Computer Upgrade

[I3igDmsu]

I am upgrading a friends computer and right now she has an older motherboard, 400mhz PII, & a geforce..

She wants to do a partial upgrade to speed things up a little... how would a
MB - Epox 8RDA+
CPU - Athlon XP 2100+ (Tbred B)
Mem - Crucial PC2700 512MB
Case - Antec SLK3700AMB with SmartPower 350W PSU

Anything else I should watch out for or need other than a heatsink/fan combo?
Which should I go with, I might OC a little..

 

[minendo]

What does she use the computer for? Is it really necessary to lay down the cash for those components?

 

[Green Man]

Originally posted by: I3igDmsu
I am upgrading a friends computer and right now she has an older motherboard, 400mhz PII, & a geforce..

She wants to do a partial upgrade to speed things up a little... how would a
MB - Epox 8RDA+
CPU - Athlon XP 2100+ (Tbred B)
Mem - Crucial PC2700 512MB
Case - Antec SLK3700AMB with SmartPower 350W PSU

Anything else I should watch out for or need other than a heatsink/fan combo?
Which should I go with, I might OC a little..

Like minendo said, it really all depends on what she wants to use the system for. If she's just word processing and surfing, add some RAM and defrag the HD or upgrade the HD. She'll think it's like a new system 🙂 If you are thinking of putting WinXP on it, an upgrade would be advisable. Or, if she's ripping MP3s, it'd be very noticable. If that's an original geforce, it's getting long in the tooth if she games.

 

[I3igDmsu]

ya word processing, accounting on XP, possibly some games, the computer really seems like its lagging even after a defrag.. maybe a 1700+ would be a little better

 

[Jeff7181]

XP1800 Retail (with heatsink included)...Shuttle AK32A motherboard... 1 80 mm case fan in front, and another in rear... 512 MB of PC2700 RAM (Kingmax MPMC22D-38X)... 40 GB 7200 RPM hard drive (Seagate if noise is a concern)... GeForce4 MX440 video card... ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK1600 with 300 watt power supply

$351.99 from newegg.com... that pretty much gives her a completely new computer... you can cut things out here and there to get the price down if that's too much

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
XP1800 Retail (with heatsink included)...Shuttle AK32A motherboard... 1 80 mm case fan in front, and another in rear... 512 MB of PC2700 RAM (Kingmax MPMC22D-38X)... 40 GB 7200 RPM hard drive (Seagate if noise is a concern)... GeForce4 MX440 video card... ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK1600 with 300 watt power supply

$351.99 from newegg.com... that pretty much gives her a completely new computer... you can cut things out here and there to get the price down if that's too much

I'd still say that is overkill for what she is doing. I3igDmsu, any chance you have a Fry's in your area? If not, look into putting together a budget system with an ECS K7S5A, XP1700+ (or so), 256mb-512mb RAM, Chieftec case (or less expensive case).

 

[Jeff7181]

Of course it's overkill... but you'll have a hard time spending less and still getting semi-quality componants... you could knock of $10 here and there by getting a Duron processor, but what's the point of saving $10 and getting half the performance?
The case I metnioned is $43... the motherboard is about $50, the processor is about $65... that 512 MB of RAM is only $65... it's not going to be overclocked I'm assuming, so she doesn't need high quality parts, or extensive cooling. The GeForce4 MX440 is more than likely overkill... but it's only $50, why pay $30 for something not even half as good?

If all she plans to do is what was listed here, a system like this should last her a good 4-5 years.

 

[I3igDmsu]

good call guys...
Antec SLK1600 w/ 300W PSU
ECS K7S5A MB
Crucial PC2700 512MB
Athlon XP 1800+ Retail w/ Fan

possibly the GF4..
all this comes out to $246, from newegg.. (w/o vid card)

 

[I3igDmsu]

the pc2700 will work with this MB correct?