Upgrade Kit
$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.
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).