[civiccrazy]

I am wanting to build an upgraded PC from what I have now. Right now I have one I built 5 or 6 years ago, it is getting really slow so just wanted some advice on what to upgrade to.

Maybe spend $400-$500 or less would be even better. I have windows XP pro now, would like to get either windows 7 or 8 whichever would be better. The PC would mainly be used for internet browsing, maybe watching some movies, and downloading. Any help is greatly appreciated on what to get.

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Interesting, I was in the same situation and my needs were the same as yours. I built a system last Nov with an Intel Celeron G540 CPU, Asrock H61M-DGS motherboard, 2x2 gig Gskill memory, Corsair CX430 PSU and a nice case for less than $200. I used my DVD-RW and WD Green 500 gig HDD out of my old AMD X2 3800 system that I built in 2009. Also I used my Vista x64 OS as well.

This system turned out very well for browsing the net, playing movies and videos as well as light 3D games.

[Brazened]

Interesting, I was in the same situation and my needs were the same as yours. I built a system last Nov with an Intel Celeron G540 CPU, Asrock H61M-DGS motherboard, 2x2 gig Gskill memory, Corsair CX430 PSU and a nice case for less than $200. I used my DVD-RW and WD Green 500 gig HDD out of my old AMD X2 3800 system that I built in 2009. Also I used my Vista x64 OS as well.

This system turned out very well for browsing the net, playing movies and videos as well as light 3D games.

[Veeg]

I am wanting to build an upgraded PC from what I have now. Right now I have one I built 5 or 6 years ago, it is getting really slow so just wanted some advice on what to upgrade to.

Maybe spend $400-$500 or less would be even better. I have windows XP pro now, would like to get either windows 7 or 8 whichever would be better. The PC would mainly be used for internet browsing, maybe watching some movies, and downloading. Any help is greatly appreciated on what to get.

You may be able to stay around 500 bucks....so what hardware are you wanting to upgrade? Also IMHO i would stick with windows 7..

[civiccrazy]

I guess I am wanting to upgrade the MOBO, CPU, and Ram, My HDD should be fine. I have a cooler master elite case, can I still use it? or should I get a different one? and windows 7

[Brazened]

Your case should be fine. What wattage is your PSU? You could go for an Intel i3 system which is very capable to do what you need and more. I upgraded my Celeron to an i3-2105 system (later it was a whole new system again ) and it was much better. I'm suggesting it to keep cost down unless you want an AMD system instead which could be cheaper but I'm not familiar with them.

I think an Intel system is better. This is what I chose for motherboard, CPU and memory. They're the best bang for the bucks after a lot of researches.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128579

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819115078

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145345

My i3-2105 was discontinued so I listed the i3-2100. I'm using Win 7 x64 so I chose 8 gigs for memory otherwise you can get 4 gigs instead. This motherboard is great and solid.

Edited by Brazened, 27 May 2013 - 02:36 PM.

[civiccrazy]

All of that will work together and fit into my case?

This is what I have right now. My last build...



1 x GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard

1 x CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply


1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80557E6550


1 x Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST980815A 80GB 5400 RPM RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard ...


1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive



1 x Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory ...

[Brazened]

That's a good build considering 5 or 6 years ago.

[iammykyl]

Gday.
What monitor and graphics are you using?

[civiccrazy]

I have an Acer P236H monitor and an Nvidia GeForce 9600 Gt graphics card.

[iammykyl]

Thanks.
On which drive do you have the OS installed?
Are you happy with the performance of the GPU?

[civiccrazy]

It is installed on the 250GB seagate. I also have 2 150GB harddrive in the computer for movies and music. Also, a 1TB for storage.

[iammykyl]

Thanks for the update.
As Brazened observed, "it is not a bad build", so looking to see if an upgrade is worth the $.
If you are not getting crashes and freezing but just think the rig is slow, consider some tweaking and maybe a a RAM upgrade.

Here is a site with a couple of charts. They are only general comparisons but give a good indication of what to expect.
> http://www.game-deba...o-e6550-2-33ghz
> http://www.game-deba...rce-9600-gt-1gb

If you did go for a AMD upgrade using your case and other hardware, > http://pcpartpicker....ykyl/saved/1EV7


Tweak.
1. A clean install of the OS and upgrade RAM, 4GB if 32 bit or 8GB if 64 bit.
2. Windows 7 Retail, (able then to use it on another build) 8GB RAM,

[civiccrazy]

I have thought about doing a clean install, but I didn't know how much that would help. I thinks that's what I will do.

I actually have 2 mobo's. Both gigabyte, GA-EP45-UD3L and a GA-P35-DS3L
I have the UD3L in there now, because it had 6 sata connectors. But which one is the better one?

[civiccrazy]

Just got an email from newegg, with windows 7 for $79.99

[civiccrazy]

Would it be worth upgrading what I have right now in the long run? Or just go ahead and upgrade now?