Rich H
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Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
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Right have decided I ought to upgrade my PC again. Its a self built system, but I haven't touched it for about 2 years, and the main components are probably a bit older than that. Therefore I have completely lost touch with whats good and crap!
Rough Spec atm:
400w PSU (V Cheap as blew last cheap (£15! 1 up!)
1gb DDR RAM (2x 512 sticks)
128mb ATi Radeon 9800 All In Wonder Card (old but good imo)
AMD 2800 Processor
1x160gb IDE HDD
1x120gb IDE HDD
ASRock K7VM4 Motherboard
XP Home
CoolerMaster Aero Fan with speed adjust
Old Skool Creative Sound Blaster Sound Card (Unsure on exact model)
Basically it runs pretty well but get a bit slow sometimes - may have something to do partly with 3gb combined being free 
Am looking at upgrading Motherboard & Processor as main 2 things 1st, Also would like combined IDE and SATA drives (ie. keep the 2 exisiting ones and add a 3rd SATA one with Windows reinstalled on it) If possible, would also like more and better RAM Slots as I have filled both mine up - Whats the best value RAM these days?
Basically it runs ok but is getting a bit slow!
Any help would be greatly appreciated 
Rough budget of about £300ish for Motherboard,Processor, PSU and soundcard although the cheaper the better, if you come under budget dramatically I wont complain!!! Soundcard is lowest of priorities.
If there are any other tweeks you would suggest available within the budget, let me know!! Windows will stay as it is, as I will await Vista to come out before upgrading my O/S 
[Edited on 30-10-2006 by Rich H]
[Edited on 30-10-2006 by Rich H]
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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Motherboard: Gigabyte GA K8N51PVM9RH NV NF430, S939 = £43.64
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (OEM) = £43.48
PSU: 430W Enermax Coolergiant EG435AX-VHB = £38.72
Sound: Creative SB Audigy 4 (retail) = £37.24
RAM: 2GB (2*1GB) PC2700 CL3 = £107.60
Total: £270.68
For hard-drives, if you want fast, I'd probably suggest getting a WD Raptor (36GB) as your system/Windows drive, then having the other 2 as slaves. They aren't cheap, though, at £74-ish for a 36GB, but for that money, you get a decent 10k RPM drive. Otherwise, you could get an 80GB SATA300 drive for about £30, to keep you under the budget you specified...
Also, the above motherboard is PCi-E, so you'd need to replace that 9800 with a PCi-E graphics card, too......just noticed that! 
[Edited on 30-10-2006 by Dan B]
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Rich H
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Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
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Thanks for the suggestions Dan, but the Motherboard would ideally accept PCi and PCi express, as I cant really afford to upgrade my graphics card atm (not that I use it much anyway so it isn't really necessary imo)
Any more people able to suggest something?
Power Supply
Motherboard
Processor
RAM
Sound Card
Also, where you are getting your prices from would be handy
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Doggy
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Registered: 6th Nov 06
Location: Barnsley
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OK firstly how have you got the HDD configured, are they just dumped in or are you using the raid on the MB.
Secondly what do you mainly use it for.
When was the last time you gave it a good clean up
when was the last time you reformatted and reloaded the O/S.
Im not to hot on Corsas but a wizz with computers.
Unless your doing some serious gaming I dont see why it should be "slow". Its a similar spec to mine and im very happy with the performance.
I suspct that its probably full of junk and loads running in the background thats slowing it down.
[Edited on 06-11-2006 by Doggy]
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
Location: Armchair
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quote:
Originally posted by Doggy
OK firstly how have you got the HDD configured, are they just dumped in or are you using the raid on the MB.
Secondly what do you mainly use it for.
When was the last time you gave it a good clean up
when was the last time you reformatted and reloaded the O/S.
Im not to hot on Corsas but a wizz with computers.
Unless your doing some serious gaming I dont see why it should be "slow". Its a similar spec to mine and im very happy with the performance.
