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Is This A Good Deal (Major PC Upgrade)
Hi all,
I have a PII 350 192 SDRAM now, and things are starting to slow with newer apps and games demanding more, i need a new soundcard coz this ones had it, the guy in a computer shop said for �170, he would upgrade the whole lot! changing the motherboard, case, fan/power transformer, and cpu! to a AMD Duron 1000 Hrtz! Ive been told that equates to a P4 1400 Hrtz, now is this a good deal or am i being ripped off? i dont no about ram at this point, i take it new motherboards can run both SD and DDR ram? coz i have 192 in at the mo, which is minor issues to upgrade ram tho! i need a faster pc as new games and newer apps i cant play no more, this motherboard comes with a sound card and a graphics card solded onto it! so what u think?
�170 =
American Dollers = $244
Candian Dollers = �386
Euro = E277
Any other curreny u need, goto [[ LINK REMOVED ]]
Coz if this was a good deal, it would kinda be a whole new pc for �170, coz a monitor, mouse, keyboard, ROM & Writer would be changed over along with hardrive, so opions?
-coup!
depends on if you want super good sound or video etc...
stuff that comes on the motherboard (built in sound card, etc) is generally average but thats all it is.. average. if you want something good, youll need to get the seperate card.
especially if you will be using it for gaming purposes or other related things.
1000 mhz really is fine.. dont listen to the people who will respond to this thread and talk about how you need the brand new athlon xp 1800 chip or something.. its excessive and odds are you wont be able to tell the difference with anything you do anyways. 1000 is just fine.
i wouldn't say its a steal, but its not a ripoff... its about fair price, i'd do it....
the Duron line is like the intel Celeron - not as nice and fancy as the flagship line, but still AMD is better than intel... and like sothis said, usually the "built in" stuff is crappy at best.... granted its still probably better than you have now, but you'll want to upgrade at one point, especially since you do a lot of gaming.
You'll want to go out and buy more RAM at one point though... you need at least 250 MB in this day and age...
i built an entire computer for around 200 pounds..... its not that expensive nowadays.
Cheers
-ABT-
Hey... This, IMO, is not a good deal.. go to www.pricewatch.com and look up full systems. You can find XP 2000+ systems with 256-512MB PC2100 and good video, HDD, SOund, etc.. basically what you will not get is the *really* top of the line shit. Itll be about a month or so outdated, but for such little money itll be way better than updating. Also, as far as replacing MOBO and updating individual pieces, i find it much more convinient and efficient to actually upgrade the whole thing. After that you can sell or donate or do hatever with yer old system and not have old parts that some guy will prolly turn around and sell anyways.
If you know how to build, use pricewatch to find parts, and if you can sellt for maybe 1-2 month old stuff you could really get a GREAT system for very little money...
Heres the bottom line, if u wanna do some searching and resarch, go to www.pricewatch.com.. if not then just go with this deal, its not terrible I guess, but then again, you can get way better for the same amount of money.
Also, this is just advice, so if you think this is a bunch of shit then dont listen to it. 
-Marc
well im not an addictive gamer, i do like gaming, just say in 2 weeks time there is a game relased that looks really good and i wana buy it, in these times there's a good chance my current pc specs wont be able to cope, and with apps like Adobe Photoshop 7, i need a bit more power to run them! Yeah i agree with the bog-standard sound and video, my current sound card is a little tiny one (about 3cm x 3cm) solered onto my board, and its been at it for about 4 years and starting to die, so decent sound and video would be a PCI plug in card job, but im not worried about that, sound would be cheep enough anyway, i can get SoundBlaster 128 for �25 (use link above to convert)!
Is the AMD Duron equate to the Pentium 4 1400 Hrtz? could someone say a little more on the AMD process that guy wants to sell me plz?
Im going to shop around, have a look at some other comp shops and see what they would offer in the same kinda thing, see what other deals are out there, hope u guys can help point in the right direction 
coup
Its a good idea smellsexcellent, thanks, but a whole new unit (im not clever enough to custom build, i no enough to get buy tho) would still be around �100-�200 more than an upgrade, and i would effectivly be getting a new pc with this upgrade, coz monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, cd-rom, cd-writer are all transferable, so there's massive savings compaired to a new pc. only things with pc that really go out of date, are cpu's, memory and video. if i got a cheep one from pricewatch, i'd still have to buy decent sound and video cards, so personally i think it would be a more expensive solution as im paying for things which are already perfectly fine, in this case im paying for what i need! not meaning to shoot u down or out tho! and i need someone to fit it, i can hardly get cheeper parts and ask them to fit it 
thanks anyway tho! if im wrong, say "look, coup ur a twat, this is what i ment" 
umm whoever told you that Duron is faster than P4..then uhh goto another store. That is a joke. AMD Athlon is more equal to a p4. Duron isnt for games i heard and there is like no L2 cache. If you want gaming dont get builtin soundcard ..video..all that.
dvd i wouldnt use my built'in anyway, well i wouldnt take them off but id plug in some better ones obviously! sound isnt really an issue, is the supplied sound card is really rubbish, �25 for SoundBlaster 128 is more than enough, sound doesnt really increase with demand of games anyway! i would need a new video card reguardless if i had an upgrade or new one!
