Upgrade options for HP/Compaq Presario desktop?

[mikey100tv]

Hi, everybody.

Those of you on here a few months back may remember I was having USB problems with an elderly Dell Inspiron laptop.

I now have an HP/Compaq Presario desktop PC. It's running a socket 939 AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU; I've upgraded the 1 Gb of DDR1 RAM to 3 Gb, and it's using the ATI RS482 & SB400 chipsets on an MSI MS-7184 AmethystM motherboard.

Over the last couple of months, Fenyal has been trying to help me instal a graphics card to improve the performance over the old Radeon Xpress 200 video chipset...until I found out, through running the onboard HP diagnostics, that my PCI-e x 16 bus was faulty. No visible damage, but according to the diagnostics, it's got 'connectivity issues with >10 pins', so I'm probably looking at replacing the mobo.

MSI won't even admit to the board's existence, since it was probably made under licence to HP, and therefore HP are responsible for sorting out problems.

HP, while having a good support website, are less than forthcoming about upgrade options, since they'd prefer to sell me a new one!

What suggestions do you guys have for a mobo/CPU upgrade combination?

As somebody else said on here not too long ago, I'm fine with RAM upgrades, installing video cards, etc., but CPU's are another kettle of fish entirely...and something I definitely find 'out of my comfort zone'...probably because I've never done anything with them before.

I'd like to stick with the AMD processor, since I think they're miles better than Intels of the same generation. I want to stick with an AMD CPU of similar vintage, possibly upgrading to a dual-core (maybe an Athlon 64 X2, or possibly an Opteron?)

I'm also intending to stick with my Western Digital PATA hard drive, since it's working just fine...external storage is now taken care of by a 500 Gb Seagate Expansion USB HDD.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

[mavroxur]

The upgrade path is going to be difficult for you, since socket 939 has been out of production for ages, your motherboard uses DDR memory (everything is DDR3 now), and most modern boards don't include IDE connections for your PATA drive. You could overcome the IDE issue with an IDE to SATA bridge, which is a small board that plugs into the IDE port on the hard drive and converts it to a SATA interface. They're usually around $10 on eBay. If you go with a new(er) motherboard, it's going to be at least DDR2, or if it's new, DDR3, which means you're buying new memory, too. For the CPU, anything of the similar vintage is going to be socket 939 or AM2, both of which are extinct sockets, and the AM socket backward compatibility won't extend back that far, as modern AMD chips have integrated DDR3 memory controllers. Personally, if budget is an issue, i'd buy a plane-jane basic modern motherboard (can be had for under US$50) of either the Intel socket 1150 camp, or something from the AMD socket AM3+ or FM2+ camps). Personally, I prefer Intel, but AMD does deliver a lot of bang for the buck, and is generally cheaper on the whole. Chips in both the Socket 1150 and Socket FM2/FM2+ also can have integraded GPUs (not just integrated ICH/MCH onboard graphics) which offer descent 2D/3D performance. AMD has the Radeon HD7000 and Intel offers the Intel HD Graphics 4000 in select FM2/1150 chips. Memory is pretty cheap these days, so just grabbing 2x2GB DDR3 sticks shouldn't be much.

[mikey100tv]

Hallo, mavroxur.

I had a feeling that might be the case; although I'm one of these folk who LIKES older tech, with tech moving so fast these days, anything over 4/5 yrs old is considered prehistoric! And naturally, dealers stock what sells...so their stock is changing pretty rapidly, too.

Can I get hold of a decent, basic micro-ATX board over here in the UK? Like I said, I've developed great affection for these AMD's in the short time I've had this one; it was 'inherited' from a relative, and had been sitting idle for over 6 years...so it's not had that much use! Mind you, after using a 'Celery stick' for nigh on 10 years, I suspect ANYTHING'S going to seem fast...

Any suggestions ? I've no particular preferences as to make, since this is going to be a first-time project for me...and as I have plenty of time on my hands, I'd rather do this right the first time; I don't really care how long it takes, so:-

Motherboards?

CPUs?

I'm not a 'gamer'; I'm in my mid-50's, photography is my main hobby, so photo-editing is my primary use for the computer (mainly Adobe's PhotoShop, and a couple of other good editing programs I use from time to time); nothing I do is CPU-intensive, so lots of cores might be a waste of time.

[mavroxur]

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128571


CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113335

Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396


Total under $150 for a new board, chip, and 4 gigs of memory. You could go cheaper, but I don't like ECS or Foxconn boards, so this MSI is the cheapest good board. Basic setup, using an AMD A6 APU with integrated Radeon HD8000 series graphics.