www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

i want to upgrade the pc ive got, without buying new and also want to see if i can upgrade it my self, ive got a

windows XP home version 2002 service pack 2.

AMD Sempron(TM) Processor
3200+
1.81 GHz 1.43 GB of Ram
80 gig hard drive

i want to upgrade it so it runs faster and has better graphics, im not to worried about the harddrive as ive a 500gig external and im planning on getting a terbite one.

what things should i be looking to getting?

What's your budget?

i havent got mega bucks im of just want mid price range

That's a bit vague as there's so many options available.

For an idea:

Dual Core CPU here

Motherboard here

Hard drive here

Memory here

A decent spec for a good price.

You could put this lot in, reinstall XP and reuse the licence you currently have on the sticker on your system.

95% of the time it reactivates no problem.

would it be worth while getting vista?

Hello feva,
I really wouldn't bother with a 7 year old system. Everything you have is way out of date. I had a similar problem with a four year old system and ended up buying a new pc. If that is out of your budget, try looking for a used system, maybe on ebay.

feva wrote:would it be worth while getting vista?

If you are thinking of upgrading your OS, forget Vista and go for the Windows 7.
But I would really want a new machine for that. There is nothing wrong with XP and there is very little that Vista or W7 offers that cannot still be done on XP. You would be paying quite a lot for 'eye-candy' if you update your OS.

One main question is what do you use the computer for?

the harddrive I have is a 500gig external and im planning on getting a terbite one.

If you are planning on using, and storing such a large amount of data then just upgarding your PC will not improve its speed.
How full is your existng C: drive?
To speed up your existing system, do some elementary housekeeping and clear out all the rubbish (temp files for one) and do a full defrag.
ATF Cleaner will shift a lot.
Ccleaner will do a very good job of cleaning up too.
Defraggler will sort it.

dave

stevei wrote:Hello feva,
I really wouldn't bother with a 7 year old system. Everything you have is way out of date. I had a similar problem with a four year old system and ended up buying a new pc. If that is out of your budget, try looking for a used system, maybe on ebay.

its not 7 year old, my mate used to have a computer shop and he was closing it due to bad health, and had made my pc with bits he had in the shop, so its got this version on because it was just one he had left over.

dave.m wrote:

feva wrote:would it be worth while getting vista?

If you are thinking of upgrading your OS, forget Vista and go for the Windows 7.
But I would really want a new machine for that. There is nothing wrong with XP and there is very little that Vista or W7 offers that cannot still be done on XP. You would be paying quite a lot for 'eye-candy' if you update your OS.

One main question is what do you use the computer for?

the harddrive I have is a 500gig external and im planning on getting a terbite one.

If you are planning on using, and storing such a large amount of data then just upgarding your PC will not improve its speed.
How full is your existng C: drive?
To speed up your existing system, do some elementary housekeeping and clear out all the rubbish (temp files for one) and do a full defrag.
ATF Cleaner will shift a lot.
Ccleaner will do a very good job of cleaning up too.
Defraggler will sort it.

dave

hardrive has 59gig out of 74 free. lot of the stuff i store is on my external drive.

i already have ccleaner, and run it often, its not that its a crap or slow pc, i just fancy trying to upgrade it myself, when i was 15-16 i could do all sorts with pc's but that when a 3gig harddrive was massive so i just want to see if i can get back in to it, but im starting from scratch.

Follow RichieP's links then for some hardware and good luck with it.
Remember to BACKUP everything before you start swopping bits.

dave

dave.m wrote:Follow RichieP's links then for some hardware and good luck with it.
Remember to BACKUP everything before you start swopping bits.

dave

all the important stuff is on external and laptop

cheers for the help guys, il let you know how i get on and no doubt when i start il posting on here again

If it's home-made, have you got your license sticker on the side? Or do you know it anyway?

If you want to stick with XP just install it from a CD and use the existing license when asked. 90% activation works no problem, otherwise buy an OEM version of Windows 7.

RichieP wrote:If it's home-made, have you got your license sticker on the side? Or do you know it anyway?

If you want to stick with XP just install it from a CD and use the existing license when asked. 90% activation works no problem, otherwise buy an OEM version of Windows 7.

Amazon are doing a pretty good deal on Windows 7 Retail Edition. Think it is about £65 for Home Premium version?

Also, if you decide to reuse your existing XP license but find you cannot reactivate it on-line, just call MS and they invariably without questions calculate and a read out a code for you to type in to activate the OS - have a pen handy, it is about 100 characters long!

FWIW, I think there is a time-out on the on-line activation of approx 6 months from the last activation - so if the OS was activated say 3 months ago, on-line activation on different h/w would prob fail but a year after the original activation would work fine

il most likely go for windows 7, cant see the point of spending all that money out just to save on the windows

Of course whatever you do, an external hard drive will be much much slower than an on board one drive, especially if you have programs loaded on it or some space is being used a Virtual memory