Updating an old PC

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Caddish

Weaksauce
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Oct 1, 2009
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A friend of mine has this PC :
Mobo : ASUSTeK P5LD2 Rev 1.xx MB-1234567890
CPU : Intel Pentium 4 531 3.00Ghz
Gpu : NVIDIA GeForce 6800
Ram : 4 x 512MB PC2-4300
HD : WDC WD1600JS-00MHB0
OS : win xp 32bit

He does web browsing, music and basic video. He want to improve responsiveness for as cheap as possible. I need a little help on decided whats best to upgrade.
-CPU upgrade doomed since I think his board is not compatible with C2D
-Ram upgrade will it help ?
-GPU upgrade won't help
- HD upgrade : I was thinking fast/cheap 7200rpm (storage size not important) or maybe
intel 40GB SSD or maybe a similar sized indilinx SSD

+ a good clean install and it should make a noticeable difference ?

Any other advice
 
The CPU is the biggest bottleneck there. Other than a fresh OS install working wonders for speed, not much else I would do w/ the old hardware. I'd honestly recommend a cheap new system instead, he'll get much better performance. Since you didn't say that he games at all, it would be cheap to build too.
 
NUMBER1: you didn't mention a budget.

Hard to salvage that system.
Trust me from experience, don't make this your headache. You will forever be supporting it. Help him find a pre-built where he can get warranty support.

Dell Outlet, 1 year warranty. Find some dimension with a Core2 Duo or greater and 2GB+
Don't get Vista unless it has a dedicated graphics card and 3GB+

E.G. Lighting fast system for his purposes.
Studio - 540
(System Identifier: 04MVVZTX)

* Studio 540 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8300 (4MB L2, 2.5GHz, 1333FSB)
* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium

System Price : $499.00

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home PremiumMemory
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)Hard Disk Drive
750 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)Certified Refurbished
Certified RefurbishedHardware Upgrade
USB Optical two button mouse
USB KeyboardSoftware Upgrade
Windows Live
Microsoft Works 9.0
64BIT Operating System DVDBase
Studio 540 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8300 (4MB L2, 2.5GHz, 1333FSB)Media Bay
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Click to expand...
 
Grab a 930 pentium D (used-no more than $35) and a fresh 500 F3 samsung HD
 
Standpoint said:
The CPU is the biggest bottleneck there. Other than a fresh OS install working wonders for speed, not much else I would do w/ the old hardware. I'd honestly recommend a cheap new system instead, he'll get much better performance. Since you didn't say that he games at all, it would be cheap to build too.
Click to expand...

I was hoping the hard-drive was the bottle neck and yes he does not game or do CPU intensive task at all

Menelmarar said:
NUMBER1: you didn't mention a budget.

Hard to salvage that system.
Trust me from experience, don't make this your headache. You will forever be supporting it. Help him find a pre-built where he can get warranty support.

Dell Outlet, 1 year warranty. Find some dimension with a Core2 Duo or greater and 2GB+
Don't get Vista unless it has a dedicated graphics card and 3GB+

E.G. Lighting fast system for his purposes.
Click to expand...

In 10year I have had only PC componant failed (WD 160GB HD) replaced directly by WD
What experience have you had that made you regret this decision

The budget was more around 200$. If I swap for the cheapest board/cpu/ram intel or amd and keep the gpu/case/os that should be possible for about 200-250$ and still improve responsiveness by a lot
 
A dual core (930) is faster than a single core of the same family. Combinded with a fast hd (F3-500gb) makes a nice combo. Check out the AMD I posted above.
 
gwarren007 said:
My suggested changes are $90-


or get this combo
435 / gigabyte $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.334872

F3 500gb $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181
Click to expand...

Interesting I'll consider it. Is there still driver support for windows XP

gwarren007 said:
A dual core (930) is faster than a single core of the same family. Combinded with a fast hd (F3-500gb) makes a nice combo. Check out the AMD I posted above.
Click to expand...
Ya dual core should make a difference versus HT
 
gwarren007 said:
My suggested changes are $90-


or get this combo
435 / gigabyte $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.334872

F3 500gb $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181
Click to expand...

Agreed with this, you won't get a better performance upgrade than this for less money. The Athlon 64 at 2.9 GHz runs circles around the P4, and the triple core means the machine's performance will improve as software improves. And since you have a Prescott core, the TDP for that triple-core is about the same, so you don't have to upgrade your powersupply :)

The F3 is one of the fastest hard drives you can buy today, so this upgrade also fixes the disk throughput problem.

EDIT: you'll have to test this yourself, but it's possible that the onboard video on that motherboard is faster than a 6800 vanilla. I that's the case, then you get yet-another upgrade!
 
Last edited:
defaultluser said:
Agreed with this, you won't get a better performance upgrade than this for less money. The Athlon 64 at 2.9 GHz runs circles around the P4, and the triple core means the machine's performance will improve as software improves. And since you have a Prescott core, the TDP for that triple-core is about the same, so you don't have to upgrade your powersupply :)

The F3 is one of the fastest hard drives you can buy today, so this upgrade also fixes the disk throughput problem.

EDIT: you'll have to test this yourself, but it's possible that the onboard video on that motherboard is faster than a 6800 vanilla. I that's the case, then you get yet-another upgrade!
Click to expand...
Lol when onboard video is faster than discret GPU that means he have a crappy/old GPU :p
 
If responsiveness is the issue I would think that a faster hard drive would help. Also make sure it is running in AHCI mode and not some type of legacy/ide mode. I can say from experience that the samsung 500GB drives mentioned above are pretty fast, and should be better than that 160.

I would also second the suggestion to get a pentium D, good improvement over the pentium 4.

I think the best bang for the buck though will be a fresh install of windows if thats the original install from when that hardware was new.
 
Does your friend live near a Fry's or Microcenter? If MC, you can get a PhenomII 550BE + 785G Asus board for $140. If Fry's, he can get the 550BE for $70. You can try to unlock the 2 disabled cores on the Ph2 X2, which would really help with video/photo editing and multi-tasking.
 
enginurd said:
Does your friend live near a Fry's or Microcenter? If MC, you can get a PhenomII 550BE + 785G Asus board for $140. If Fry's, he can get the 550BE for $70. You can try to unlock the 2 disabled cores on the Ph2 X2, which would really help with video/photo editing and multi-tasking.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately we live in Canada which means awfull shipping rate, taxe and border fee if we buy from US. Our only option really are newegg.ca and NCIX
 
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