses a BabyAT power supply, chances are it's past being upgradable (the rest of the system would be ancient), and you'll be looking at a completely new machine.
  
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Revision as of 16:45, 16 June 2007

$250 AMD

Part Model Price
CPU AMD Sempron 3200+ AM2 46
Motherboard Asus M2N8-VMX 65
RAM 1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit 49
Hard Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Optical Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Graphics Card Onboard from motherboard -
Sound Card Onboard from motherboard -
Case Carry over from previous machine -
Power Supply 430W Coolermaster Extreme Power 49
Cooling - -
Additional - -
Total Cost - 209 + Postage

Some people are really short on cash and need to get a boost in performance (it really sucks to be on something like a Celeron 600 nowadays). These are probably the cheapest bits you can get from Staticice, I'm assuming that the buyer will carry over their hard drive and optical drive. If you wish to purchase new drives as well, you may be better off with the complete systems on the Workstation page.

Remember that freight charges from different stores will add up - this defeats the purpose of finding the cheapest price from several stores, rather than just one.

The board features onboard video and onboard everything else which removes the need for a graphics card (which is expensive and unnecessary). If you require AGP graphics support, you could purchase the MSI K9MM-V for about $10 more.

If you plan to run Windows Vista, 1GB of RAM is recommended, although if you're not using Vista and don't ever plan to, 512MB may be enough.

The new power supply is recommended because of the fact that most current day motherboards are 24pin, whilst most older power supplies are 20pin. Whilst adapters are available, it's wise to play it safe and get a brand new quality power supply anyway.

If the machine you're upgrading still uses a BabyAT power supply, chances are it's past being upgradable (the rest of the system would be ancient), and you'll be looking at a completely new machine.

$250 Intel

Part Model Price Case
CPU Intel Celeron 420 58
Asus TA-881
Motherboard Abit IP-95 64
RAM 1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit 49
Hard Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Optical Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Graphics Card Onboard from motherboard -
Sound Card Onboard from motherboard -
Case Carry over from previous machine -
Power Supply 430W Coolermaster Extreme Power 49
Cooling - -
Additional - -
Total Cost - 220 + Postage

Here is an Intel version of the upgrade rig, for those who prefer Intel's products. This motherboard has the advantage of having slots for both DDR2 and DDR1, so if you have some spare DDR RAM to use, then this is a better bet than the AMD rig (and would save you a further $50).

Any higher end upgrade rigs have been removed, except for the DDR system. This is because that the systems recommended are similar to the Workstation systems, but just without a few components, so it might be worth choosing one of the Workstation systems and removing unnecessary components (like cases).

$400 Intel, AGP/DDR1

Part Model Price
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 139
Motherboard ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA 79
RAM Carry over from previous machine -
Hard Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Optical Drive 18x Pioneer DVR-212D SATA 46
Graphics Card Carry over from previous machine -
Case Carry over from previous machine -
Power Supply 430W Coolermaster Extreme Power 49
Cooling - -
Additional - -
Total Cost - 313 + Postage

The big advantage of this board is that it can run AGP and PCIe video cards, and DDR1/DDR2 RAM, it's the ultimate upgrader board, can even support the latest quad-core CPUs. :)

The $750 Core 2 Duo system has been removed, since it was simply the Core 2 Duo system with an added video card (for those who care, it was a 7900GS).