advice on possible purchase

pickarooney

I'm in two minds about whether to upgrade my current system (mobo, ram, processor, gfx card) or buy a new one. Looking around, I'd say it would be as cheap, and less risky (i've developed a morbid fear of inserting motherboards after frying one before) to get a new one, and it would be no harm having a second one (or I could sell it off cheap/give it to someone).
I'm a bit clueless about the relative merits of different graphics cards, types of RAM and the differences between high-end and low-end processors (Celeron vs Pentium, Athlon vs Sempron etc.)

GFX:
I don't do any gaming, beyond the odd bit of tux racer, so I don't need a mad-fast gfx card. I do however use the tv-out connection a lot, and play DVDs from the PC, so it does need to be a reasonable card. It also needs to have linux support.

RAM:
How much does one really need? As I won't be video editing of playing Doom 3, is more than 512Mb a waste? Is there a real difference between no-brand and named brands?

I'm thinking about this one with an upgraded gfx card and more RAM.

Has anyone any caveats or other opinions?

Cheers,
P

CyberGhost

GFX card: do you do any 3d work? 3dmax? maya? no? then you don't really need a powerful video card, Nvidia has good linux support!

RAM: 512 is usually enough! although I have moved up to 1GB as my minimum, if you are building a fast pc, then brand names are usually better because they have lower latency and warrenty is better! but if not, then, I don't see any difference!

RE*AC*TOR

Linux support - get an nvidia card - they have nice linux drivers.
Go for something cheap in the FX range 5200 or 5600 price permitting. I wouldn't touch a celeron. If you can get one of the old Athlon XPs, they are/were about the best value for money (2500+ partiularily good). 512mb ram should be fine for what you will do, but RAM is fairly cheap at the mo - so a gig mightent be a bad investment.

CyberGhost

I'm thinking about this one with an upgraded gfx card and more RAM.
P

erm.... no!

Creamy Goodness

this was a great help when i was building a pc for a mate.

pickarooney

CyberGhost wrote:

erm.... no!

Heh, any particular reasons why not?

Point taken on the nVidia front, I've had enough hassle with my current ATI and am not convinced things have improved since. I should be able to pick up a decent 64-128 MB card with TV-out for about 50 quid. If anyone has a more specific recommendation in that price range, I'm all ears. I usually buy these kind of parts (ones that are less easy to destroy during installation) at fairs so even one that normally costs 70-80 euros is a goer.

What does RAM usually go for these days, and is there any advantage in having two sticks of 256 as opposed to 1 of 512 or vice versa? I'm leaning towards one stick of 512 in case I want to expand later.
Latency - that's somethign to do with reaction times, right?

CyberGhost

it's better t0 get xp2500+ like Reactor told you

soundcard sucks!
psu needs to be changed! only 300watts!
speakers suck!
40gb is nothing today!

on your place i'd start from scratch!

last question: yes!

pickarooney

I'm not looking to buy a super-powered machine, just upgrade a couple of parts for as cheap as possible. I have 120GB of hard drives, a good speaker set and a DVD/CDRW-combo drive.
I understand that the bits and bobs of the machine are fairly low-grade, but I'm trying to find out what exactly is wrong with, for example, a 2200 processor, the sound card and most of all the PSU. What difference does the PSU make and why would they put an inadequate one into the PC (besides the fact it's a bit cheaper for them)?
I'll probably not buy before the end of November, but in the meantime I'm trying to get a grasp of the essential differences between components so I get good value for money.
I appreciate everyone's input, if you can just add a reason for saying such and such a thing sucks or something else is better.

Jammer

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=109688&cks=PRL - 258
+
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=123286&cks=PRL - 62
+
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118867&cks=PRL - 76

then buy a cheapo case from PC World/Maplins