Work Machines
Budget: <500CADReally not a whole lot of options in this ballpark! Do note that the motherboard is AGP based and so wont be really upgradable anymore. If this is a problem the
Foxconn 761GXK8MB-RS [SiS761GX] ($80.92) will provide a PCI-Express based upgrade path however the SiS chipset isnt exactly spectacular by any means. If the budget can be stretched by a few dollars, the
MSI K8NGM2-L [C51G-6100] ($84.99) will offer no compromise.
Budget: <600CADA huge jump from the above, this box features a harddrive upgrade as well as an upgrade to a dualcore configuration.
Budget: <700CADHere we've uupgraded the processor as well as stepped up the harddrive significantly in both size and performance.
Budget: <800CADTaking a minor penalty to the harddrive, we can make a switch to the superior Athlon64 X2 system here.
Budget: <900CADWith an extra $100 we can upgrade the CPU and bring the HDD back to the 250GB mark
Budget: <1000CADHere we've upgraded the box to 2GB
Budget: <1100CADHere we move to an extremely solid motherboard and discrete video solution and do a minor upgrade on the memory
Budget: <1200CADThe extra $100 goes towards doubling the harddrive capacity here.
Budget: <1300CADHere we add an extra 100GB as well as upgrade to an extremely solid PSU.
Budget: <1400CADAlthough I would have preferred the Blue Orb II or Big Typhoon, IMO, the Golden Orb II is more than a fair trade for the extra 150GB which is ready for a RAID5 configuration for business servers needing data integrity.
Bigger Budget?
After $1400 it's a big jump before we get something seriously balanced and significantly improved. This is because, any substantial upgrades involve: adding another 2GB, adding a dedciated RAID5 controller and/or switching to a SMP dualcore Opteron configuration all of which incur large price penalties. If you're lucky enough to have a higher budget, make a post stating your requirements and we'll get to it on a case-by-case basis