Need advice with upgrade..

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by brizzoluk, Jan 11, 2009.

  1. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    Hi
    Im looking to upgrade my motherboard and processor and its my first time doing this so if anyone can give me some advice i'd appreciate it.

    My current system is as follows..

    windows vista sp1 (32 bit)

    mobo - Foxconn 45GM

    processor - intel core 2 duo 2.2GHz

    memory - 2x 2GB DDR2 800MHz

    hard drive - 250GB

    psu - VX 450w

    Graphics card - radeon hd 3650 512MB

    not sure how much i need to spend for a decent upgrade and i dont want to break the bank but i want to spend enough to make it worthwhile

    cheers
     
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  2. -Mercury-

    -Mercury- Byte Poster

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    That's not a bad spec you have already! haha

    What is your motivation for upgrading? Performance? Gaming? Additional Motherboard features?

    You can certainly get a Motherboard with a faster FSB and better processor; how much were you thinking about spending?

    Mercury
     
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  3. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Depends on what you think is 'worthwhile'. That looks, on the surface, as a reasonable machine.

    My view is that unless I can get a very noticeable improvement in performance then upgrading is not worth the time and hassle.

    Harry.
     
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  4. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    yes it is a reasonable machine but i just want to give it a bit more oomph and originally i was just gonna upgrade the processor but then i realised my mobo isnt exactly top drawer and i would be restricted on which processor i could get, so i decided to replace both at the same time.
    I want something with a faster fsb and a more powerful processor, and yes i agree i do want a noticable improvement so i'll spend as much as i need to achieve this.
    I dont do any gaming on my machine but am quite often running mulitple applications including photo/video applications while downloading from the internet and my processor struggles to cope sometimes.
     
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  5. -Mercury-

    -Mercury- Byte Poster

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    Have a look at similar items to these then:

    Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed * £119.87ex vat
    * £137.86inc vat HERE


    Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard * £88.26ex vat
    * £101.50inc vat HERE

    or for deeper pockets:

    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz (FSB 1333MHz) Socket 775 L2 12MB Cache Retail * £217.37ex vat
    * £249.98inc vat HERE

    And if you have money to burn you could consider a Intel i7 system with DDR3 RAM. :D

    Mercury
     
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  6. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    I'd go for the C2D cpu and the Asus P5Q.

    I have that E8400 cpu and it's a great cpu.

    You may need to upgrade your RAM to go with that mobo and cpu.
     
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  7. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    Thanks for the information.
    They both look good and within my price range.
    I noticed that the E8500 is only about £20 more is there much difference as far as i can see the only difference is 0.16GHz?

    Why do you think i might have to upgrade my ram?
     
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  8. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    there's no poin't in paying an extra £20 for 0.16GHz it won't be noticeable.The E8400 is a good overclocking cpu, I have it running at 4GHz but you do overclocking at your own risk.

    I didn't mean you may have to upgrade I was meaning that your current RAM may not be compatible with the new mobo, you would need to check.
     
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  9. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    Thats what i was thinking about the 8500.
    I'll look into that mobo and hopefully my ram is compatible cus i dont want to be replacing that as well!
    Thanks.
     
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  10. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    whats the make and speed of your ram?
     
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  11. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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  12. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    looks like that part is compatible but crucial is only showing 2GB not 4GB but I guess it should be ok.
     
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  13. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    Cool thanks for that GBL.
    Another good thing is after i have done this upgrade i will have enough spare parts to build a spare pc i just need to buy a tower. :biggrin
     
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  14. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    ok i bought the mobo and processor and also a new case as my old system was a micro atx form factor which i didnt realise until i tried to put the mobo in (yes what a novice) but hey i have a nice shiny new case now!
    well i spent hours putting it all together and switched it on and.....
    had a message on my screen saying theres a problem loading the operating system, i can access the bios and everything looks ok pretty much everything is set to auto.
    well tried rebooting a few times but still no joy, the hard drive is going as i can hear it and the led is flashing but windows wont load.
    so i took the hard drive out and put it back in my old system and it came up with the same error message so i rebooted and it came on fine.
    so im thinking there must be some settings i have to change on my bios/motherboard to make it work but i have no idea what?
    any ideas? :(
     
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  15. greenbrucelee
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    what version of windows are you running and is the hard drive SATA or IDE
     
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  16. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    hey GBL im running windows vista sp1 and its a sata hard drive.
     
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  17. greenbrucelee
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    what is the error message you are getting?
     
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  18. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    JUst re-read your post. Is this hard drive out of your old computer?

    If so then thats your problem, you can't swap a hard drive with an OS and other motherboard drivers into a new system.
     
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  19. brizzoluk

    brizzoluk Kilobyte Poster

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    oh right then how would i get around that?
    what about if i put the old hard drive in and re-install windows with the new motherboard would that work?
    I have backed up everything from that hard drive so it wouldnt be a problem to do a clean install.
     
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  20. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    You could try completly wiping the drive, deleting the partition and starting from scatch but I am not 100% sure that will work as I have never done it.

    EDIT: I suppose it will work if you completly wipe install windows then install the motherboard drivers, this is the reason windows wont work as that drive was linked to your old mobo.
     
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