(could someone PLEASE explain all this Catche'ing stuff? i hear it all the time on the net and u just said it above, havent a clue about it! im gona get another quote from another shop tomorrow, so i'll post their details tomoz nite, see whos got the best deals around )
coup - this site searches hte prices of major uk online computer stores and shows u the cheepest
http://www.pcindex.co.uk/
look there for prices of chips etc to see if its a good price
Jon
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Coup Is the AMD Duron equate to the Pentium 4 1400 Hrtz? could someone say a little more on the AMD process that guy wants to sell me plz? coup |
so why is this guy trying to sell me a processer 33% weaker before i even buy it? grrr!!! well i'll ask him what other processers he could do it for, and im going to get one possiably two more quotes from pc shops today, see what they have to offer!
As im prob upgrading, what processer would you recommend? Something to keep with the times and not be out of date in a while, so it has to be in the either P4 series or equivlent to that! coz instead of being told by salesman what i can have, i want to tell them what i want, and nothing thats obviously going to spire the cost out of the window! lol!
| quote: |
| Originally posted by SmellsExcellent Hey... This, IMO, is not a good deal.. go to www.pricewatch.com and look up full systems. You can find XP 2000+ systems with 256-512MB PC2100 and good video, HDD, SOund, etc.. basically what you will not get is the *really* top of the line shit. Itll be about a month or so outdated, but for such little money itll be way better than updating. Also, as far as replacing MOBO and updating individual pieces, i find it much more convinient and efficient to actually upgrade the whole thing. After that you can sell or donate or do hatever with yer old system and not have old parts that some guy will prolly turn around and sell anyways. If you know how to build, use pricewatch to find parts, and if you can sellt for maybe 1-2 month old stuff you could really get a GREAT system for very little money... Heres the bottom line, if u wanna do some searching and resarch, go to www.pricewatch.com.. if not then just go with this deal, its not terrible I guess, but then again, you can get way better for the same amount of money. Also, this is just advice, so if you think this is a bunch of shit then dont listen to it. -Marc |
good point raised about the mobo, also what specs of sound and graphics. well im going shopping today, so ill get the technical specs from them today
i just got back from another comp shop, and this is what he had to offer:
AMD 1.7 Ghz XP �120
Elite Motherboard �75(all i no is that its made by Elite)
Fan / Powertransformer �10
Case �35
Total �250
The mother board i could have either empty, or full. Basically the empty one would have no modem, no graphics but a sound chip, as i have a usb cable modem, i wouldnt need one. Or i could have the mobo with a onboard graphics,sound and modem and some network stuff he said, both for the same price.
Or he said i could have instead of the XP a Duron 1 Ghz for �55, so take off the difference between the two processers and it comes to �185, which is basically the same quote and the same price as the other shop!
Im still gona get other offers, but thats all for now. Apparntly the Athalon processer isnt readerly available anymore, as the Duron has been upgraded to cope with that and the new one is the XP.
Cheers, coup.
What it sounds like to me, and what alot of computer shops do, is use a PcChips mobo (LMR 810) its about �50 "all in one" onboard sound video and really poo modem. The graphics chip on these boards is adequate for windows but not really games, and the sound sucks. This, and similar "all in one" mobo's have very few expansion slots (pci and agp) pci is used for modem sound etc. agp is graphics. The LMR 810 has 2 pci slots only, and an agp, so u cant really upgrade much. Personally I'd avoid and wait until ya can avoid something decent, or get the components and d.i.y.
Oh, and I havent seen a good review of this kind of board anywhere.
