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Upgrade Kit

Revision as of 19:06, 5 November 2007 by Deanodriver (Talk | contribs)

Essentially all of these upgrade kits are going to be fairly basic, in the budget of $200-250.

The first two machines are for people who want a basic cheap upgrade, the third is intended for someone who has DDR1 and an AGP video card lying around they'd wish to retain, although with DDR2 at current prices, it could be argued it's not worthwhile.

Basic AMD

Part Model Price
CPU AMD Sempron 3200+ AM2 38
Motherboard Gigabyte M61SME-S2 58
RAM 1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit 42
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 - 187 + Postage

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 similar.

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. Of course, RAM is so cheap, it's silly to skimp.

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.

Basic Intel

Part Model Price
CPU Intel Celeron 420 44
Motherboard Asus P5S-MX-SE 58
RAM 1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit 42
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 - 195 + Postage

Here is an Intel version of the upgrade rig, for those who prefer Intel's products. If you want to use some spare DDR1 RAM you have lying around, the Abit IP-95 is about $10 more expensive.

Upgrader Intel, AGP/DDR1

Part Model Price
CPU Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140 75
Motherboard ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA 73
RAM Carry over from previous machine -
Hard Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Optical Drive Carry over from previous machine -
Graphics Card Carry over from previous machine -
Case Carry over from previous machine -
Power Supply 430W Coolermaster Extreme Power 49
Cooling - -
Additional - -
Total Cost - 197 + 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. :)


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