Laptop dies, I get a new computer, and then I fix my laptop?

[hawkeye122]

Short story-
Laptop would not take power from the cord. The last time I opened a laptop, I broke the case, so I convinced my parents that a new computer was in order.

Purchased a HP p2-1120 - Heres the specs
AMD e2-1800 with Radeon HD 7340 Graphics (1.70 GHz)
500 GB Hard drive
4 GB DDR3 RAM


-For $280+Tax. (Was this a good deal?)

I get the new computer and decide "Well, now I can have a go at my laptop"
Power cord was loose from the Motherboard. I pushed the socket out a bit further, and epoxy-d the cord back in place. Runs like it did before. Now I have a Laptop at my Mums, and the desktop here at my Dads (He has faster internet).


So, now I have a desktop computer for the first time in several years. What/Should I do to upgrade it? Graphics Card? RAM? Snag a solid state drive to put the OS on, so it boots faster?

 

[djinline]

That's not the worst deal I've seen, but not the best either. Let's see if we can make it even better.

First of all, I would ditch that low-end dualcore and motherboard and get something much better (i.e. LGA1155 motherboard + Ivy Bridge i5). Your RAM should do just fine.

Either get a good GPU with no external power so you won't need to change the power supply and cut the costs (I would like to know the model and specs of the PSU be sure about that), or you could invest in a more powerful PSU and GPU with external power socket(s) for extra gaming perfomance, I would recommend the latter option. I bet that Radeon HD 7340 IGP won't offer you acceptable framerates in modern games, if you are planning to play games on your desktop.

SSD is a great thing to have, go for it.

 

[hawkeye122]

I was trying to cut costs and not toss the whole motherboard. Could i just get a different processor?

 

[Schwartz]

Load the hard drive with porn until it crashes.

 

[DQuaN]

I was trying to cut costs and not toss the whole motherboard. Could i just get a different processor?

What socket is the motherboard?

*edit*
Nevermind. Seems it's a BGA413 which is a mobile CPU socket. You're stuffed then!

I'm guessing this is a Micro ATX PC. If so, you don't have much of an upgrade possibility. unfortunately the suggestion above is correct. New motherboard and CPU. I'm afraid you'll also need a new case and power supply too!

I'd just use this as a basic computer and keep it as it is. Look to buy a new one in the future.

 

[djinline]

I'd just use this as a basic computer and keep it as it is. Look to buy a new one in the future.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too now. That should be a great, energy-efficient basic computer for web browsing and light gaming as it is.

But really, getting a SSD shouldn't hurt.

 

[hawkeye122]

Well alrighty then. Thanks guys! I'll look into the SSD thing in a month or so when I have money.

Will I have to buy another copy of windows 7 to boot from that?

 

[nick09]

You can always clone your current hard drive and put the clone copy onto the SDD. Of course you will have to slim down the amount of data on your hard drive since big SSD's are not cheap. There is many different software's that are either free or paid that can do this task.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I'd throw some more RAM in there if you've got a 64 bit OS, too. Upping to 8gb is cheap and couldn't hurt performance. I just went from 8 to 16 on my computer and saw noticeable gains, and that's way less of an upgrade than 4 to 8 is.

 

[DQuaN]

I don't think it's worth doing any of the above.

The machine has no upgrade path. It will work fine as a workstation and for light gaming. I would not upgrade anything on this machine and put all the money towards a new build.