 "Budget PC Upgrade for Rs. 20,000")
Today’s PC is a far cry from the simple tasks they were used for just a few short years ago. Apart from the normal office work that PCs are used for they also double up as media entertainment centers and powerful gaming machines. With the advent of the dual-core era, applications and games have become more demanding. This has left a lot of us with older PCs in the lurch. Prices for high-end graphics and extreme performance also have entered levels that put them beyond the reach of the common man. This has not been without some benefits though. Whenever a new product is launched prices of the previous generation products tend to crash by quite a bit. For those of you looking to upgrade your current PC but don’t want to invest in new peripherals, here is a quick breakup of the best money can buy when you are on a budget of just Rs 20,000.
CPU: AMD 3000+ Socket 939 (Rs 4700)
The AMD 3000+ is based on the Socket 939 platform and is a good option. With its core running at 1.8 GHz one of its benefits is the integrated DDR memory controller that supports dual channel DDR RAM. Hence by pairing your RAM you can derive some great performance from this CPU.
Motherboard: MSI K8NGM2-FID Motherboard (Rs 4800)
This board is altogether not too well known being overshadowed by the Asus juggernaut in India. Built on NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP chipset, it comes fully equipped with onboard LAN, graphics and support for HD audio which makes it an absolute buy in this segment. Since it does feature a standard PCI-e 16x Slot you can at a later stage buy a dedicated graphical solution. The board can accommodate more powerful processors like the FX60 so its upgradeability is a plus point.
