Old Desktop Upgrade possibilities

Hello Guys!
I do have an old desktop back home in Romania that my family is using it so i can keep in touch with them,and i want to upgrade it a bit because when i am going home and using it...seems a bit slow and...it is quite old!
I do need some advice with the possibilites of upgrade!
I have just bought a kingston ssd 64gb so i can install the OS on it and use the other drives for storage and i will list the components of the pc!
motherboard: gigabyte m61p-s3
video graphics card: nvidia geforce 8500 gt
CPU: amd athlon 64x2 dual core 4000+
RAM: 3.5 gb
I am opened to any advice & sugestions
Thank you

I looked up the specs of that motherboard at Gigabyte.

It was apparently released in 2006 and uses DDR 2.

If I were you, I would install the SSD and see how much that improves your overall experience.

The only other thing I might do is upgrade the processor--but I did not research how much of an improvement that might provide.

Quite possibly, I wouldn't do anything other than the SSD. It's hard to justify putting money into a 6 year old system.

I don't know what processor to use as i am not a big pc expert...
What would you recomande??
As for the ssd...i got it yesterday and on my laptop(hp dv6-1130sa) droped the boot time from 120 sec to about 20-23sec...as i have timed a few times and it's not the same time always...but most of the times is between 20-23 sec...and the most amazing time was after a fresh windows install my laptop booted up in 13 sec :O:O:O
thank you for the advice!

I know very little about AMD machines, but.....

It is entirely possible that you won't be able to find a new processor that will fit into that motherboard, because it's 6 year old technology. That motherboard has an AM2 CPU socket.

I would wait to see if someone with more knowledge of AMD has comments.

I did look at Newegg for AM2 socket processors and found almost nothing. So you may be out of luck and that may be just as well---the better idea may be to go with the SSD and nothing else. Then just save up money and replace the motherboard, CPU, and RAM in the PC. You could replace all of that for maybe $350 or $400 and have a pretty strong machine.

Thank you for helping me!
Well if it comes for a new desktop that will be in a few years as at the moment i am waiting for hp to lounch theyre new generation oh hp-dv6 with ivy bridge and nvidia graphics!
As for the desktop...do you think meanwhile i can buy "futureproof" components and to use them on my pc when i am going home for good?
I have a few ideas( they not include any MB or cpu,gpu as they will be better one before i go home)
The case i have seen that corsair has a nice one...the 600T,PSU corsair 650W,Cpu cooler corsair H70,and i am planing to use a 256 ssd for OS(Speaking of SSD...witch one is more reliable,as my laptop feels the need for such an upgrade??)
This are some ideas that i was thinking to buy them...using on the curent 6 years old pc and reuse them when i am building my home desktop...could be a few years time from now.
And one last thing...i kinda love the way it looks the case of the Alienware aurora r4 looks like and the idea of the drives storage like on the alienware area 51 on the right side of the panel...
Best regards and thank you for all the advice and time to help me!

Wyzo said:

As for the desktop...do you think meanwhile i can buy "futureproof" components and to use them on my pc when i am going home for good?

The case i have seen that corsair has a nice one...the 600T,PSU corsair 650W,Cpu cooler corsair H70,and i am planing to use a 256 ssd for OS(Speaking of SSD...witch one is more reliable,as my laptop feels the need for such an upgrade??)

I don't believe there is such a thing as "futureproof" and I don't use the word.

If you are talking about the old PC in Romania, the only thing I might keep from it would be the case----maybe. I'd replace the rest of the 6 year old parts: PSU, RAM, motherboard, CPU, cooler, video cards, and probably the hard drive and optical drive.

SSD: I would choose Intel or Samsung. Until a few months ago, I would have said Crucial is good too, but they seem to be having some problems lately.

You certainly don't need a 256 GB SSD for the OS. Windows takes less than 20 GB. An 80 GB or 120 GB should be plenty large enough and should be large enough to hold most or all of your programs.

Well after all i think you are right and just stick with the ssd!
The case is very old aswell...is a mid atx...crapy one,because at the time i prefered to invest more in the components and not in the case!For me at the time(even now i can say) it does the job very well...just needs a bit more speed.
And about the intel ssd for my laptop,i do need something a bit bigger as i move around quite a bit and my dv6 has only one drive bay (only dv7 has 2 bays and one can be used for an ssd for OS).So let me ask you this...witch intel ssd would you use (with an aprox 250gb size) as i don't know witch one to use( i am using the laptop most of the times for photoshop editing,watching bluray movies and quite a few other programs mainly for photo editing)?

Intel has 2 SSD series: 320 and 520.

I've got the 320 series 80 GB, but I'm not sure if there is a 320 series SSD at 240 or 250 GB, so your only Intel choice might be the 520 series:

Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A310 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Internal SSD

But I haven't seriously investigated SSDs that large.

Well i have to say they both look very amazing in performance...but i don see what is the difference between them,except the price...
Would you explain me how are they different pls?

The specs appear identical.

One is OEM and the other is Retail box, but normally you would expect the OEM to be cheaper. It isn't in this case.

They may differ in warranty?? The retail version does not show warranty info.

I'd contact Intel customer support directly and ask.