# upgrading 478



## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

i have an antique socket 478 in the cupboard that no longer works, i was toying with the idea of changing the motherboard as it doesn't work, or what would be needed to fully upgrade the system, i don't want to go overkill as most games don't need that much spec and i only play games like splinter cell, half life etc, with the mrs playing the sims 3 etc. 

what cost is involved and what parts


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

We can't determine the cost to bring it to life without knowing what is defective and a 478 is certainly not worth investing much money in.
The best way to determine what is at fault is a bench test.

Remove everything from the case.
Set the motherboard on a non conductive surface. The motherboard box is perfect for this. DO NOT PLACE THE MOTHERBOARD ON THE STATIC BAG! It can actually conduct electricity! 
Install the CPU and heat sink. 
Install 1 stick of RAM.
Install the video card and attach the power supply connection(s) to the card if your card needs it.
Connect the monitor to the video card.
Connect the power supply to the motherboard with both the 24pin main ATX Power connection and the separate 4 or 8 pin power connection.
Connect power to the power supply.
Do NOT connect ANYTHING else. Make sure you have the power connector on the CPU fan connected.
Use a small screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch connector on the motherboard. Consult your motherboard manual to find which two pins connect to your case's power switch. Then touch both pins with a screwdriver to complete the circuit and boot the system.

If all is well, it should power up and you should get a display. Then assemble the parts into the case and try again. If the system now fails to boot, you have a short in the case and need to recheck your motherboard standoffs.

If the system does not boot after this process, then you most likely have a faulty component. You'll need to swap parts, start with the power supply, until you determine what is defective.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

erm i already said above that the motherboard is faulty as i had it checked a year ago, that is why i'm thinking of upgrading the old 478 and getting something a bit newer.

i just need to go how new i should go and at what price could i get all the stuff to play the games listed above, i'm not after out of this world performance just something capable of playing a few games

what specs should i look for


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

I'm assuming it's a regular atx case?

The best you can save is the drives , and the case/psu maybe , the rest will have to be gutted and tossed. Your specs won't need to be very high at all for what your doing. You can expect it to be around a 200$ overhaul if you go with amd and stick with onboard.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA78LMT-S2 AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX250OCGMBOX
Newegg.com - PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

them links are pretty cheap, less than i thought i'd pay, i was looking at motherboards + cpu on ebay for about the same price as them.

so them links above are good enough specs for gaming? i could even buy a decent graphics card instead of using the onboard, would this be recommended?


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

what should i look for spec wise? motherboard speed etc, cpu, memory,


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

It would actually help to know what your willing to spend.

If you wanted to go with a gpu then you'd need a decent power supply as well. Considering the system was an old 478 I was choosing lower cost parts to get you a decent spec machine but for gaming you would definitely want a gpu and psu upgrade as well.

The specs you should be looking for in this day and age would be some decent drr3 ram , about 4gb is good for most any application. A quality motherboard (ASUS and gigabyte are good). For a cpu you would want wither an upper end dual core , or most any modern quad.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

what bus speed and cpu ghz? obviously this differs to the make intel or amd?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

For intel You would want a newer socket 1156/1155 for amd you would want a socket am3 cpu. Usually 3ghz is ideal.

Anything from intel is going to be relatively more expensive then amd so you'll probably want to stick with amd.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

still, what about motherboard speeds?


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

my psu is 300w is this sufficient?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Motherboard speed of what? Pick the CPU you want and a motherboard with the socket to fit the CPU, doesn't sound like your looking for a large feature set so probably a AMD 770 or 870 chipset(for use with a video card) or 760 or 860G for integrated video, socket AM3, with a Phenom II x3 550 or 560 CPU, 1333 DDR3 ram.

For any modern PCIe x16 video card you'll want at least a 550w Power Supply.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

AMD PROCESSOR & MOTHERBOARD BUNDLE | eBay UK

or

NEW AMD 140 2.7 CPU, 2GB DDR3 Motherboard Bundle | eBay UK


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Both of those are pretty old , one is an old sempron and the other was an old athlon 64.

Was there something wrong with the recommended parts above?


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

are the ones listed above upgradable? i mean how much gaming use can i get out of it until i need to upgrade again? will that set up be okay for current gaming


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

ASUS M4N68T-M Motherboard and AM3 Dual Core CPU Bundle | eBay UK

3.2GHz Triple Core AM3 CPU & Asrock Motherboard Bundle | eBay UK

AMD 3.1GHz X3 AM3 CPU 8GB Memory & Motherboard Bundle | eBay UK

am i right in thinking the last one is the better deal with 8gb of ram?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Do you have a budget in mind?
Those are more low end setups, that are problems waiting to happen.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

you said above a am3, the bottom link is just that? or is an ATHLON out of date now?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Your looking at cheap motherboard/cpu combo's on ebay which wasn't recommended. If you don't give us a budget there isn't anything we can help you with.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

probably around $400 i was looking for bargains, but obviously didn't look at the CPU, so you'd recomment phenom 11 then?