I suspct that its probably full of junk and loads running in the background thats slowing it down.
[Edited on 06-11-2006 by Doggy]
its slow cos its a 6 year old socket a cpu.. with cheap ram on an asrock board.
stop reviving old posts to talk shit you know nothing about
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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quote:
Originally posted by Russ
stop reviving old posts to talk shit you know nothing about
be fair this thread was only started on 30th October this year!
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
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quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
quote:
Originally posted by Russ
stop reviving old posts to talk shit you know nothing about
be fair this thread was only started on 30th October this year!
yeah it was the other one i was on about
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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quote:
Originally posted by Russ
yeah it was the other one i was on about
I thought so
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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Okay then, using an AGP-setup so you can keep your existing graphics card (have had to swap to Pentium, since the only AMD AGP motherboards I can get hold of are VIA-chipsets, and you want to avoid them like the plague):
Motherboard: Asus P4P800SE S478 i865PE = £46.41
CPU: Intel P4 S478 2.8GHz (Northwood) = £55.23
PSU: 430W Enermax Coolergiant EG435AX-VHB = £38.72
Sound: Creative SB Audigy 4 (retail) = £37.24
RAM: 2GB (2*1GB) PC2700 CL3 = £107.60
Total: = £285.20
Prices from Scan Computers, if you want to look at changing anything of the above......prices do change occasionally, so may differ slightly from the above.
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Doggy
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Registered: 6th Nov 06
Location: Barnsley
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[Edited on 06-11-2006 by Doggy]
its slow cos its a 6 year old socket a cpu.. with cheap ram on an asrock board.
stop reviving old posts to talk shit you know nothing about
Sorry about the other link I just clicked on it because it was at the end of this one, however as for the insults.
Im not your usual 17yrs old Im 42
Half way through a degree in computer and information technology, been on net since 1996 and had a computer since 1985 and worked on mainframe computers in the Royal Navy. Kinda got a feeling that I do know what Im talking about. 50% of computers that are discarded for being too slow are generally full of crap and set up very badly.
Unless he is doing some seriously power hungry graphics work, ie gaming or photo shop he shouldn't need much more than a quick clean-up (including some places that 99% of computer websites never mention) or O/S re-install.
the motherboard is only about 3-4 yrs old not 6, would you junk a 3 yrs old car without finding out the reason for a lack of speed.
If he wants to upgrade then I would suggest he looks at motherboards with SATAII and RAID 0. The bulk of speed gains are to be had with access times to HDD but this would push his budget to the limit with SATAII drives.
UltraATA give about 133m sataI about 150m, sataII up to 6G
raid 0 can double the Ultra and Sata1 access times.
If he really wants to improve the system I suggest he gets rid of the XP and loads Linux. Suse 10.1 is very good (and free). By not having a MS O/S he wont need memory hungry apps like antivirus etc.
XP home is a dog of an O/S and MS should be shot for releasing it.
Next?
[Edited on 07-11-2006 by Doggy]
[Edited on 07-11-2006 by Doggy]
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Cybermonkey
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Registered: 22nd Sep 02
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Doggy, you are contradicting yourself totally. How is a basic user going to get along with an O/S thats Unix based like Linux??? You really cant go wrong with XP Pro for beginners/intermediate users. if he was to go for a Linux based setup, not only is he going to have to put up with the windows 3.11 look, but also the fact that he wont be able to load most of the software available in the shops. stop bragging about your IT geek-level and face the real situation.
Yeah i agree that all Rich H needs is aq good backup and cleanup session of his disks and start afresh with a clean O/S install. As for performance, if you look after the system, your spec should tick along just fine for most of todays needs. hell, even with my spec i can run all the current games, software, Vista Ultimate running smooth as silk and its not as high as Rich's spec.
