PC - To upgrade or replace...

[euan]

OK my three year old Dell is clunking. I've made various tweaks to it along the way, it has a decent sound card now, DVD etc, but I'm just about out of disc space and it needs more memory as iTunes just about kills it now. So...

Do I bin it, nicking the good parts, and flogging what's left as a simple home use PC (I'd be lucky to get fifty quid I suspect) and replace it with something shiny and new

or...

Sit out another year, wait till the quads come down a wee bit more and Vista SP1 is out, and replace then, in the meantime buying a bigger drive and some memory? Memory and a disk will set me back about 100-150 quid, (30 for 512MB, 50-100 on the disk depending on size).

What's the general opinion?

[FergusM]

Last time I tried the upgrade route as my hard disc was full etc... I got a new hard disc and a few bits...and about 6 months later the disc dies and took out loads of my files :(

I ended up at that point binning the pc and getting a nice new shinny Dell..which 3 years on has been faultless.

I presonally love the new shiny idea... suppose it depends on your budget. Memory / new hard drive is cheap... new pc is definietly not so cheap, not for a fancy one at least.

[Craig]

Doing this sort of thing for a living leaves me with only 1 answer - REPLACE. :D :D

yes, you could spend about £100 on a new hard disc and also some memory, but the rest of your components are still over 3 years old, so what if the motherboard or processor gives up? There is a reason why most large businesses have a 3 year retention period for PC hardware... ;)

PC's are VERY cheap compared to what they used to be, so it shouldn't be as expensive as you may think.. :)

Best of luck

[euan]

Doing this sort of thing for a living leaves me with only 1 answer - REPLACE. :D :D

yes, you could spend about £100 on a new hard disc and also some memory, but the rest of your components are still over 3 years old, so what if the motherboard or processor gives up? There is a reason why most large businesses have a 3 year retention period for PC hardware... ;)

PC's are VERY cheap compared to what they used to be, so it shouldn't be as expensive as you may think.. :)

Best of luck

Yeah, I know...I work for IBM ;) I'm trying to convince myself that I can get away with a quick fix :D

Anyone seen any good deals recently then?

[Craig]

Dell have a good deal on a PC here... http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&kc=D4XENT03&l=en&oc=D095S5A&rbc=D095S5A&s=dhs&~ck=expbuy3

not sure what your needs are, but this one comes with a 22" flat panel monitor :)

Apologies, didn't know you were "in the business", don't want to teach my granny to suck eggs if you know what I mean.. :o :D

[The Dogfather]

Buy a mac, <snigger>

[euan]

Dell have a good deal on a PC here... http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&kc=D4XENT03&l=en&oc=D095S5A&rbc=D095S5A&s=dhs&~ck=expbuy3 (http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&kc=D4XENT03&l=en&oc=D095S5A&rbc=D095S5A&s=dhs&%7Eck=expbuy3)

not sure what your needs are, but this one comes with a 22" flat panel monitor :)

Apologies, didn't know you were "in the business", don't want to teach my granny to suck eggs if you know what I mean.. :o :D

It's good - I was after advice from what others thought!

That's a pretty decent deal - 22" monitor! If I get a new one I'll go Core Duo, 2GB RAM and huge disc, all of which that has. It's mainly for storing stuff with some photo manipulation stuff, so decent (but not mad) graphics card, big disc (with the ability to run more than one as I might RAID the next one) and 2 optical drives (a combo built in as I've got a decent DVD burner already).

[Gismo]

From a home PC builder i would also recommend renew :) cheapest all round solution

[euan]

From a home PC builder i would also recommend renew :) cheapest all round solution

BS, Can I ask your advice then? as I've not looked into this for years, what motherboard/CPU combo offers good value and decent performance? I'd looked at the Intel Dual Core, mainly as it's a superb chip, but the AMD 6000+ seems to get decent reviews for the cost of it. Quad's are a bit pricey just yet...

Any advice on cases and CPUs? The one I've got will need to go as well as I'm planning on either flogging it or building a Linux NAS out of it.

I want to have some upgrade options, with the option of multiple drives in it (both optical and HDD), firewire and a ton of USB, however budgets are tight (wedding!) so need to balance all that with cost.

Any tips?

Looking to spend

[Gismo]

I get all my stuff from Microdirect (http://www.microdirect.co.uk)
I only ever use AMD as i always found Intel chips too costly for the home market.
An AMD 5200 is way more than you'll need, only consider the ultimate chips if you will be into heavy gaming
I try to stick to branded names like Asus for the motherboard, this always needs the power supply with the extra 12v connector, so, when you buy a case you'll need to confirm if it has this, or, if you'll have to replace the supply altogether.
Browse the site, you'll know what will suit you best :)

[Gismo]

This is a great Motherboard (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(14050)Asus-M2NSLI-Deluxe-AM2-Skt940-nForce-570SLI.aspx)
Base your system around this and you won't go wrong, depends on your budget i guess

[euan]

This is a great Motherboard (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/%2814050%29Asus-M2NSLI-Deluxe-AM2-Skt940-nForce-570SLI.aspx)
Base your system around this and you won't go wrong, depends on your budget i guess

Funnily enough, that's the one I was looking at on the site :D

[euan]

How's this look?

memory - 47 (tempted to buy 4GB at this price!!!) http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(14773)Geil-Value-DDR2-20GB-PC6400-Dual-Channel.aspx

board - 68.09 http://www.microdirect.co.uk/%2814050%29Asus-M2NSLI-Deluxe-AM2-Skt940-nForce-570SLI.aspx

proc - 92.81 http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(16299)AMD-CPU-AM2-Athlon-64-Dual-Core-5600-Retail.aspx

drives - 41.71 (I'm planning on running multiples in a RAID config) http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(11009)250GB-Western-Digital-Caviar-SE16-SATA-II.aspx

I'll possibly replace the video at some point but only when I upgrade the monitor to DVI. I've already got a Soundblaster X-Fi, Lite-on DVD burner and a Philips CD burner so they can all stay.

Thing I'm struggling with is a case and PSU - never knew there were so many options!!! Any suggestions? And how does all the above look?

[Gismo]

Yep, all looks good, remember you'll need PCI - Express video card (s)

Here's a nice easy Case (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(14182)Antler-Supercase-SK115SB-Black-Silver-midi.aspx)
You'll have to phone to ask if the power supply has the 4 pin 12 volt cable, it's a must for the motherboard, if you don't connect it up it'll damage the board, hmm, i wonder how i know that then :rolleyes:

If no suitable power supply try this one (http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(12394)650W-Silent-ATX-PSU-SATA-cable-12cm-fan-24-pin.aspx)
Check before you buy it though, just in case it's not suitable :)