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

ASUS AM3 M4A77T S/L 5200MT/S AMD 770 + SB710 DDR3 on eBay (end time 09-Jun-11 20:39:58 BST)


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The Athlon X4 is ok as for a mid-range system, what we are looking at are the motherboard brands/models, the M_n68 motherboards are cheap and one of the most problematic boards on the market, Biostar has ok, so/so and not so hot boards.

Try these
AMD 770 chipset > Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 MA770 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-MA770T-UD3]
Athlon II x4 > AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 640 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail [ADX640WFGMBOX]

4 gig ram > OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) [OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK]

HD5770> XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 Single Slot 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [HD577X-ZMF3]

XFX 650w PSU> XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular Power Supply [P1-650X-NLG9]

That should put you around 337 pounds, enough to add a new hard drive or a case.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

was the motherboard i posted above no good? it was a ASUS can handle phenom 11 x2-x6.

a couple of them motherboards i posted were capable of handling the phenom, which was recommended earlier in the topic.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

It's good, same chipset and features as the Gigiabyte board for 10 pounds more.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

so anything from phenom 11 x3 is better than an athlon? and recommended?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The Phenom's have a larger on die cache then the Athlon's making them faster on high load uses because they are not reading writing to the system ram as much.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

ah right, the links i posted on page 1, all support the phenom 11 cpu i even posted a ASUS. were these motherboards crap or something? lol


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

M4nxx boards have high failure rates, the others were lower tier manufacturers.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Not to mention most of them came with terrible cpu's. Ebay is a bad place to buy combo deals like that because they usually bundle junk together. Get your parts from a reputable dealer.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

wrench, you listed the athlon x4 but which phenom would be better suited?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

For the Phenom II's I would use one of the 900 series like the x4 955 or the 965 
Overclockers is only showing the 970 & 975 in stock but have a look around at other reputable retailers on that side of the pond and see what you can find.
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 970 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.50GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail [HDZ970FBGMBOX] 

The 800 series doesn't overclock as well but is still a decent CPU > AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 840 "95W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail [HDX840WFGMBOX]


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

right i'll look out for one of those then, on page 1 you said a phenom x3 550 or 560, so could that be an alternative if i can't find a 900 series? 

thanks for all your advice, better than sticking a old unit in there


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

*x2 *550 or 560 both are dual cores, with the price of the x4's coming down as far as they have it makes them less attractive.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

right so will them suggested parts get me playing most games on max settings? would you go AGP or integrated?


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

if i go for a 900 series CPU, what series motherboard should i go for, will i be able to upgrade it further in the future, say going x6?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

For Video PCIe x16, AGP slots have not been used for about 5 years.

Upgradable for a little bit, sooner or later the socket will change, but AMD in the past has made backwards compatibility a selling point.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

so can i run all games on max settings with them listed parts?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

All games on max settings no, All games on max settings would be about $3000 for a PC.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

wow $3000, might have to abandon the gaming pc lark then.

righty then, my old system was a socket 478 P4, i'm not just gonna fix it to use it for web browsing and maybe some online gaming, where should i go in regards of specs for this? should i just buy a better s478 mobo or get an amd cheap setup? if i go another route could i still use the 300w psu


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Why do you have to have all games on high settings?
The systems listed above will run any games you are currently playing on high, as well as run most games you can't currently play on high, a few of the latest high end you'll need to bump the settings down to medium/medium high, or turn off anti aliasing.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

depends what games you talk about that require a $3000 gaming unit? i was maybe thinking it could be cheaper buying a console lol, and just use the pc for web browsing only. so obviously need some parts to do that


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Console are always going to be cheaper, they are designed to one thing - game.

A 3d game like Rift is an example of a game that would run well on the Phenom II x2 system but not with everything set to high, it also depends on monitor size, if you want to run it on a 55" tv for example it'll take a lot more video card then a 19" monitor.

A decent PC will run you 350-400 pounds add another 100-150 for a decent gaming box, but don't look for high settings on all games,(though graphically it will still look better then any current console).


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

i would get the phenom x4. 

what could be adicate for just a web surfing unit? say with a £200 budget.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

For 200 your not even going to find a prebuilt, the OS will run you 70 pounds alone.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

i did say i had an old socket 478 unit, can't i use the hard drive with xp installed on that? or i'll use my restore cd to reinstall the windows, i did that on my current laptop and it works fine.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

No the license is tied to the original PC it was installed on.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

well it's worked on my laptop.


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## stephenm2682 (Jan 16, 2011)

and a 200 budget could cope if i just pop in the socket 478 mobo again, but i'm looking for something a little bit better for online gaming/surfing


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