What's the best way of re-purposing a 775 socket system?

[Captain Griffin]

Ahoy there all,

I've found my way here due to the fact that I currently have an older custom PC build in which I'd like to do some refinements so that it can last all the way up to 2025. That being said so, I don't feel like ditching it all together so I would like some recommendations about the path I should follow to upgrade it if you don't me asking away.

Let's get straight to the computer's specifications:

Intel Pentium E5200 @ 2.50GHz (Wolfdale 45nm)
PSU 350W ~Unknown brand
Kingston 4,00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-6-6-18)
Gigabyte G31M-S2L Motherboard (Socket 775)
NVIDIA GeForce 210 1024MB GDDR3 VRAM
Western Digital 298GB HDD (WD3200AAKS)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

For the above-mentioned system, I have decided changing both the case and the PSU. My reason behind this is that the case is too old that dust can easily find it way in and I'd have to clean-up the inside once every other day - as for the PSU, I'd rather not risk leaving the unknown brand ruin my hardware should a power outage arises.

Also do note that the memory were upgraded two years ago and it can't go beyond 4GB of ram.

What about the processor and GPU? Do you have any ideas on what direction to follow? The E5200 is a dual-core CPU so I'd love to see an upgrade with a quad-core for a change

Last but not least, thank you for giving me a chance to interact with all of you.

Drop me a line down in the comments if you have something particular on mind.

Captain Griffin Snayperskya

PS:I leave on Greece so finding a CPU that old might require me to purchase it from abroad so that could be an issue as well.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Captain,

First thing that caught my eye
MAX 4GB ram, via DDR2
Thats reallly the limiter, and if im reading your graphics card details correctly its taking 1gb of it.
upgrading the graphics card might reduce that, but its not really a gaming rig

Its what you want to use it for,
if its just for normal day to use then your dual core Cpu is fine.
If your just after better/faster performance then its SSD time.

As for the power outage possibility,
get Macrium (free) back up once a week.

Im sure youll get more from the members.

Roy

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
I have/ had the same e5200
Use this site to see your upgrade options
These were my upgrades which I got a Q9550 cheap from amazon
acer wg43m mainboard specs