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Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5249		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  okenobi [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 1:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
So I've been contemplating all sorts of things recently. The graphics card market isn't any good right now and won't be for 2-3mths. And the cost of a new rig could be delayed (and/or better spent on fun things like holidays). So I got thinking, the main thing I need my machine to do is play music and HD content. It does both of these fine, but my new TV appears to need HDCP to accept a 1080p signal. So really all I need is a new GPU and Windows 7, right?

I have Windows 7 (just haven't installed it yet) and my spec is as follows:
Antec Super Lanboy case
Tagan 2Force 480w PSU
Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe (with passive chipset heatsink upgrade)
Athlon X2 3800+
2gig of 200Mhz RAM (2x 1gig kits)
nVidia 7600GT 256mb
Plextor 712SA SATA DVD
Samsung Spinpoints:
1x500gig (boot&data)
1x750gig (data)
1x1tb (data)

I'm about to run out of space, so will order a new F3 1TB to replace the 500 (which was reporting a boot disk failure yesterday, but when plugged into another machine shows up fine, so maybe it's just XP playing up?)

If I get a £30ish GPU with HDMI and then install Windows 7, will I be alright? I presume it'll have to be the 32bit version with just 2gig of RAM. I could order another 2gig kit and go to 3gig, but will that make any difference?

It won't play games, but tbh I haven't be able to play recent titles for more than two years anyway, so it's not like I'll be missing something I can now do.

If this build sees me through till the summer, I'll probably be happy tbh. Thoughts? Will it be man enough for Win7?
Author:  saspro [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
Personally I'd go for 64bit Windows 7, a cheap gfx card with HDMI & a couple of GB more RAM. Should run Windows 7 fine.
Author:  Coref [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
That's very, very near the machine I'm typing this on! Windows 7 is slower than XP to load, but not too bad once it has started up.
Author:  okenobi [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
I can only buy 2gig kits for my board because of it's age. Is 3gig gonna be enough?

Am I being silly and really I need something newer (i.e. AM3/P55)?
Author:  JJW009 [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
okenobi wrote:
the main thing I need my machine to do is play music and HD content. It does both of these fine ...

I can only buy 2gig kits for my board because of it's age. Is 3gig gonna be enough?

Am I being silly and really I need something newer (i.e. AM3/P55)?

You are not being silly at all. Windows 7 runs OK with just 1GB, but better with 2GB. I probably wouldn't bother upgrading.

If you can sort out the graphics, you should be fine.
Author:  okenobi [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
Right, got impatient. Currently typing this from the above machine on Win7 Pro 64-bit, using a spare Western Digital EIDE 160gig drive as system! Looks very pretty and seems to be running pretty quick tbh.

If my 76GT will output HD over the DVI-HDMI lead I have, I'll leave it at that!

Managed to get a driver for audio, but unsure about tons of stuff so may be back later....

Thanks guys :)
Author:  okenobi [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
Ok HELP!! Should I have installed 32bit? I can't get .mkvs working and a little reading suggests 64bit is a pain in the ass :(
Author:  JJW009 [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
okenobi wrote:
Ok HELP!! Should I have installed 32bit? I can't get .mkvs working and a little reading suggests 64bit is a pain in the ass :(

I confess, I've only have the 32 bit version now due to "reasons beyond my control". However, I used 64 bit during the free trial and I think I played mkv files no problem using Media Player Classic or VLC, but I can't be totally sure. It's pretty much the first thing I'd try though, since 90% of my anime is in that format these days.
Author:  big_D [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
I thought you said it was very old! :lol:

We still have Win 95 machines and Pentium and Pentium II machines are work... Also an 8086 doing service in a corner! Now those are old, yours is a veritable spring chicken! :lol:
Author:  andytw [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
I have a similar system:

Athlon X2 4200
A8V
6800GT
2GB 200MHZ RAM

It's running Win 7 64-bit Home Premium with no problems.

I have VLC installed which so far has played everything I've tried including .mkv files.

The biggest problem with 64-bit in my experience is getting drivers, though it helps that most Vista drivers will work for Win 7.
Author:  rustybucket [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
OMJF!

I'd love to have machines as "old" as that.
Author:  JJW009 [ Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
rustybucket wrote:
OMJF!

I'd love to have machines as "old" as that.

It's twice as powerful as any machine we have at work, and that includes the servers :lol:

It even has more drive space than our entire office combined, including our off-site kit.
Author:  big_D [ Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
JJW009 wrote:
rustybucket wrote:
OMJF!

I'd love to have machines as "old" as that.

It's twice as powerful as any machine we have at work, and that includes the servers :lol:

It even has more drive space than our entire office combined, including our off-site kit.

Twice as powerful? Most our users have Athlon 1.2Ghz with 256MB RAM! I'm trying to get them to either 512MB or 2GB, where I can - not allowed to spend money actually replacing them... :?
Author:  okenobi [ Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
Damn guys, ok, ok! :oops: I spent out at the time! The X2 was an upgrade from a 3000+ single core and I added the RAM about 6mths ago. .mkvs seem ok now that I've installed the DirectX redist. No output from my GPU to the TV though, so I'll order a new GPU and HDD today and leave it at that!

I thought 5yrs old was pretty old....... ;)
Author:  hifidelity2 [ Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Need advice on upgrades for a very old machine
That is almost exactly what I have except that
Its a X2 4400
And my GPU is a 7800

But I have the same mobo and if you upgrade the BIOS then you can go to 4 GB of RAM – which I have just done so.

I Run Win 7 64 Pro – and have to say between have 2 GB and 4 GB of Ram not noticed anything real speed change for Day to day stuff – although have not done any video encoding since I upgraded the memory

Overall you have a good system and really only need to upgrade if you want to play the latest games at a high res
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