Cheap upgrade for parents PC

[Strategy]

hey all, looking to add a small upgrade to my parents PC to give it a little more boost. Its starting to show its age and is slowing down a bit.

I was planning on a core 2 duo along with a faster HDD, any other recommendations on the cheap?

Current specs:
Intel Pentium D 930 @ 3.00 ghz
2 gigs of ram (not sure what), win 7

 

[gwarren007]

$348 Emachine at walmart
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Acer-ET1352-01/14575771

 

[bastage]

the walmart link is a better buy then getting a c2d at this point. If you want to put something togeather cheap to replace the mobo, cpu & memory look in the direction of AM3. Should be cheaper then 775 & current generation with ddr3 rather then buying outdated parts that are starting to become harder to find.

 

[Dangman]

What motherboard do you have?
Are you willing to buy used hardware?

 

[Strategy]

Its a pre built HP from a few years ago, not sure what mobo it has.

That eMachines looks decent, but from what I remember eMachines was shit.

I work for HP and get a corporate discount, so maybe I will check out their prebuilt stuff if upgrading their current PC would not be worth it.

 

[horrorshow]

Dell Online Outlet.

(I also worked for HP and even with employee discounts, you can't beat some of the Dell workstation deals)

 

[bastage]

Its a pre built HP from a few years ago, not sure what mobo it has.

That eMachines looks decent, but from what I remember eMachines was shit.

I work for HP and get a corporate discount, so maybe I will check out their prebuilt stuff if upgrading their current PC would not be worth it.

E machines are probably about the same quality as any other prebuilt at this point. But yea if you get a corp discount (they have a big campus local to me) then definitely see what you can get. I know several people who do get a corp discount with HP & have bragged about the deals they have gotten.