Dad's upgrade?

The_Other_One

VIP Member
Hi all... Dad needs to upgrade his machine. I'm wondering what people here would suggest as I'm more for the massive expensive crap :rolleyes:

His current system is as follows
MSI Mobo(can't recall model right off)
SocketA 1.1GHz Duron
512M PC133
16x DVD-RW
16x DVD-ROM
120G IDE HD
GF2 GTS
SoundBlaster Live
Modem

My first thought was to get a Sempron, but this board only supports 266, apparently, so even if it worked, it probably wouldn't be worth it.

He does a lot of video conversions, so I was thinking a Pentium 4 might be his best bet... I know he needs new RAM. The video card is fine as he does no gamming. He doesn't HAVE to use the sound card, but he does need a few PCI slots for expansions such as his modem.

Now, he just showed me a site where he could get a whole computer; P4 1.8GHz, 80G, 512M, CD-RW for like $250. Can you guys beat this?
 
it's hard to beat the cheap things, like the 300-400 dells or emachines or what-have-you and stuff, you can match them but then it actually becomes worth it to get the tech support if something breaks
 
It depends if hes a gamer or just a mutitasker

I would say AMD athlon 64 3700+ processor

512 DDR2 PC3200 RAM from Kingston or some company.

ATI Radeon X700 256 DDR3 Graphics card

socket 939 motherboard

Maxtor sata 200GB harddrive

Memorex DVD/CD/RW
 
I thought I specified, or meant to, that he makes movies and such, which is why I suggested a P4... Really it's the best deal but I know pents tend to do better in such apps.

An AGP slot or onboard with PCIe would probably be prefered. We dont need anything major, as we already have a good card. We're fine with drives, and no reason to invest in new SATA drives. Hell he just got the new 16x burner today!
 
Now, he just showed me a site where he could get a whole computer; P4 1.8GHz, 80G, 512M, CD-RW for like $250. Can you guys beat this?
That sounds like a whole computer (which is what you said) rather than a upgrade (which yo also said).

It depends if hes a gamer or just a mutitasker
[quot=Post1e]He does a lot of video conversions, so I was thinking a Pentium 4 might be his best bet... I know he needs new RAM. The video card is fine as he does no gamming. He doesn't HAVE to use the sound card, but he does need a few PCI slots for expansions such as his modem.[/quote]

I thought I specified, or meant to, that he makes movies and such, which is why I suggested a P4...
You did. But id spec a Venice3500 or higher regardless.

Really it's the best deal but I know pents tend to do better in such apps.
You would have been right. Before the E3's came out :) Do have a look again at the CPU landscape
 
Hehe, so what would you reccoment P? :P Hehe, and yes, that other deal was a whole system, but if we could get a good deal, we could just use it or stuff it all in his old case(as I think it was a desktop)
 
If the budget is the price of that machine, id get that machine. Otherwise, what's the budget?
 
Probably around 200 or so... I mean he REALLY doesn't need a new one. Hell he uses is PIII 850MHz laptop more than the desktop, but we were descussing upgrading...
 
damn that sucks, we just sold a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB DDR400, GeForce MX4000, 80GB IDE133, and a whole bumch of features for $180 at my work....
 
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