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Daniel

Upgrading my PC

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I think he meant 1-2 days later than the day he ordered, which is also 1-2 days earlier than the ETA.

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Just checking :) It occured to me last night, when i assemble all this, do i do it all in one go? or put one component in and switch it on then another etc. plus will my vista ultimate just accept all the new hardware or will it need reinstalling?

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Just checking :) It occured to me last night, when i assemble all this, do i do it all in one go? or put one component in and switch it on then another etc. plus will my vista ultimate just accept all the new hardware or will it need reinstalling?

 

Yes, even though I didn't pay extra for delivery there have been times when I expect something to arrive 5 days later i.e Friday but then it comes on a tuesday.

 

In terms of assembly you won't get very far without everything being in there, you might just get a few beeps and nothing else. As far as I know windows doesn't take kindly to new hardware and you normally have to reactivate windows if you replace so many different components. With xp it was that you can change about 6 components or 1 network card + 4 components before you'd have to re activate your os. Not sure what Vista does.

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Major revisions like CPU or Motherboard I think need reactivation. I'm not positive though, anyways if you assemble all at once you won't have to worry about reactivation.

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How do you mean re-activation? what does that mean? do i just put a code in or do i need the disc?

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You usually do need to reformat windows with new hardware. When you initially install there's a lot of structure stuff in the OS which is based on the hardware config.

 

Sometimes you get off with it. I upgraded my AMD processor from a 3700 single core to an opteron dual core (server chip) and it worked ok. Worth a backup of anything on your C partition just incase. ^^

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After mentioning this to my dad he has said he is willing to put some money in for me to get a new computer. So does anyone know a good website or shop to buy a new computer? Will probably just need a base unit, no speakers or monitor or any of that palaver. Thanks :)

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PC specialist is good for customisation

 

Overclockers are good for a big beast of a machine, or parts (maybe out of your price range if the parentals are paying?) but you definitely get quality from OC.

 

Mesh have quality computers as well.

 

Theres always the likes of Currys, but I find them a terrible rip-off and lacking in information :smile:

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What's your budget? Do you want a assembled PC, and perhaps add other components(like better GPU)? Do you want to get all, or most of the components and assemble them yourself?

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I'd say buy the first, and then put a seperate 70 pound Radeon 4670 in it instead of the chip it has now. It's much better than the second that way.

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What DCK said is your best course of action.

 

Here's a quick price comparisonhttp://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-94-587.584.596-0

 

But my suggestion is that your try and spring for the 4830, it'll give you better performance and is great for the price. It's slightly cheaper at ebuyer rather than scan.

 

Yes the card is worth it over the 3450. The 3450 will give you barely playable performance in most things outside of any games running on the Source engine.

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Its a bit annoying paying £545 for the computer which i will already be putting £200 towards and then paying another £90 for a graphics chip. Ill keep looking i think for a setup with a decent graphics card in it already :)

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This was on ebay for

£619

 

AMD PHENOM 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz X4 Quad-Core PROCESSOR (10GHz)

8GB DDR DUAL CHANNEL RAM

500GB SERIAL ATA S.A.T.A HARD DRIVE

DUAL LAYER 20x MULTIFORMAT DVD REWRITER WITH LIGHSCRIBE

CD REWRITER

GE-FORCE 9500GT 1GB DEDICATED GRAPHICS

WIRELESS WiFI

BLUETOOTH

10/100 BROADBAND LAN PORT

6 USB PORTS

VGA

DVI

HDMI

PARALLEL PORT

SERIAL PORT -- Whaaaaatttt

SPEAKER CONNECTION

MIC CONNECTION

WINDOWS VISTA 64-BIT PLUS BOXED DISK AND LIFETIME LICENCE

 

It goes on but seems pretty good to me. The 9500GT isn't show stopping in my personal opinion but the 1GB of memory on it will give it more performance than I know this GFX card to have.

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I'd stick with Dual Core unless you actually have specific need for a Quad Core CPU. You could get an Intel E7300, 4GB RAM, an ATi 4850 and a 500GB HDD for well under budget on PC Specialist.

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Its a bit annoying paying £545 for the computer which i will already be putting £200 towards and then paying another £90 for a graphics chip. Ill keep looking i think for a setup with a decent graphics card in it already :)
You shouldn't if you don't miss games now. The first is actually a fantastic deal, and you can always upgrade your graphics card later if you need it. It's really easy to do.

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