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Cybermonkey
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Registered: 22nd Sep 02
Location: Sydney, Australia
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quote:
Originally posted by Dan B
Okay then, using an AGP-setup so you can keep your existing graphics card (have had to swap to Pentium, since the only AMD AGP motherboards I can get hold of are VIA-chipsets, and you want to avoid them like the plague):
Motherboard: Asus P4P800SE S478 i865PE = £46.41
CPU: Intel P4 S478 2.8GHz (Northwood) = £55.23
PSU: 430W Enermax Coolergiant EG435AX-VHB = £38.72
Sound: Creative SB Audigy 4 (retail) = £37.24
RAM: 2GB (2*1GB) PC2700 CL3 = £107.60
Total: = £285.20
Prices from Scan Computers, if you want to look at changing anything of the above......prices do change occasionally, so may differ slightly from the above.
Asrock still make and support the K7S41GX motherboard running SiS chipset. its a good solid board with decent AGP performance. my advice is to upgrade the graphics card to something like the Nvidia 7600GS AGP version. its a pretty powerful little card for not much money at all, and will sort you out with Vista pretty well. try looking into getting 2GB RAM too, that will help no end!
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Doggy
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Registered: 6th Nov 06
Location: Barnsley
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quote:
Originally posted by Cybermonkey
Doggy, you are contradicting yourself totally. How is a basic user going to get along with an O/S thats Unix based like Linux??? You really cant go wrong with XP Pro for beginners/intermediate users. if he was to go for a Linux based setup, not only is he going to have to put up with the windows 3.11 look, but also the fact that he wont be able to load most of the software available in the shops. stop bragging about your IT geek-level and face the real situation.
Yeah i agree that all Rich H needs is aq good backup and cleanup session of his disks and start afresh with a clean O/S install. As for performance, if you look after the system, your spec should tick along just fine for most of todays needs. hell, even with my spec i can run all the current games, software, Vista Ultimate running smooth as silk and its not as high as Rich's spec.
Don't want to start an argument over O/S but Linux has come a long way and no longer looks like a poor mans 3.11.
Suse 10.1 loads like XP, looks similar to XP and operates way better, its also less memory hungry and contains far more features such as open office, however I agree with opting for XP pro if you want to stick to windows, its far superior to XP home.
Ive looked at Vista but the lack of a 3rd party anti virus fills me with dread. After the 95/98/ME/XP security fiasco I wouldn't feel safe unless I have Norton running and my credit card company has already warned me that they will not cover online fraud unless I'm running AV from their approved list.
Have MS opened vista up to 3rd party AV yet? Last time I googled the tech news sites they were still dragging their heels.
Oh and the IT geek boast was in response to a slagging off earlier in the thread
[Edited on 07-11-2006 by Doggy]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Why are OS's trying to look like xp if xp is so bad?
When would a normal user notice any differences between pro and home?
Whats wrong with no 3rd party anti virus?
Norton hasn't been anywhere near the best for years now and if your credit card say that you should change providers.
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Doggy
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Registered: 6th Nov 06
Location: Barnsley
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quote:
Originally posted by John
Why are OS's trying to look like xp if xp is so bad?
When would a normal user notice any differences between pro and home?
Whats wrong with no 3rd party anti virus?
Norton hasn't been anywhere near the best for years now and if your credit card say that you should change providers.
XP is good in so far as its very easy to use, good intuitive feel to it but, and its a big but, its so full of security holes (even now with 2G of updates) that it takes less than 15 minutes connected to the net without AV/Firewall for it to become infected and less than an hour to be hijacked, the laughable attempt at a firewall by MS is another example of them not taking security seriously.
If a car company continuously produced a car that had to have all of its security and safety features upgraded would you buy another one. I have had some issues with other peoples computers running XP home such as port blocking on the firewall and similar. Those same issues dont occur with XP pro, that list isnt exhaustive but XP home has had certain problems that havent affected pro, its back to the security issue again, the user would notice the differences but it is less secure. In the early days XP home was actually more secure than Pro, with Alerter and Messenger turned off by default but not now.
Norton has kept my system clean since the days of 3.11, Its what you trust, expecially with the amount of cash I spend online.
