First time attempt to upgrade a desktop - help!
ashjf
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Hi, I have an Acer Aspire L3600, been sitting around for few years now doing nothing, I want to upgrade it to give to someone. I have never upgraded a PC before, I want to make it run Windows 7, have at least 500gb maybe 1tb hard drive (sata I beleive) but do I need to upgrade anything else like the RAM etc, please help.
Also how cheap can I do this for.
Any advice & help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
This is the computer: http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/GRADE_A1_-_Acer_Aspire_L3600_Desktop_PC_A1-9P.6DG9Z.UHT/version.asp
Also how cheap can I do this for.
Any advice & help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
This is the computer: http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/GRADE_A1_-_Acer_Aspire_L3600_Desktop_PC_A1-9P.6DG9Z.UHT/version.asp
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http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20
and see what it says.
Also look at
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/products/system-requirements
And prices
http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/software/645/676/677
The motherboard dictates what can be installed and the manual is my first port of call when considering an upgrade.
I have found this:
http://www.manualowl.com/m/Acer%20Computers/Aspire-L3600/Manual/114162
From that I can see the board only has 2 slots for RAM and it looks like they are both populated by 512Mb sticks.
Which means to upgrade them you are more than likely going to want to take those out and put 2 higher capacity sticks in. You are going to want at least 4Gb with Windows 7 so 2 x 2Gb sticks will do the job.
This is the older DDR2 memory which brand new is priced higher than you can get an equivalent of DDR3. Though you may be able to get something cheaper of eBay but I find the prices tend to stay high as everyone else is after a cheap upgrade.
You want to upgrade the Hard Drive too. That means buying a new one, if you are going to do that you should consider that you may as well put the new one in a new system.
You want to replace the OS. So you are going to have to buy a fresh version.
I think by the time you have factored all that in. It would be easier and cheaper to get something new.
A lot of new systems come in at price points which including a OS is very competitive to what it would cost you if you do it yourself.
Alternatively, get a cheap used system of eBay.
A 1TB hard drive is going to be around £50
4Gb DDR3 is around £30 atm
What is driving the upgrade? What do you use it for and I'm assuming its slow in some aspect of what you do that is wanting you to upgrade.
Looks from that manual that the maximum memory it can take is 2gb, 1gb per dimm slot, that will be just ok for windows 7. Two 1gb ddr2 ram modules would be about £30 max.
I didn't check max capacity. If its limited to 2GB that further leans me to replacing the unit as a whole.
I wouldn't want to spend £30 for an extra gig of memory unless that was maybe the only thing I was upgrading.