Best Cheap Upgrade Options For Old PC

Vic Vinegar

I was having a look at at an old PC for a mate,

It's a Packard Bell iMedia S3720

Specs -

Intel Celeron E3200 2.4ghz (dual core)
Socket 775
2GB PC2-6400 ram
Nvidia Geforce 7100
250w PSU (eek!)
Windows 7 pro

He wants it to run faster as it's very sluggish, i was thinking of upgrading the ram to 4gb but i'm not sure if that would actually be worth it anymore.

He wants it to be able to play media files and a bit of gaming (old Flight simulator games sort of thing, nothing recent)

What would be the best upgrade path for this? new mobo & cpu? i'd tell him to just upgrade to a new PC but i think money is quite tight for now.

Advice appreciated!

jayo26

Vic Vinegar wrote: »

I was having a look at at an old PC for a mate,

It's a Packard Bell iMedia S3720

Specs -

Intel Celeron E3200 2.4ghz (dual core)
Socket 775
2GB PC2-6400 ram
Nvidia Geforce 7100
250w PSU (eek!)
Windows 7 pro

He wants it to run faster as it's very sluggish, i was thinking of upgrading the ram to 4gb but i'm not sure if that would actually be worth it anymore.

He wants it to be able to play media files and a bit of gaming (old Flight simulator games sort of thing, nothing recent)

What would be the best upgrade path for this? new mobo & cpu? i'd tell him to just upgrade to a new PC but i think money is quite tight for now.

Advice appreciated!

I think you might get a second hand core 2 duo maybe cheap enough or the best that that socket could take would be the core 2 quad would cost a bit more but squeeze an extra bit of life out of it but going that route you don't know how reliable a second hand cpu would be.
If he upgrades the motherboard he would be looking at at least 40 for a mobo and another 60 at least for cpu and then have to buy at least 4 gb of ram on top of that because his old ram wouldn't suit a new mobo.
I made up a cheap pc for my nephews from parts I had here lay around it was a core two duo and 4gb of ram and a really cheap 1gb graphics card. They are using it for youtube videos and watching download movies and playing farming simulator it is working fine for them on windows 7.

Dublinflyer

I recently put a Samsung 850 Solid State Drive drive into a netbook and I could not believe the difference it made to the overall speed.

justjustin

Vic Vinegar wrote: »

I was having a look at at an old PC for a mate,

It's a Packard Bell iMedia S3720

Specs -

Intel Celeron E3200 2.4ghz (dual core)
Socket 775
2GB PC2-6400 ram
Nvidia Geforce 7100
250w PSU (eek!)
Windows 7 pro

He wants it to run faster as it's very sluggish, i was thinking of upgrading the ram to 4gb but i'm not sure if that would actually be worth it anymore.

He wants it to be able to play media files and a bit of gaming (old Flight simulator games sort of thing, nothing recent)

What would be the best upgrade path for this? new mobo & cpu? i'd tell him to just upgrade to a new PC but i think money is quite tight for now.

Advice appreciated!

That's a pretty weak CPU - a core 2 duo at the same speed could be about 25-30% faster. If it's just a stop-gap for him for a few months, I'd recommend upgrading the CPU and doubling up the RAM if you can find them cheap enough. CeX sell some reasonably priced second hand CPUs for this socket... (~€30 for core2 2.4ghz or ~€70 for core 2 quad 2.4ghz which is a bit much IMO).
An SSD could be added at any stage to improve responsiveness and this could also be moved to a new build (or laptop) if/when the time comes.
The GPU is also very very weak, but not much point adding anything more powerful unless the CPU was upgraded.

Phibsboro

SSD and 4gb, get him another 18 months out of it and the SSD is transferrable..

DVD-Lots

I have some Core 2 Duo's lying around that I could give you, I might have some sticks of RAM that I am not using too. Let me check when I get home and see what I have.

Vic Vinegar

Cheers guys, i was looking at some decent ram for it on Adverts.ie (2x2gb for €30) but was holding off to canvass opinion as to whether it was worth it or not.

Will definitely look into upgrading the CPU then. Not sure he'll want to go for an SSD as they are quite pricy in relation to what he wants to spend, although that would be a class upgrade (got one myself and Windows boots up in about 8 seconds now)

DVD-Lots wrote: »

I have some Core 2 Duo's lying around that I could give you, I might have some sticks of RAM that I am not using too. Let me check when I get home and see what I have.

That'd be sweet, can throw you some cash for anything that might be suitable.

Thanks!

TerrorFirmer

I have some Core 2 CPU's as well. If the motherboard is compatible pretty sure I have some wolfdale cpu's, which would be the faster end of the core 2 line-up from towards the end of its lifespan. Can't ever see myself ever needing them so if you want one, it's no hassle at all.

DVD-Lots

Have one of these: http://ark.intel.com/products/35348/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E7200-3M-Cache-2_53-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB

and a Core 2 Quad but not sure the MB or power supply would support it : http://ark.intel.com/products/spec/SLAWE

And i have 1 4GB stick of this; http://www.ebay.ie/itm/16GB-4x4GB-HP-Nanya-PC2-5300P-667MHz-2Rx4-ECC-PARITY-SERVER-RAM-405477-061-/231188230380

It says server RAM so not sure if it would work on the MB. It is PC2-5300P type RAM.

Vic Vinegar

I googled the mobo's CPU compatibility and got found this page (search results say Acer even though there's no Acer branding on the board)

http://www.game-debate.com/motherboard/index.php?mot_id=1559&cpuList=Acer%20MCP73T-AD#

Seems to support lots of CPUs anyway.

DVD-Lots

PM me your address etc and I'll ship the Quad Core CPU and the RAM and hopefully they work.

PropJoe10

An SSD would be a definite upgrade, if that was me. Even without upgrading the RAM, an SSD would make an amazing difference to the performance of the PC. Its the number one upgrade these days in my view.