Upgrade Kit

February 2007 NOTE: I have removed all Socket 939 systems from the list, since 939 is being phased out, and motherboards are increasingly hard to find.

$250 AM2

Part	Model	Price
CPU	AMD Sempron 3000+ AM2	40
Motherboard	Gigabyte M61VME-S2	65
RAM	1GB A-DATA DDR2-667	73
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	-	227 + 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 MSY, I'm assuming that the buyer will carry over their hard drive and optical drive. If not, an 80GB one can be had for around 60 bucks. If the buyer wishes to purchase a new optical drive, a DVD-RW drive is under $50 now.

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). Such an upgrade of course is targeted only at e.g. students doing work or mums and dads who just want a no frills machine. The board also allows upgrading to faster AM2 CPUs, and it is rumoured that AM3 CPUs will also run in AM2 boards, giving some future proofing. If you require AGP graphics support, you could purchase the MSI M9MM-V for about the same price.

It may be tempting to go for a Socket 754 setup if you've got some spare DDR1 RAM lying around, but it is considered obsolete nowadays. Some may wish to get either a DVD-RW, or a faster CPU (like an Athlon 64 3000+). Now if you plan to run Windows Vista, 1GB of RAM is strongly recommended, although if you're not using Vista and don't 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.

$400 AM2

Part	Model	Price
CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+	89
Motherboard	Asus M2NPV-MX	88
RAM	1GB A-DATA DDR2-667	73
Hard Drive	Carry over from previous machine	-
Optical Drive	16x Pioneer DVR-111D	39
Graphics Card	Carry over from previous machine/Onboard	-
Case	Carry over from previous machine	-
Power Supply	430W Coolermaster Extreme Power	49
Cooling	-	-
Additional	-	-
Total Cost	-	338 + Postage

Many people will prefer a quicker AMD system, so here's a faster one. However, unlike the Core 2 Duo listed below, there's no boards which support both AGP and PCIe video cards, or DDR1/DDR2 RAM, so you're stuck with PCIe or onboard video (which the Intel setup lacks). It's more an advanced version of the $250 upgrade than an AMD version of the $500 one, though.

$400 Core 2 Duo

Part	Model	Price
CPU	Core 2 Duo E4300	155
Motherboard	ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA	85
RAM	Carry over from previous machine	-
Hard Drive	Carry over from previous machine	-
Optical Drive	16x Pioneer DVR-111D	39
Graphics Card	Carry over from previous machine	-
Case	Carry over from previous machine	-
Power Supply	430W Coolermaster Extreme Power	49
Cooling	-	-
Additional	-	-
Total Cost	-	328 + 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).