Upgrade Plans
LazarusXero
Illinois Icrontian
I'm still planning on buying a new system but at the same time I'm going to be upgrading my current system for the wife to use.
Here are the specs:
Store Bought Unit (HP a6330f):
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8GHz
GPU - On board NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
RAM - 3 Gb (PC2-5300)
PSU - 300W
Mother Board - Asus M2N68-LA MicroATX AM2
HD - 500Gb
OS - MS Vista
My thoughts on upgrading (to see if I'm heading in the right direction):
CPU/Mobo - Keep as is as I can't find any AM2 chips at Newegg for sale and I want to keep upgrade costs low.
OS - Upgrade to Win7-64 bit to allow for more RAM
RAM - Upgrade to 8 Gb (4x2GB) DDR2-6400
GPU - Upgrade to ASUS Radeon HD 6670 1GB (I don't need a lot of graffics power on this machine... mostly use it for browsing and office work).
PSU - This is where I'm stuck. I don't know how to calculate how much power my system will need. Any help in this direction is appreciated!
Here are the specs:
Store Bought Unit (HP a6330f):
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8GHz
GPU - On board NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
RAM - 3 Gb (PC2-5300)
PSU - 300W
Mother Board - Asus M2N68-LA MicroATX AM2
HD - 500Gb
OS - MS Vista
My thoughts on upgrading (to see if I'm heading in the right direction):
CPU/Mobo - Keep as is as I can't find any AM2 chips at Newegg for sale and I want to keep upgrade costs low.
OS - Upgrade to Win7-64 bit to allow for more RAM
RAM - Upgrade to 8 Gb (4x2GB) DDR2-6400
GPU - Upgrade to ASUS Radeon HD 6670 1GB (I don't need a lot of graffics power on this machine... mostly use it for browsing and office work).
PSU - This is where I'm stuck. I don't know how to calculate how much power my system will need. Any help in this direction is appreciated!
0
Comments
Seriously, if she has a user profile thats office tasks and watching the occasional youtube video, don't overspend on upgrades. It's still a decent dual core CPU, 3GB of RAM will still fuel a 32 bit OS fine, and if you get the cheapest $40 GPU to help the graphics out enough so she can watch any video she wants, that should be plenty, unless she is playing 3D games, or video editing.
GPU - SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6450 1Gb
PSU - XIGMATEK 400W Bronze Certified
OS - Windows 7 32-bit OEM. I'm still a little baffled as to the pros/cons on the differences between the OEM vs. Upgrade vs. other options though.
I was also playing with the idea of installing a 60Gb SSD (probably Vertex 2 or 3) for the OS to be installed on to make things really quick. Haven't completely decided yet though. The good thing is that this SSD can follow me to my next computer build if needed.
Thanks to everyone for their input and suggestions! Next year is the big system!!