Pc Upgrades?

twilight17 · Post by **twilight17** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:10 pm

Ok, So about 2~3 years ago i got this HP Pavilion a1217n desktop Pc... well, its feeling slow, and I was thinking about getting some upgrades.

Here are my current specs:
300 Watt Power Supply
Intel Celeron D 3.06GHZ (single core)
Asustek Intel Motherboard
2GB PC2-4200 Ram
Nvidia 7300GS
160GB Samsung Hard Drive
Windows XP

And heres what I want to get:
550 Watt Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182017

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103243

Asus AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131273

Will these upgrades improve my performance?... Do I absolutely need a new power supply?.. Are there any things to know or do before switching from Intel to AMD?

thanks

warmi · Post by **warmi** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:14 pm

Do I absolutely need a new power supply

Well, it depends on your setup ... mostly what kind of graphics card and HDs you will have in your new system.

If you are going to keep the existing hardware and upgrade only the CPU and the motherboard then you should be fine with the existing power suply but ... if I were you I would get 550 Watt because eventually you will want to get a new graphics card and these days these things can be pretty power-demanding.

As far as performance then again , it depends what you running. If we are talking about games then having a better CPU won't do much given your existing graphics card ( which most likely would be the bottleneck anyway.)

twilight17 · Post by **twilight17** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:20 pm

Well, I just play simple games... doesn't matter... As for getting a new graphics card... I won't be doing that until next year probably, and I'll probably also upgrade the PSU then also...

Should I get the Motherboard and the CPU, then? I don't need to upgrade the PSU right? Also, will I noticed performance increase? Or should I just save my money for a totally new Pc?

Thanks

warmi · Post by **warmi** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:35 pm

I can't give you an authoritative answer regarding PSU - as I said, you most likely won't need a new PSU because just getting a new motherboard and a CPU won't change your power requirements substantially. Look at the specs of your new CPU and compare that to the old one ( as far as power requirement)

As far as performance, of course you will see an increase since Athlon 64 X2 is a faster CPU as far as general computing is concerned ( not to mention a new motherboard which most likely is faster than the old one.)

twilight17 · Post by **twilight17** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:35 pm

Ok thank you.. one last question... How much of a performance increase, Is the Athlon X2 really that much better?

jjp · Post by **jjp** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:53 pm

A single core Athlon64 at 2.2GHZ is approximatly 2 times (or more) as fast as a Celeron D at 3GHZ. So even taking multi-threading aside you'll gain quite a bit. Although I'd consider an Intel Core Duo as well (at the same clock rate about 30% faster than an Athlon64 X2), they have an even better price/performance ratio usually.

If you just upgrade the CPU then power consumption might actually decrease compared to your current system.

twilight17 · Post by **twilight17** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:08 am

Well, I wish I could get a Core2Duo in my current PC... but my mobo only allows up to Pentium D (My Mobo Specs)

And also my budget is about $210 max.

Thx for info so far.