Upgrade options for old PC?

[Guest]

Hi,

I have recently aquired a 2005 AMD Sempron 3000 PC from my local repair shop for free, as I wanted an old PC I could restore.

It is a pretty good PC actually (for its time anyway). It has an AMD Sempron 3000 1.8GHZ CPU, 1X512mb RAM, and a WinFast Motherboard. Has two SATA ports as well as IDE.

It came with a copy of XP SP2. 32-bit Pro. I have a 60GB HDD.

Now, I want to know what I should upgrade:

OS: He gave me a product key; could I use that with a Windows 7 disc?
RAM: 1GB? or 2GB?
CPU cooler? It is very loud. It is not the stock AMD cooler but a Thermaltake cooler. I am unsure of the CPU socket though.
PSU? Came with a Gold 450w Q-tec PSU. I have a spare iCute 250w PSU
HDD? I put in an old 2002 Maxtor 60GB Diamond IDE HDD from an old emachines system.

I really just plan to load a copy of Word 2003 and use it for that and XP games (like Minesweeper). He gave me a Ubuntu disc so I may use it in a dual-boot config with XP.

Many thanks,
AKNerd

 

[Digmeahole]

For a PC that old you best options for increased speed is RAM & SSD or better HD. anything else would not help you.

PS: change the cooler as a overheating cpu will die very fast.

 

[Guest]

I have not been able to actually use it yet as I found out I didn't have a spare IDE cable! I finally realised what it was after it failed to boot and wanted me to insert a disc to load windows, nothing happened. I only then realised I had plugged the 34 pin Floppy connector into the DVD drive, and the reason it would open but not do anything was because I had plugged in the Power cable lol. What socket is an AMD Sempron 3000

 

[skitszo]

The product key is probly a XP license? it would not work for windows 7 as its not a windows 7 key....

first.... i would not hook that up to the internet now. keep it stand alone for legacy programs.

the only thing i would do is get max memory installed. usually with 32bit xp thats 2 GB.
If your not gonna run legacy games then you won't want video card upgrade...
its a single core cpu so it will be pretty slow. 8}

 

[Guest]

Are there any socket 462 coolers? The case for the computer is actually a very, very nice case and feels very well made with metal, not the really thin stuff used for cheap cases.