All credit card companies regard not having AV as failure to take proper care of your credit card details and wont recoup your losses if you dont have AV installed and get hit with a keylogger etc.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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It takes less than 15 minutes on a copy of windows xp with no service packs or patches installed.
If you are installing a disc that old now you deserve it tbh.
What's wrong with the ms firewall?
Constant updates are unfortunately a requirement with software like windows.
It is a victim of its own popularity.
I have never had any malware on my xp pro system and never use any firewall/antivirus etc.
Why do you trust norton when it isn't the best.
If I wanted an antivrus product or a firewall i'd want the best.
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Doggy
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Registered: 6th Nov 06
Location: Barnsley
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quote:
Originally posted by John
It takes less than 15 minutes on a copy of windows xp with no service packs or patches installed.
If you are installing a disc that old now you deserve it tbh.
What's wrong with the ms firewall?
Constant updates are unfortunately a requirement with software like windows.
It is a victim of its own popularity.
I have never had any malware on my xp pro system and never use any firewall/antivirus etc.
Why do you trust norton when it isn't the best.
If I wanted an antivrus product or a firewall i'd want the best.
If you really want an answer to those I will but for now Im tied up with collage work
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Cybermonkey
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Registered: 22nd Sep 02
Location: Sydney, Australia
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anything by symantec norton is a joke, it contains as much bloatware malware and resource hogging as 3rd party music search programs AVG Free now works fully with Windows Vista RC2, and runs effortlessly on XP.
HARD FACT: 95% of computer users wont be able to tell you what a Kernel is, therefore the best option to those 95% is the most easy-to-use and intuitive OS available, which is currently XP. it really isnt as bad as you claim, it just needs updating often, but is that much of a chore? not really....
Th reason MS products seem so vulnerable is because almost every computer in the world is running Microsoft software, thats a big audience for would-be internet criminals
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Rich H
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Registered: 26th Oct 05
Location: West Sussex Drives: E46 M3
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Hello have only just got round to checking back on this post!
Thank you for any suggestions made - Dan B - that spec sounds pretty good
Basically situation is that I always clean my computer up - It gets defragmented every week although it can't do it properly as it hasn't got enough memory apparently. I have minimised everything I can to stop background programmes running from start up.
I have AVG and Spybot scanning my computer on a weekly basis and nothing is usually found.
I use the PC for music storage and playing, occasional gaming, photoshopping (editing photos I've taken etc) and internet browsing - its not heavily used but is used enough that it is slow - takes about 5 mins to boot up! It also drains my PC whenever I use a java application like Limewire for eg.
I have been tempted to do a back up of all my data and start a fresh, but I've done that before and it didn't really make much difference. I also cba with all that hassle! An upgrade is ideally what I want as I am aware that my spec is now getting on a bit!
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
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why not get the AsRock Dual SATAII board, supports s939 (dying off slowly) costs under 50 quid, has AGP and PCI-E, also has expansion slot for AM2 socket (which again is not quite core2duo but dam good) - cpu get an opteron 144 or 146 or even 148. ram 2x512 (at least pref 1gb)corsair value - seasonic PSU and an OEM audigy 4
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Russ
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Registered: 14th Mar 04
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quote:
Originally posted by Dan B
Okay then, using an AGP-setup so you can keep your existing graphics card (have had to swap to Pentium, since the only AMD AGP motherboards I can get hold of are VIA-chipsets, and you want to avoid them like the plague):
Motherboard: Asus P4P800SE S478 i865PE = £46.41
CPU: Intel P4 S478 2.8GHz (Northwood) = £55.23
PSU: 430W Enermax Coolergiant EG435AX-VHB = £38.72
Sound: Creative SB Audigy 4 (retail) = £37.24
RAM: 2GB (2*1GB) PC2700 CL3 = £107.60
Total: = £285.20
Prices from Scan Computers, if you want to look at changing anything of the above......prices do change occasionally, so may differ slightly from the above.
point of p4 with 2700ram?
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