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Advice on PC upgrade

  • 24-08-2006 2:30pm
    #1
    daramullally
    Closed Accounts Posts: 156 ✭✭


    Hi

    Can someone please help me with some questions about upgrading to a new motherboard and CPU? Firstly, I have very little knowledge in this area, I have no interest in the latest games etc, I generally use the PC for general internet use and some basic digital photography touch ups.

    I am thinking of upgrading my home PC to one of those new Intel Core Duo processors. I really want to keep the costs down as I have already purchased a 19” LCD screen and the missus won’t be happy with me spending much more!!

    I bought my current machine from Jaguar Computer Systems about 3 years ago. The spec is as follows:

    Large Tower Case (not sure of the details of PSU)
    Gigabyte GA7VM400M motherboard
    AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processor
    512MB DDR Ram (2100)
    Nvidia Geforce 4 MX 400 AGP graphics card

    I see Komplett have an upgrade kit for €230 for one of the slower E6300 processors and a cheap motherboard. It supports AGP card and the RAM that I already have as far as I can tell. http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=313035

    I plan to keep the existing case, power supply, RAM and graphics card for the time being to keep the costs down.

    - Is it possible to switch from AMD to Intel and still use the existing case and Power Supply?
    - The motherboard says that it supports ATA-133. Would this be backward compatible with older drives that I already have? I have a 250GB Western Digital, 80GB Maxtor and some DVD/DVD writer drives. My older motherboard support ATA 100 and 133. Are most IDE drives compatible with ATA 133? Will this be a problem for me?

    Any help / advice much appreciated.

    Cheers
    Dara


Comments

  • #2
    Ruu_Old
    Closed Accounts Posts: 36,634 ✭✭✭✭Ruu_Old


    I would get an extra schtick of RAM (512mb) or more if you can at all. As for changing from AMD to Intel using the existings stuff you have, I don't think there is going to be a problem, someone correct me if I'm wrong.
    You probably won't have any problems with your hard drives, they should all work fine anyway.


  • #3
    BadCharlie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,614 ✭✭✭BadCharlie


    Well if he does decided to go for the Komplett upgrade his old ram will work on his new computer due to this fancy motherboard. It might not run as quickly as it could if it had DDR2 but u would need to check this up to c if there is a big differince. 1gig of ram is the min you should have i think in this day and age.

    Looks like it could be a neat upgrade and if it overclocks well i might go for something like this.


  • #4
    CraggyIslander
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 640 ✭✭✭CraggyIslander


    Looks a pretty decent upgrade allright that should work without to many problems. And switching the memory is also a good idea, you'll see a big performance jump in everyday tasks by doing that. :D

    Just make sure yuo have installation disks for XP at the ready as you will need to do at least a repair installation (if not a full re-install). Windows doesn't take too kindly to switching chipsets, etc. :rolleyes:


  • #5
    daramullally
    Closed Accounts Posts: 156 ✭✭daramullally


    Hey lads

    Thanks for your help with this. I think I will give it a go. I did a bit of research and was pretty sure that it should be fine but I just wanted to check with someone who understands this better than me.

    I will increase the RAM and will probably go for DDR2. I find with 512MB that the PC is struggling especially with Photoshop.

    Thanks again,
    Dara


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