I'm hoping for some interesting feedback on this topic.
Right, my PC has become so sluggish, to the point of approaching full bloody stop, on some occasions. It worked perfectly, when loaded with XP, but
ever since having to xfer on to Win7, the overall performance has diminished. So I've been looking around at what the marketplace can offer, and
discovered pre-selected motherboard bundles. These seem a distinct possibility for upgrading my existing machine.
Searching here has produced this thread - http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=180146.
However, most of the marketplace search results haven't mentioned graphics cards, (either that, or I've misread the sales blurb!). As you
may deduce, I'm not a PC expert, merely an "end user"!! So can I use my existing, and fairly old card, or does one buy a new item? Not
looking for anything like a supergamer machine, just for the usual web forum browsing and posting, photo storage, scanning stuff, emails, and the
ability to upload files to a website.
The graphics interest is purely for the ability to use whichever CAD package I eventually acquire, and to use these on a website.
So which motherboard supplier would you recommend?
I know a bit but not a lot but what I would say is ssd hard drive all the way, I've know got 2 pc's running ssd and they make it so much quicker, that and obviously as much memory as poss although I think the max you can run on xp is 4ram as it won't recognize anymore than 4.
most motherboards these days come with reasonable graphics 'on board',
these can also be supplemented by graphics cards, but for your use probably unnecessary. (but can be added in the future if cad programs do require
faster graphics)
Thanks for your replies. I'll have to investigate "ssd hard drives", as this sounds fairly new to me.
Gremlin1234 - So that explains the absence of any bundle specifying a separate graphics board. And it makes more sense of some the bundle descriptions
I've found recently.
If you like to run video games, or do a lot of graphic design, then a good graphics card is a must. However, if you are a 'normal user' who just browses t'internet, does email and writes documents (maybe some minor graphical stuff) then the built-in graphics on a modern motherboard is just fine. Having a really good graphics card comes at a cost: you usually have to beef up the power supply to cope, and possibly extra fans to get rid of the heat.
don't forget, if you're upgrading the motherboard, make sure the power supply / case can accomodate it.
I tend to find (although I haven't done this for years) that you end up buying a new case, power supply, motherboard, cpu, memory and ....
depending if you've already got SATA hard disks, hard disks.
Or buy a second hand relatively decent spec machine.
Solid state drives get to be expensive as the size goes up. If you look on eBay conventional SATA that have been pulled from new systems for less than
£20, In have been buying them and using them as clone drives for backups.
You can get a bare bones Netbox style from Maplin for about £89.
However new PC prices are at an all time low take a look in PC world you will find complete Windows 8 PC boxes without screens from about £190
ssd's are not that expensive, £80 will get you a decent 250GB which is all you need for OS etc. you can then get a 1TB hdd for less than £50 for
storage.
actually if your not into gaming a 120 GB ssd would be big enough
[Edited on 19/4/15 by bigfoot4616]
quote:
Originally posted by Dick Axtell
I'm hoping for some interesting feedback on this topic.
Right, my PC has become so sluggish, to the point of approaching full bloody stop, on some occasions. It worked perfectly, when loaded with XP, but ever since having to xfer on to Win7, the overall performance has diminished.
quote:
Originally posted by Dick Axtell
I'm hoping for some interesting feedback on this topic.
Right, my PC has become so sluggish, to the point of approaching full bloody stop, on some occasions.
Well, there's a variety of opinions in these replies, but nonetheless, I thank you all for them. Much food for thought before I take the plunge.
Dick,
There are a few other options:
Increase your memory - this depends on how old your machine is, and whether it's worth doing. If you only have the minimum amount recommended
then this may be worth doing.
Re-install Win 7 - if it's been on there a while then maybe it has got cluttered up.
De-fragment the disk - how long is it since you last did it?
Run Ccleaner or similar - there may be stuff on your machine that's clogging it up.
Then there's my personal choice - install Linux Mint and you should end up with a machine that fairly whizzes along! It's far less
demanding of resources and therefore much quicker.
Along the lines of above - what is the spec of the current computer? depending, you may find that just upgrading it's storage to SSD that it will be plenty good enough again.
I've always avoided the bundled motherboards, mainly because I'm after something a bit higher spec will last me a bit longer and the bundles
tend to be at the budget end of the market with lower specs...
(I know building them to last is a loosing game, but my current one is 5 years old and still going strong...)
I'd say pick your CPU first then find a MB to run it on:
a mid spec i5 CPU will be around the £150 to £200 mark (obviously i3's are cheaper, but less powerful. Also avoid the Celeron and Pentium
branded stuff - its cheap for a reason)
but a basic MB to run it could be as cheap as £45 from a good brand (personally I like ASUS ones)
Also you can usually download the manual before you buy to check its spec / compatibility with the rest of your build before you spend any money
its also worth getting some half decent reliable memory (RAM) - 8Gb is about £50 from a half decent brand.
and as above a power supply that's up to the job - if your current one won't do then that's another £30 - 50
the onboard graphics you get will depend on your CPU (the different i3/i5/i7 chips have various graphics abilities) - but if that's not enough
£40 - 50 will get you a card capable of running most CAD packages
as for the hard drive - the sky is the limit really, just comes down to what you want to spend
I went for a 1TB old fashioned SATA one ~5 years ago on my 1st Gen i7 PC (when SSD's were small and expensive) and now its the one thing holding
back the speed of my machine....
[Edited on 20/4/2015 by mcerd1]
[Edited on 20/4/2015 by mcerd1]
quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
Whilst an improvement in many areas, Windows 7 does runs slower than XP on the same hardware, and boot times are much longer.