Need help upgrading

[Chris Hebden]

I know NOTHING about how to upgrade PC's but would like to install a better graphics card and if possible upgrade the speed.

I have this PC http://www.pcworld.co.uk/product.php?sku=840223 and would like to go from 2.6ghz to around 3.5 if thats possible.

How do i go about finding what graphics cards fit my PC? Is it possible to get more "speed" out of it?

Cheers Chris

[Bigfoot]

Need to know what motherboard is in the computer to see what you can upgrade processor wise as they will only be able to take up to a certain amount on the board. Problem being with upgrading graphics cards on those purpose built computers they only give a big enough power to supply to just do the job its built for. More than likely its going to be a PCI graphics card as its quite a new computer. Space wise is what you need to look at as well as most fast graphics cards are quite long and you will need to make sure it fits in place.

[Chris Hebden]

cheers Dale i'll try and find what mother board is in it this evening. Is it something that my system will tell me?

As for the power supply, are these upgradable also?

[Bigfoot]

Yeah Power supply is easy to upgrade really. Just need to see what watts its producing, most ones from PC world will come with around 250-300watts, you would need to start looking at around 600 if you start looking at powered graphics cards.

Would need to take the case off and take a look at the numbers on the board that would be easier to do. When your upgrading the processor might be worth looking at getting better cooling on the processor as well as that normally slows it down plus its quite cheap to do so with whats out there. What might be worth looking at though for the money your looking at upgrading, might be worth just being a base unit which is already built as can get decent ones for what you are after for around the £300 mark.

[Chris Hebden]

Where could i get a decent base from mate? How naieve am i, was hoping to spend £100ish

[djinuk]

whats the computer going to be used for ?

[Chris Hebden]

whats the computer going to be used for ?

Hmm, good question. Its going to be used for everyday word processing, AutoCAD and a little gaming mainly Flight Sim X. Its Flight Sim that i need to make the changes for the most

[Chris Hebden]

Does this mean anything to anyone?

[tiff_lee]

An e6600 is a solid cpu no need to upgrade that at all for what you want, that ati card is a piece of crap for gaming that's the problem.

You can pick up 512mb 8800gt's for about £50 and it will p*** flight simulator, for other things like autocad and normal day to day usage upgrading to 4gb ram would be good as well.

[Chris Hebden]

An e6600 is a solid cpu no need to upgrade that at all for what you want, that ati card is a piece of crap for gaming that's the problem.

You can pick up 512mb 8800gt's for about £50 and it will p*** flight simulator, for other things like autocad and normal day to day usage upgrading to 4gb ram would be good as well.

! Does anyone know a good cheap place to get 4gb RAM? I need DDR2 PC2 -5300?

Thanks for everyones help

[Bigfoot]

! Does anyone know a good cheap place to get 4gb RAM? I need DDR2 PC2 -5300?

Thanks for everyones help

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...BKIT667D2.html

[Chris Hebden]

Cheers Dale, found it for £72 all in from Ebuyer that looks the cheapest

[tiff_lee]

Yeah ddr2 is an absolute rip now, a few year ago you could pick up 4gb of high speed ram for just £40.

Do you need to by a 4gb kit? you could add to your existing 2gb? although i'm making the assumption it is 2 x1gb and you have 2 slots spare.

Alternatively for that kind of money you could pick up an ocz 4 gb kit on ebay for far less plus you're covered with the initial purchase on ebay as paypal guarantees a refund if claim is in your favour (which it would be if item was faulty) plus ocz ram carries a lifetime guarantee.

Just an idea.

[Chris Hebden]

Yeah ddr2 is an absolute rip now, a few year ago you could pick up 4gb of high speed ram for just £40.

Do you need to by a 4gb kit? you could add to your existing 2gb? although i'm making the assumption it is 2 x1gb and you have 2 slots spare.

Alternatively for that kind of money you could pick up an ocz 4 gb kit on ebay for far less plus you're covered with the initial purchase on ebay as paypal guarantees a refund if claim is in your favour (which it would be if item was faulty) plus ocz ram carries a lifetime guarantee.

Just an idea.

no i have only two slots so the only way to get 4gb (that i know of) is to get 2 x 2gb ram! I'll have a look into the OCZ 4gb kits thanks

edit: cant find a 4gb from OCZ that is PC2 - 5300

[tiff_lee]

It doesn't need to be pc2 5300 you can get any faster ram it will just run at a slower speed, although cosidering a e6600 has an fsb of 1066 there is no need to run faster ram that slow.

[tiff_lee]

Here ya go
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OCZ-4GB-RAM-DD...item414cfaae80
its pc2 5400 as well and £45 buy it now.

Or these will do fine as well.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4GB-OCZ-Gold-2...item20af5c29d7
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4GB-OCZ-Gold-2...item20af58a81e

[Chris Hebden]

So regardless of the other numbers i can use what ever ram i wish? As long as its the correct DDR (to suit the mother board?)

Thanks for your help

[tiff_lee]

Basically yes as long as its DDR2, your board will just run 'faster ram' at the slower speed which is no problem, in fact it would allow you to tighten the timings but lets not go there.

[Chris Hebden]

Basically yes as long as its DDR2, your board will just run 'faster ram' at the slower speed which is no problem, in fact it would allow you to tighten the timings but lets not go there.

Thanks for your help matey! Can you believe i am looking to build a system my self then learn to overclock it and i dont know much about RAM ! Somethings going to go bang!

[tiff_lee]

Thanks for your help matey! Can you believe i am looking to build a system my self then learn to overclock it and i dont know much about RAM ! Somethings going to go bang!

Its not hard mate everyone has to start somewhere. My first build was a Duron 1.2ghz with 512mb sdram and a geforce mx440, probably less powerful than an iphone!

If you need any more help building a rig or overclocking just ask mate i'll be gald to help as no doubt will others on here.

[Chris Hebden]

Its not hard mate everyone has to start somewhere. My first build was a Duron 1.2ghz with 512mb sdram and a geforce mx440, probably less powerful than an iphone!

If you need any more help building a rig or overclocking just ask mate i'll be gald to help as no doubt will others on here.

Really appreciated, thank you!

I'm just sorting out an AMD spec from Overclockers, would you mind having a butchers over it to make sure everything is compatible, i think it should be! As for overclocking that will be a whole different ball game

[Slim]

js had a brief look at this post....

tip: no point having 4GB Ram on a 32 bit O/S .... It will only see 3.5 of it..

[Chris Hebden]

js had a brief look at this post....

tip: no point having 4GB Ram on a 32 bit O/S .... It will only see 3.5 of it..

thanks, with the new build i want to go Windows 7 64bit (well thats the plan)

[tiff_lee]

js had a brief look at this post....

tip: no point having 4GB Ram on a 32 bit O/S .... It will only see 3.5 of it..

Yeah I wouldn't really be concerned about this considering you have only 2 slots and the benefits from have 1.5gb more ram far outweigh the fact you won't be able to use 512mb of it.

It's not as if you had four slots and would goto the trouble of fitting a 2gb, 1gb and a 512mb stick.