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Looking to upgrade my father's old XP machine with new components

Tags:
  • Dell
  • Upgrade
  • Intel
  • Components
  • Windows XP
Last response: in Components
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May 25, 2014 4:20:25 AM

My father has an old 2006 Dell desktop computer which is running XP and we have finally convinced him to upgrade the system to windows 8.1 and at the same time put new hardware in there as well. We are looking at keeping the case, the PSU and the optical drive, as they are still perfectly fine for what he is needing the machine for (no massive, power hungry GPUs for gaming etc.). The machine will be used for everyday uses (web browsing, word processing etc) and also some photo and a very small amount of video editing.

I am living in Australia and I have access to MSY (https://www.msy.com.au/home.php), so I have a more limited range of parts/places to buy them and they are more expensive as well unfortunately.

Here is the proposed parts list: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/3Qx6q
Some of the parts are available cheaper from MSY than are shown in the pc parts picker list.

We have a budget of roughly $700 and I do have a preference for intel CPU's over AMD ones as well.

Thanks in advance

More about : upgrade father machine components

May 25, 2014 4:36:13 AM

for what you're gonna do i'd rather go for an octo core processor
an intel processor won't show any difference for every day use , but an octo core might , because the more cores you have , the more tasks you can do
and the stuff you're getting is for gaming really , and the psu you have might not even be enough to power the pc up , here's what i'd recommend you to do :
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($189.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($133.82 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($89.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($99.00 @ CPL Online)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($109.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $785.82
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-25 21:33 EST+1000)

it's the best i can do really
if you're gonna do video editing the eight cores might come in handy , and i doubt your old pc's psu will be able to handle all of these parts
i got a 1x8 gb ram module so you can add another one later
a 990fx motherboard so you won't have to do any bios update to use vishera cpu's
the same ssd and hdd you suggested
a very high quality psu and windows 8
it's 30 more cad than the parts you've choosen above but i'd get something like this myself
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May 25, 2014 6:50:36 AM

andrei65 said:
for what you're gonna do i'd rather go for an octo core processor
an intel processor won't show any difference for every day use , but an octo core might , because the more cores you have , the more tasks you can do
and the stuff you're getting is for gaming really , and the psu you have might not even be enough to power the pc up , here's what i'd recommend you to do :
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($189.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($133.82 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($89.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($99.00 @ CPL Online)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($109.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $785.82
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-25 21:33 EST+1000)

it's the best i can do really
if you're gonna do video editing the eight cores might come in handy , and i doubt your old pc's psu will be able to handle all of these parts
i got a 1x8 gb ram module so you can add another one later
a 990fx motherboard so you won't have to do any bios update to use vishera cpu's
the same ssd and hdd you suggested
a very high quality psu and windows 8
it's 30 more cad than the parts you've choosen above but i'd get something like this myself


I am pretty sure that the PSU will be more than adequate as I am pretty sure there is an old nVidia 8 series card in the machine as well, so I think that a new PSU will not be required. But apart from that the rest looks pretty good really.
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May 25, 2014 6:51:34 AM

I'm pretty sure it will be required but it's up to you really , and a new psu gives more " future proof " if you're gonna get him a new gpu
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May 25, 2014 6:57:30 AM

At this point in time, I think the integrated graphics will be more than enough as he isn't asking too much of the computer in the graphic department and it looks unlikely to change in that respect, so I would rather save some money and power and avoid getting a dedicated GPU unless we have to.
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May 25, 2014 6:58:19 AM

Ok .
Have a good day :) 
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May 25, 2014 7:05:07 AM

Thanks so much for the help andrei65
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May 25, 2014 7:07:25 AM

Okay no prob.
Tell me how it turned out when you've bought the parts !
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May 25, 2014 4:06:48 PM

andrei65 said:
Okay no prob.
Tell me how it turned out when you've bought the parts !


Will do, though it might be up to a month before that happens though.
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May 25, 2014 10:07:02 PM

No worries i'd still be happy to know how it turned out !
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June 3, 2014 7:24:20 PM

I have just finished the build and gotten everything working, it is cool, quiet and fast, everything we were looking for :D 
Thanks so much for the help Andrei :D 
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June 3, 2014 9:36:20 PM

No probs , glad to know you did it :) 
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