Hi guys, My pc was built in 2003 and i now want to spend some cash upgrading it a bit, not sure of compatabilities with all the new components on the market so im looking for some help and advice on what to buy, this is my current pc spec, I will be doing some video editing in the near future so i want my new upgrade to reflect this
AMD Athlon XP2500 333FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton
Asus A7N8X-X SKT A Nforce2 AGP X8 Sound USB 2.0 Motherboard
MSI MX440 8x AGP 64MB TV-Out
1Gb DDR PC3200 400MHz 184pin
You have lots of headroom for the CPU, memory, and video...but I think your money might be waisted on an old Nforce2 board...the nforce 5 series is already ancient.
I would get 2GB of ram (or 3GB is there is not space to keep what you have), a Radeon x1650 (or higher), and a new CPU. I recomend getting the parts used, as it would be waistful to buy such old components new.
Also the above upgrades will probably cause you to need a new PSU. Its worth getting a branded unit (Corsair, OCZ, etc.). The cheap powerful units under crappy names aren't worth putting into even a cheap PC.
thanx for the advice guys, given the budget i have and the age of my system, would i be better to go down the road of getting a new system, heres details of one that would fit my budget, whats the opinions of this, would i be able to use my existing IDE hard drives on this system too.
You are aware you don't have Windows in that package and yes your drive will work but you cannot use the Windows on it (its tied to your current motherboard).
I wouldn't recommend Nvidia Chipsets but as this is a budget system I'll let you off.
Its worth the extra £13 for the NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS even if its just for DVDs.
