CPU / Tech Experts Advice Wanted: Upgrading a computer

[shaggydoo]

Oops, originally posted in the wrong forum, posted here...

I recently set up Ubuntu on an old computer for my kid brother, and it's running great thanks to the help of the people on these forums as well as the Wiki. But, thanks to the mass-advertising of the Xbox 360, he's finding himself wanting one badly. Of course, him not having a job yet, who has to pay for that nifty $500 system? Parents.

I'm dissuading them from doing that, and instead I can do a cheap upgrade on the computer from my own pockets to let him do whatever he wishes. I've done some looking around, and parts are pretty cheap. I've been thinking of keeping everything, but swapping out the CPU and mobo for new(er, ish) ones. Of course, I'd probably need new RAM and/or a video card depending on the motherboard.

So, to the point, I'm hoping you can all help me find good, yet cheap - I'm trying to seriously make an advantage against the X360 price, parts (motherboard/cpu in particular, ram and video card also important). I want to avoid Intel processors as they're seriously outperformed by AMD processors, are more expensive, have a much higher voltage and are inherently hotter.

What would you suggest? I've been looking around on eBay, NewEgg and tech sites' for sale/trading forums, and everything looks quite cheap - particularily older (yet new) models, refurbished and used parts. I think a DECENT board and chip should cost at most $150. Video card and RAM, extra, of course. So, what would you all suggest? (Please give prices or price ranges and sites and detailed specs if possible).

Thanks!

[docomo]

I would suggest you check out this Buyer's guide from Anandtech:

http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2563

Also, for gaming in Linux get an Nvidia card as ATI's drivers suck.

[shaggydoo]

Great, thanks for the link, docomo! Great guide, I'm going to see if I can find more like that. I still want more opinions, so you Ubuntu users come out of hiding, damnit!

[majikstreet]

RAM ram RAM ram RAM ram RAM! I love RAM! Give me more!

get SOME RAM!!

[ekarni]

I've been thinking of keeping everything, but swapping out the CPU and mobo for new(er, ish) ones. Of course, I'd probably need new RAM and/or a video card depending on the motherboard.
Thanks!

So basically just keep the case, hard disk, CD/DVD drive, monitor, peripherals? You're still talking mostly big ticket items. As a point of reference, here are the numbers (US $) for the machine I built this summer.

CPU: Athlon64 3000+: ~$150
Mobo: MSI K8T: ~$80
1GB Corsair RAM: ~$90
NVIDIA FX5700 video card: ~$50 (heavily marked down for some reason, but it's working fine so far).
No-name soundcard: $20 (bought for the analog joystick port)

So that's $390 right there. I don't do any heavy gaming on it, but I suspect you wouldn't want to drop the specs much lower in any area if gaming will be the machines primary purpose. (Works great for flight sims and non-graphical engineering apps, components all work fine with Ubuntu).

Those were all new components. You could save some with refurb, but you gotta wonder why they got returned in the first place. Likewise with ebay, gotta think about why it's up there.

Bottom line: you'll save some over getting a new XBOX, but not *that* much after you factor in shipping (and possibly sales tax). And if your brother wants to play XBOX games, not something computer-based (which more than likely means windows, so you'll probably need to subscribe to Cedega, more $$), this upgrade might be a waste if he won't use the machine. Maybe it makes more sense to wait until after xmas when prices cool off a bit on XBOX...

For reference, I got my components at mwave.com, and directron.com looked like they had pretty good prices.

[shaggydoo]

Thanks ekarni. Well, higher-end parts won't save me much if I buy them new, but refurb/used it'd be about half the price. They're usually in fine condition on the net if you shop right. As for playing games, if a game will one-hundred percent need Windows and doesn't run well on Wine, then I'd just set up dual boot for him.

[xequence]

I really dont notice a difference in performance between my computer with a 700 mhz celeron and the family computer with a 2.6 Ghz celeron. (Took about the same ammount of time to unzip a 200 MB zip archive).

More ram is definitally the best way to get performance.

If you want to challenge the xbox360 you will need to spend alot.

Depending on how old the computer is you might not need to upgrade the computer. Youd be suprised how great some 5-7 year old games can be on older computers. Ive been playing UT99 smoothly (well, atleast until I installed norton antivirus. I hate it so much, ill have to uninstall it - it is so slow, I only want to use it to scan but it INSISTS on having some protection center thing open all the time telling me to do stuff.) on older hardware. (700mhz celeron, 192 MB SDRAM, 4 MB Intel 810e video.)

[newbie2]

http://www.cheap-computers-and-cheap-laptops.com/Discount-Computer-Parts.html
http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=cheap+computer&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web