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Thread ID: 124025	2012-04-01 12:49:00	Computer - Upgrade or New?	Raewyn (946)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1267855	2012-04-01 12:49:00	Good Evening, I was wondering if the computer guru's in this forum might be able to give me some guidance? I have a couple of computers with Windows XP and am wanting to upgrade to Windows 7. Is this possible? Following are the spec's: COMPUTER ONE - mainly used for games, emails, photos, youtube, skype. Model: Acer Aspire SA85 Processor: 3.20 gigahertz Intel Celeron Motherboard: Acer E661FXM Memory: 2 GB Display: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X (Display adapter) HDD: 80 GB Western Digital Games are mainly from BigFish games and computer struggles. COMPUTER TWO - mainly used for emails, microsoft office, web browsing, etc. Model: Packard Bell Processor: 3.05 gigahertz Intel Celeron D Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5VD2-VM 1.XX Memory: 2 GB Display: VIA Chrome9 HC 1GP (Display adapter) HDD: 160 GB I am also looking at buying a new computer tower/box for the BigFish games. Can anyone recommend one under $500.00? Thank you for your assistance :-)	Raewyn (946)
1267856	2012-04-01 14:10:00	Hmm, personally, I wouldnt put Win 7 on either of those. While Win 7 would run on them, they would be struggling a lot more than they are already. Being Celerons, XP is about as good as you're going to get to run on them. You may be able to get a bit more out of them by optimizing some of the software running on them - maybe disable some unnecessary startup programmes or programmes running in the background that arent needed, and also look at what AV software you are running, there may be a more resource-friendly product available depending on that you are currently using. I cant recommend any box under $500, but if you see one and post the specs of it, I'll be happy to give some advice on if it is value for money or not. Cheers	Iantech (16386)
1267857	2012-04-01 20:45:00	New. Too many parts to upgrade, normally I would say upgrade. COMPUTER ONE - mainly used for games, emails, photos, youtube, skype. Model: Acer Aspire SA85 Processor: 3.20 gigahertz Intel Celeron Motherboard: Acer E661FXM Memory: 2 GB Display: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X (Display adapter) HDD: 80 GB Western Digital Acer - ick. CPU - lame, no Celerons for games. And the GPU is lame too - ok the games aren't high end, but still, medium is better. Plus you'd need PSU as well, so just get something else. DON'T buy a brand PC again, they always have crap in them. Something like this perhaps... www.playtech.co.nz	pctek (84)
1267858	2012-04-01 21:13:00	With a budget of only $500 you aren't going to get much. Cheap computers are generally cheap for a reason, low spec's and poor quality parts sometimes. Would you be building it yourself or getting someone to build it for you ?	wainuitech (129)
1267859	2012-04-01 21:50:00	Thank you for all your replies. So I am guessing it will work out to be more expensive to upgrade than buying new? Iantech - I reformatted COMPUTER ONE and uninstalled a lot of the bundled software that came with it. Also ran process explorer and autorun to disable unnecessary programmes and swapped Nortons with MSSE. It's running a little faster and wondered if just upgrading the video card would help with the games? Otherwise I found these upgrade boxes from a place I have bought from before but am open to purchasing anywhere. www.eoneonline.co.nz Upgrade Box 2MKM $448.00 (excl GST) Upgrade Box 2MKT $569.00 (excl GST) pctek - you're right about brand PC's. I was surprised how much I needed to uninstall after a clean reformat. The computer you suggested might be a little out of my league. I was thinking of buying a basic computer that can be upgraded over time when necessary. wainuitech - I won't be building it so am hoping it arrives already built. :-)	Raewyn (946)
1267860	2012-04-01 22:19:00	Thank you for all your replies. So I am guessing it will work out to be more expensive to upgrade than buying new? Taking your current PCs. About the only thing you could salvage is the mouse/keyboard and the screen which the quoted Playtech system does not come a with a screen and with economies of scale with a "setup" purchase it may be cheaper than buying all those parts separately. You would have to upgrade every part b/c the Acer case might be a specific style for Acer and may not fit well for off the shelf motherboards, you need a new motherboard, cpu, video card, new ram, new power supply given all the hefty parts now. You could salvage the dvd drive and the hard drive I guess ... The other way you said - it might work, had a look at Big Games and the specs are not that high. I would think you need to spend maybe $300 on the video card though.	Nomad (952)
1267861	2012-04-01 22:23:00	Those upgrade boxes would work, but the HD graphics on the cheaper one is fairly weak (although still a lot better than your old MX440) so the more expensive box with a faster CPU and a graphics card would be much better for games. Another option is to chose the parts and have it assembled by one of the online stores. AMD fusion might be an Idea, it has a weaker CPU with better integrated graphics so it tends to perform better in games for low price builds. www.pp.co.nz for eg. I don't see included windows 7 listed on any of these, which will add about $150 for the OEM version, also bear in mind they will have cheap low power PSU's which limits how much upgrading you can do in future. In can work out cheaper long term to buy with a better PSU to begin with if you think you will want better hardware (plus the PSU is one component everyone will tell you not to skimp on)	dugimodo (138)
1267862	2012-04-01 22:42:00	While you may get some video performance gain from upgrading your video card, its not really going to help as the processor is just not capible of much more than it is doing now. So I really think you are wasting your $$$ putting a new graphics card in it. Second spec box (2MKT) looks better than the first, it also has a dedicated graphics card by the looks of it which is good. My concern is no Operating System is mentioned, find out if they come with an OS or not (I suspect they dont at that price), or do you have an OS to install on it?	Iantech (16386)
1267863	2012-04-01 22:55:00	Just a bit of Advice: looking at the upgrade boxes you linked - The first one, for $448 +gst, ($515.20) wouldn't touch it. It has a Intel G41 ICH7 mATX LGA775 motherboard, being 775 its OLD technology, in fact its very hard to get new boards with socket 775. If you got that, you may find that if the motherboard plays up, they cant get replacements,and even though it will have a warranty, it may not matter. Then of course there is the OS, thats not included in the price, so looking at the same site add in a further $170.20 for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit	wainuitech (129)
1267864	2012-04-01 22:58:00	Nomad and dugimodo - thank you for your replies. I am open to the option of choosing parts and having it assembled for me at an online store but that is where I get a little stuck; choosing the parts. What do you all think of the $650 Gaming Machine from Tom's Hardware and how much would that be to build in NZ? www.tomshardware.com CPU Intel Core i3-2120 CPU Cooler Intel Boxed Heatsink/Fan Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V RAM Team Elite 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 TED34096M1333C9DC Graphics XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 1 GB Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500 GB SATA 6Gb/s Case Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Power Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630 W Optical LG 22x DVD Burner SATA Model GH22NS90B-OEM	Raewyn (946)
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