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Upgrade Kit

Revision as of 20:14, 17 May 2007 by Deanodriver (Talk | contribs)

$250 AM2

Part Model Price
CPU AMD Sempron 3200+ AM2 47
Motherboard Gigabyte M61VME-S2 65
RAM 1GB Kingston DDR2-667 kit 60
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 - 221 + 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. The Gigabyte M61VME-S2 has been reviewed by OCAU member Draco II.

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+ 88
Motherboard Gigabyte M61VME-S2 65
RAM 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 100
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 - 341 + Postage

Many people will prefer a quicker 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).

$400 Core 2 Duo

Part Model Price
CPU Core 2 Duo E4300 150
Motherboard ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA 84
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 - 329 + 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).


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