dirtychicken Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 Tis my boy's birthday next week and he has decided that he would like upgrades for his pc as his main present On his shopping list he has: 1 more impressively sized hard drive 1 much more capable graphics card 1 hefty chunk of RAM Now he is more than capable of installing this himself (with a little supervision possibly) but I have a few questions if somebody could possibly offer some advice 1. Will the new RAM run happily alongside the old RAM or does the old RAM need removing before being replaced by the new? 2. If we increase the amount of GB in his hard drive and with the RAM, is it worth investing in a new processor or will the hold one be able to cope? 3. Is it ok to get the cheapest options available or are we better aiming for the branded stuff (or at least brand names we recognise)? Is there much difference?? 4. Where would be the best place to shop for such items? I'm assuming that PC World is *not* the way to go Thanking you in anticipation of wisdom sharing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godin Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 Your questions aren't that easy to answer Sarah, for a start listing what his PC has in it already would be a darn good start As for part wash your mouth out PC World Ebuyer is where H gets components from as a rule he built a new machine for a friends mum in Dec, decent spec everything but the monitor £365 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 2 other places to look for componants DABS Overclockers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtychicken Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 I don't really know what spec his current pc is We all have 80GB hard drives the current RAM is 120MB and he doesn't know the size of the graphics card but "it's crap" One of my friends has suggested that by the time we've overhauled to this extent, we might have been better off just buying a new box so now I have even more options to confuse me Ebuyer was where I started looking but it was via my mum's pc and was taking about 3 hours to load a single page They have some fab laptops there too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nouggatti Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 (edited) dirtychook If you switch off his machine, then when you switch it back on, you can hit either del or f10 to enter setup, it will say hit *this button*, and then it will go into the bios which lists all the details of your pc. Also if you right click on my computer in windows and then click properties, it will bring up a tab called general which will tell you the amount of ram and the processor type, 120 MB of ram sounds fairly low. If you are around later tonight, I can go through it with you via msn if you have a second machine you can use for msn? Edited March 18, 2008 by nouggatti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pingu Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 the most important bit to consider in upgrading is the motherboard this wil llimit or determine what additional componants can be used. for example if its an older pc is the graphics interface AGP or Pcie? this will then determine what types of graphics cards you can use. similarly the hd interface (SATA or PATA\IDE) will determine what type of hard drives you can install and finaly you need to know how much ram and what configurations it will support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godin Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 I don't really know what spec his current pc is We all have 80GB hard drives the current RAM is 120MB and he doesn't know the size of the graphics card but "it's crap" One of my friends has suggested that by the time we've overhauled to this extent, we might have been better off just buying a new box so now I have even more options to confuse me Ebuyer was where I started looking but it was via my mum's pc and was taking about 3 hours to load a single page They have some fab laptops there too! How old is his PC? 120mb of ram is very low as is 80gb HDD, you also have to look at what he wants to do on new PC, is he looking at playing recent games or just surfin' the tinteweb This machine was bought at the back end of last year and is - Intel Core Duo 2Quad 2.40 GHz 4GB RAM 500GB HDD Nvidia Geforce Graphics Card (not sure which one) The machine is used for a multitude of things, I use it to surf and do buisness stuff which is all lo key really, H uses it for graphics manipulation for web design and the occasional game or media streaming which all require more oomph I tend to agree with your friend it might be more cost effective to look at a new box or a laptop than upgrade what he already has How about THIS compared to around £130 for components that aren't force to be compatable with what you already have and if you need to change motherboard and processor you can add around another £60 - £70 and then you might need to change the case too, it really isn't as straight forward as you'd think and you can end up spending as much as it would of been for a new unit in the first place This is coming from the woman that thought it would be a good idea to upgrade her mothers pc for her birthday last year and ended up sweet talking her hubby into building a new box as mum's machine was so far behind the times it turned out to be a pentium 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprogsbloke Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 (edited) http://www.offtek.co.uk/ - great place for memory really quick with great customer service. I would warn about bad customer service with Overclockers products are good but if you have a problem you have no hope. Edited March 18, 2008 by sprogsbloke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 If he doesn't know what his current graphics card is, or what his motherboard supports, or what he wants to replace it with, then I would seriously rethink letting him loose on replacing major parts. He really will not have the knowledge to do the job properly and it's all going to get messy. If the system really only has 128Mb of RAM, it's pretty ancient and you are unlikely to be able to just swap in new components. All the slots and systems will have changed and nothing will be compatible. I would buy a new system. If he's looking for a gaming system, Mark suggests looking for something that has a GeForce 8800 GT or GTS or GTX or Ultra or 9600GT graphics card, or even better, 2 of them (that's called SLI). If the graphics card is good enough, the system will probably come with the other things needed. You want at least 2GB of RAM. Re Overclockers: we usually spend several thousand a year with them and they have been perfect for us - no problems with replacements, they don't quibble, just send us new stuff. I'm not guaranteeing that they have the same policies if you are just buying a single mouse from them though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprogsbloke Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Re Overclockers: we usually spend several thousand a year with them and they have been perfect for us - no problems with replacements, they don't quibble, just send us new stuff. I'm not guaranteeing that they have the same policies if you are just buying a single mouse from them though. I brought a new PC for over a grand paid for a Saturday delivery and they sent it out to be delivered midweek and to be honest didnt really care they had messed up didnt offer to refund the extra I paid to get Saturday dlivery and only very begrudgingly apologised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Maybe that is the difference then: as we are buying as a business, we never ask for Saturday delivery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtychicken Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Thank you lots and lots for the help I surrendered and bought him a new pc I actually got it off of Ebay (brand newly built) for £180 (inc P+P) and it has 2GB RAM, 250GB hard drive and 1GB graphics card! Plus it's very pretty I'm well impressed - it's been delivered this morning after I paid for it on Sunday. Only blip is that it has no OS so that's another thing to sort Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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