Old computer upgrade

Fendrix

Fendrix

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
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Hey everyone - posting on behalf of my brother here and I wanted to yield to your collective expertise.

My brother has a computer I built for him in 2005-6ish and his hard drive failed (everything is backed up, fortunately). In any case, he needs a new hard drive (SSD preferred) and would like a video card to support dual monitors for his wife's work. I haven't kept up long enough to know if the new motherboards are still PCI-E x16 slots or not, and I also don't know if his Corsair 520HX power supply will still be good.

He'd like to hold off as much as he can but if it's just essential that he has to upgrade everything, he'd be okay with that.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
- Web browsing and light applications. Nothing intensive at all.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
- I don't want to say "anything" but basically willing to buy whatever is needed at the lowest price point possible. Whether that's $300, $800, or whatever.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
- Atlanta, GA. However, he has a lot of Amazon credit that he'd like to use for this purchase.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
- 128GB SSD hard drive, 2x 17-22" monitors (resolution doesn't matter), video card that supports dual monitors on an old ASUS M2N-E motherboard, new DVD drive, and a new copy of Windows and Office.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
- If I recall correctly, he has an ASUS M2N-E motherboard, AMD 5200+ (maybe 5600+) socket AM2 processor, 4GB RAM, Corsair 520HX power supply, and I think it was a 7600GT video card.

6) Will you be overclocking?
- No.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
- He has a 17" monitor now that he'd like to replace.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
- Hopefully by the end of the week.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
- None of these features are needed except for some USB ports.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
- No, he will also need Windows. I'm not sure if his computer can handle or needs 64bit, but he'd like to upgrade to 8.1 and Office.
 
Please give us a max budget, including the Amazon credit.

I'm leaning towards a complete build, but I'd like to know whether or not that's even possible.

I also have a few other questions:

- What "light applications" are you using?

- How much (in gigabytes) did you have to back up?

- Which specific case are you reusing?
 
128GB SSD is not large enough. You need to keep some of that empty. Go for 250GB which is the sweet spot right now.
 
GeForce 750 Ti ($150)

Low power consumption. Decent horsepower (definitely a step up from a 7600). No extraneous connectors needed besides the PCI-E connector.

Crucial 256GB SSD ($110)

However, you don't want to use the SSD as raw storage. You want to use it for running programs and the like.

So I'd suggest a secondary hard drive.

Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive ($55)


Also, if you're in the market for new monitors, you could definitely do worse than these.

Acer H6 Series 23" IPS Panel ($140 each). If you're looking to do dual monitor, these would be a decent way to do it.
 
Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you guys - work has been busy.

Including the Amazon credit, the max budget is $800.

A 250GB HD would be PLENTY.

He is reusing an AntecP180 case. I just wanted to make sure the power supply.

Thank you for your replies. Chas, I will look into all of those things for him.
 
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