Upgrade or not...

Hi,

I had a lot of help from you guys and I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask this.
(If it is supposed to hurt, just let me know where and by how much.)

It's the computer I had trouble with before. I haven't really been bothered to have it fixed until I realized it was still under warranty. The Hard Drive Died so they'll replace that and I figured due to my being poor, I might upgrade the old PC instead of a new build. I figured either moderate upgrade now - awesome new PC in 2010 or New (slightly less awesome PC) now.

Being a computing neophyte I figured I'd ask.
it has:
Asrock 4core 1333 - FullHD motherboard
Core2 duo e6750/2 2.66GHz/4Mb Cache/1333FSB
2G Kingston DDR2 RAM
(one dead) 320 WD 320 HD
Inno3D GF 8600GT PCI-E 512MB 128-bitDDR2 HDCP support 540/1000MHz, DirectX 10, Max res. 2560 x 1600 VGA, DVI, HDTV fan
(all lovingly copied from my invoice)

All advice is truly appreciated.
Cheers

 

Thank you for replying Digitallocksmith,

It surprised me as well. The PC I am on now is from 2005 with a 160G WD HD and it's still good. I may have gotten a dud - it happens I suppose.

I was starting to get awful grinding noises on start up. I thought it might have been the fan dying. I checked it out and it seemed to be running well, no noises etc. I started getting BSoD. I asked here what I should do and was kindly advised on a course of strategy. I didn't even get a chance to use the advice. I started getting disk read error on boot up. I ran the WD diagnostics and it did not see the HD. It doesn't show up in computer start up. I can boot windows from a disk so I figured I'd try a fresh install. It could not detect the HD either.

I'm not an expert and I am a slow learner so the thought occurs that, I may have bished. Did I destroy my HD trying to find the problem?

As for upgrades I figured more RAM, maybe more memory, upgrade the graphics card. The kind of Clarkson-esque idea of sitting in front of the monitor going "POWERRRR!"

Might explain the problem I have. When I started getting the problems I did say out loud "How hard can it be?" The proverbial KoD. :-o

 

You don't say which OS you are using but unless it's a 64bit you will not be able to use much more ram (max is just under 4gb for 32bit)

As for the graphics card that all depends on your power supply (the higher you go the more power you need) also how much you want to spend (the sky's the limit)

If you are just using it for general surfing it's a perfectly workable rig.

 

Hi BILLMCC66,

Sorry I forgot to say about the O/S it's XP sp3 (32bit). I have been considering moving onto vista because it's so purdy to look at. Such a chick thing to say really.

I have gotten interested in graphic design, I want to start tricking out my own art work. Plus I like to game a bit, nothing hard core though.

I don't know what's wrong with me when it comes to my PCs. I know virtually nothing and all I want to do is make them more powerful. It's like my dad with power tools and my friend with his guitar amps.

cheers

 

I personally think Vista is great but many would disagree with me.
Windows 7 is released soon and that is much more user freindly so you can choose.
As for upgrading You say your PC is 4+ years old so i would assume that the PSU is 300 or 350 watts so that will limit what graphics card you put in, you would also be much better with a 64 bit OS which is faster and much more stable plus it will allow you to use more ram (your motherboard will support 8gb) it also supports PCI E X 16 so you could also put a powerfull graphics card in (depending on the space you have).
There are many other upgrades (quad CPU) but this will inevitably push the cost up.
My personal opinion is stick with what you have and save up for a new rig,If you buy one now it will come with Vista but most retailers offer a free upgrade to Windows 7 in October when it is on general release.
I have been using W 7 for several months now and find it a very freindly OS and the learning curve is much easier than when you go from XP to Vista.

 

All looks good to me, 2GB RAM is more than enough unless your a heavy user, a new graphics card would be good idea, depends what your budget is, I'd go with the Radeon 4850 or Geforce GTS 250 both cost around $125 and are high mid-range cards which handle modern day games at a medium res and mid-high settings depending on game
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102837
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121303

Dacacds

 

HERE HERE!!! Glad Im not the only one riding in this boat.:clap

 

I didn't read each post above thoroughly, I just kind of skimmed, but it looks like everyone is going with a RAM + GPU upgrade, and I'll agree.... seems to me that a RAM and GPU upgrade are probably your best and cheapest route at this time. You can double your 2gb DDR2 to 4gb for under $35 (Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134012). For a video card, the NVidia GTX260 offers incredible performance for the price, and many different manufacturers offer rebates, free games, free shipping, etc. ($145 after rebate w/ free new Batman game and free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143140). Then maybe look at overclocking your current CPU safely by adding an after market cooler (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065) for about $30. So, for roughly $200, you could bring your PC into rockin' gaming territory, if that's what you're after. However, if you're not a gamer, then I'd say your current rig is OK until you can get all new gear.