Just read ur last post Coup, check out prices on www.ebuyer.com they're prob quite a bit cheaper than ur local store, and their service is very good as well, theres a few other online suppliers that are good, or pop in ur local newsagent and get a copy of "Micro Mart", lotsa good deals in there as well
The Elite K7S5A is �43 on ebuyer and will take sdr(prob wot ur current ram is) and ddr if u wanna upgrade ram as well, its a decent board
the one thing i will be really adament on is the fact that you need to buy a good, reliable mainboard. There are a TON of really stable and expandable boards out there for really cheap. And like skattrd said, you WANT a board that can take DDR, its just worth it and will boost prerformance more than most CPU upgrades. Expandability is also an issue. As far as most are concerned, onboard sound, video, and modems are crap. You need at least 4 or 5 PCI slots, a 4x AGP, DDR slots... yeah. Just make sure you know whats on the msainboard your getting because if this guy sells you a POS board youll prolly end up gettin another one in the future when you run out of space or get tired of the shitty onboard features.
honestly, replacing a mainboard and things like that is really not a huge task. number your cords so you dont mess up orders and such, unplug everything, remove the mobo, put your processor in the new board, put on the heatsink (youll need a new heatsink for a faster processor, i think you said tha already...,) attach the board, re-plug everything in and power up. the only "difficult" part is the bios setup, which, if you know what you are doing, is really no problem, and i'm sure you have friends who know bios. maybe you do.
cheers
-Marc
| quote: |
| Originally posted by skattrd The Elite K7S5A is �43 on ebuyer and will take sdr(prob wot ur current ram is) and ddr if u wanna upgrade ram as well, its a decent board |
umm L2 cache is ram for the processor so the more ram the faster the process has information ready to be processed, its like having someone helping you when you're doing your work, they hand u the papers so youdont have to reachall the way to get it.A good mother board is abit.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by SmellsExcellent honestly, replacing a mainboard and things like that is really not a huge task. number your cords so you dont mess up orders and such, unplug everything, remove the mobo, put your processor in the new board, put on the heatsink (youll need a new heatsink for a faster processor, i think you said tha already...,) attach the board, re-plug everything in and power up. the only "difficult" part is the bios setup, which, if you know what you are doing, is really no problem, and i'm sure you have friends who know bios. maybe you do. |
Well, If anyone lives in New England, This is where I go for all of my computer needs, They have the best prices around excluding if I find it on e-bay... CLick this link.... Cogan Fairs
there's nothing wrong with Duron and Celeron processors. thats a big bunch of BS rumors flyin around b/c everyone read PC magazine. i have 3 desktops.... 2 run AMD athlons, the other runs a duron, and my laptop (which i use 95% of the time) is a compaq running a celeron... (i wanted the AMD but it cost too much more...)
I run Photoshop, Frontpage, VideoWave (video editor), WHILE burning a CD with easy cd creator... and i watch DVD's on this thing.
a celeron can do pretty much anything you need to throw at it... and the duron is slightly better than the celeron.
so what i'm saying is, if you find an athlon or pentium for the same price, great, go for it... but you don't have to pay more... you don't always have to have the newest and the best of everything. sometimes what you need will do.
Cheers
-ABT-
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ABTsportsline there's nothing wrong with Duron and Celeron processors. thats a big bunch of BS rumors flyin around b/c everyone read PC magazine. i have 3 desktops.... 2 run AMD athlons, the other runs a duron, and my laptop (which i use 95% of the time) is a compaq running a celeron... (i wanted the AMD but it cost too much more...) I run Photoshop, Frontpage, VideoWave (video editor), WHILE burning a CD with easy cd creator... and i watch DVD's on this thing. a celeron can do pretty much anything you need to throw at it... and the duron is slightly better than the celeron. so what i'm saying is, if you find an athlon or pentium for the same price, great, go for it... but you don't have to pay more... you don't always have to have the newest and the best of everything. sometimes what you need will do. Cheers -ABT- |
LoL @ you not reading that mag....
of course i don't prefer celeron to athlon... for starters thats like comparing civics to mercedes! secondly, as i had stated i didn't want to spend an extra 400 bucks to get the AMD when the celeron would suit my purposes just fine. sure, if i had the extra money lying around i would, but i prefer to buy vinyls
on your current wages would you buy a mercedes if you lived a mile from your work? probably not... if anything, you'd buy a civic.
-ABT-
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ABTsportsline on your current wages would you buy a mercedes if you lived a mile from your work? probably not... if anything, you'd buy a civic. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ABTsportsline there's nothing wrong with Duron and Celeron processors. thats a big bunch of BS rumors flyin around b/c everyone read PC magazine. i have 3 desktops.... 2 run AMD athlons, the other runs a duron, and my laptop (which i use 95% of the time) is a compaq running a celeron... (i wanted the AMD but it cost too much more...) I run Photoshop, Frontpage, VideoWave (video editor), WHILE burning a CD with easy cd creator... and i watch DVD's on this thing. a celeron can do pretty much anything you need to throw at it... and the duron is slightly better than the celeron. so what i'm saying is, if you find an athlon or pentium for the same price, great, go for it... but you don't have to pay more... you don't always have to have the newest and the best of everything. sometimes what you need will do. Cheers -ABT- |
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