I would plan to reuse everything and just upgrade CPU if possible. You
gave enough details except for the motherboard and RAM. If the MB can
not handle an upgraded CPU or not enough of an upgrade to satisfy your
desires, you will need a new motherboard and CPU. Then you will have to
check your existing RAM specifications to determine if they will work
with the new motherboard. Also, a new motherboard may only have two RAM
slots and you may need to replace the two existing 256 sticks with a new
512 stick to retain a total of 1024 RAM. I assume you have a fairly
standard case that will easily accept a new motherboard.
Try TigerDirect.com to start as they have a good selection of CPU's and
motherboard/CPU combinations (some with memory) to chose from. Since you
are not looking to build a high performance game machine, the selection
is wide open. You might want to give preference in your selection to
reviews by other users. TigerDirect prices are normally very
competitive, but once you make a choice, you might want to check prices
against other retailers such as NewEgg.com. If you like AMD, stay with
it. They are competitive in performance to Intel (except very high end)
and they are normally cheaper for similar performance. However, I've run
into a problem in the last two days getting my AMD machine to play nice
with two recent non-critical Microsoft updates. I've had to uninstall
the updates to have Windows XP successfully load in normal mode. There
may be a problem with other components rather than the CPU. I have not
dug into it yet.
My opinions.
Tom Mayer
srs wrote:
> Hello All, I would like to build a pc. I don't play games but I
> would like it to be fast (processor speed). I do some photo from
> digital camera. Some programs from MS Word, business applications,
> writing leases, but nothing that requires a lot of space. Mainly used
> for surfing net and e-mailing. I also like to listen to music. Present
> pc: windows XP Home SP2, 1.73ghz AMD Athlon XP, 128kb primary memory
> cache, 256kb secondary memory cache, 81.94 Gb Hard Drive with 64.29
> free space, Samsung CD-R/RW SW-252F CD-ROM drive, 3.5" format floppy
> drive (never used hardly) Bus Clock 133 mghz, 1024 Mb Installed
> memory(512, 256, 256), connected to a HP Officejet 6210 series
> all-in-one, Bose speaker system, Logitech Keyboard and Logitech
> optical mouse, 17" lcd monitor. I would like to get latest technology
> with upgrade capabilities. I just replaced the hard drive about six
> months ago. Can I still use it? Also what other items could I re-use?
> What type of motherboard and processor? Any and all suggestions are
> welcome. I have liked AMD and read a little about 64 bit processors,
> but not clear on advantages and disadvantages.
>
> thanx,
> stephen r stanfield
>
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