mrs_drummer needs a new PC as her old one has died.

Old one was a HP machine with Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and 4GB memory.

Looking at maybe getting a new machine with Intel Core 2 Duo E5500 and 4GB memory and donating the graphics card from the dead PC to the new one

Primary requirement is to run an online game called Second Life. The “minimum requirements” for SL are much lower than this

How does the proposed new machine stack up against the old dead one?
OK I know it’s not Quad Core, but it’s a 2010 model processor against a 2007 model, so we’re not entirely comparing like with like. I’ve done some googling & I see some benchmarks that say for some tasks the old processor is better, for other tasks the newer one is better, but the banchmarks themselves mean nothing to me

Second Life to blame for murders and even terrorism Clicky

mrs_drummer is really the un-dead Osama Bin Laden and I claim my £5

The geek in me wonders what’s wrong with the old one that necessitates a complete replacement for a superficially similar spec machine…?

If the boards are the same socket (I’ve not googled and don’t know off the top of my head) then you could transplant the CPU across from the old machine theoretically.

In the absence of background it seems an odd solution though. If I were replacing for that PC I’d be looking at a Core series CPU. Seems a false economy otherwise (but I appreciate that I might not be in full possession of all the facts here).

the old PC is dead. it could be the motherboard or it could be the CPU; it’s been in the workshop for a week & a half & the guy says it’s not respomding to any of his diagnostic tools, and isn’t worth repairing.

A new motherboard and CPU might fix it, it might not. And being an HP machine, there’s no Windows disk and of course its too late now to try create a recovery disk

Sadly, lack of serious budget prevents a proper upgrade. We were considering a bare-bones machine but that still doesn’t get us around the lack of Windows disk; buying a copy of windows adds another £80 to the budget, at which point the bare bones machine + copy of windows starts to get into the price point of said replacement machine.

Dead machine – HP Pavilion A6250

new machine this one + another £16 for an extra 2 GB RAM

personally, I can’t see the point in Second Life, but it’s not my machine. Mine’s not as good as the dead one so she wants something better than mine

I work in IT, but I’m a developer not a techie, so I haven’t a clue

I’m a developer not a techie, so I haven’t a clue

😆

If I was getting a new machine I would plump for an i5 or i7 as an investment, just because they have more grunt. Plus it is for your wife so it would be better to spoil her than not.

can’t afford an i7 machine unfortunately. Budget is £300 or less 🙁

Have a look at the Acer Emachines ET1862, higher spec than what you are looking at, at least into i3 territory so newer socket for potential future upgrades.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk have it for around £330 while Dixons etc are just on £300 (currently on sale).

I very much doubt you’ll tell much difference.

Why not overclock your Q6600, its very easy to bump it up to 3ghz.

the Q6600 is dead. or maybe its motherboard is dead. otherwise I wouldn’t have the problem

mightymarmite, that looks promising, cheers.

For second life a cheap cpu will be fine and a reasonable graphics card.
Even the latest budget cpu’s won’t bottle neck a good gfx card.

Hi John, how’s the helis! Check out softwareforstudents.com
You can get a legit version of windows 7 for j ust over 30 quid. I don’t mind paying for genuine stuff at those prices.
I am sure you must have a nephew or niece that you are building this pc for. 😉

Hi Conrad

no time for helis at the moment 🙁 Century Hawk 30 heli is up on ebay. Flown once since I built it up over 2 years ago, never had the time since

If you’re any good with computers, I’d get a motherboard/cpu bundle (say from novatech) and just replace those two (I’m barely any good but I can do this much easy – it’s only really doing up a few screws (while wearing a silly bracelet if you’re posh))

make sure you get the right size Mboard to fit yr existing case though (atx or micro atx I think they are ?)

might have to reinstall windows – have you got the discs ? (or software for students as suggested up there)

I was thinking of that; for the same money as a new PC I can get a pretty good motherboard, memory & CPU bundle, plus a new copy of Windows. Put all in the existing case & off we go.

I’ll see what mrs_d says

john_drummer – Member
I was thinking of that; for the same money as a new PC I can get a pretty good motherboard, memory & CPU bundle, plus a new copy of Windows. Put all in the existing case & off we go.

I’ll see what mrs_d says

Why a new copy of Windows or are you upgrading to Win 7? Building it that way is easily the cheapest method, just be aware that the case may have HP specific connectors…

Take your Support Guys a pack of Hob Nobs (Chocolate ones are essential) and the pile of bits and you should be presently suprised!

🙂

Rysz.

To answer the question…cpubenchmark says:

Q6600: 2981
E5500: 1915

So they’re benchmarks but that’s a big difference so new one will be slower.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Wife won’t like that…

I’d go for an AMD Phenom with that budget, something like this:

NEW QUAD CORE 3.2 GHz PHENOM AMD 955 PC 500GB 8GB DDR3

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-QUAD-CORE-3-2-GHz-PHENOM-AMD-955-PC-500GB-8GB-DDR3-/260758508029?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item3cb66b11fd

went & got the E1862 thing. Core i3 or something for £309.99 from Currys Halifax

thanks everybody for your help & advice

Don’t bother with quad core. If you’re editing videos or playing very very demanding gams you migt see the benfit but for normal use you’re better off with a dual core with a higher clock speed/ more cache. Considering the budget my advice would be to go for the amd chips as they offer great performance for very little outlay. If Second life is going to be the limit of the demands put on the pc the I wouldn’t bother getting an overclock able board and instead save some money to spend on the ram or a bigger hard drive (if you need either of those). What grapics card are you intending to be using as if it’s an old one you could replace it wih another old (but much higher spec) for not much money (stuff that was 400 quid 3 years ago is now about 50 quid).

EDIT didn’t see your last post. Hope you enjoy

it’s been in the workshop for a week & a half & the guy says it’s not respomding to any of his diagnostic tools, and isn’t worth repairing.

I’d respectfully suggest that you take it off him and get someone who isn’t a muppet to take a look at it.

Anyroad, happy new PC.

CPU counts for very little in games. Buy a good video card. Second life requires very low spec. Your broadband and graphic card will be limiting factor. Don’t buy on board graphics card. Replacing mother board is 5 min job and typically cost £65.

went & got the E1862 thing

too late