What kind of upgrades can I make to an HP Pavilion XG836?

Question

I just got this computer from a friend who rarely touched it, but it's a few years old. So far I am planning on upgrading to 512 MB of RAM and putting an ethernet port on it. I also will probably put a burner in it. Is there anything else that I can do to make it better? What about the Intel Celeron 733 MHz processor, can I upgrade that? Is it worth upgrading?

Here are the specs.:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=58073&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph06253

Answer 1

Intel Celeron (TM) 733 MHz processor
Maximum RAM 512 MB
Video PCI

I do not consider it worth upgrading.
733 MHz too slow to use XP if you will want to listen to music or watch video; it will not be able to keep up.

Will support a CD burner but is too slow for a DVD burner.

PCI video cards are slow.
PCI 132 MB/s
AGP 8X 2,100 MB/s
PCI Express 16x 4000 [8000]* MB/s

* For PCI Express data can be sent over the bus in two directions at once. Also with PCI Express bandwidth is not shared the same way as in PCI, so there is less congestion on the bus.


Ebay (completed listings)
Gateway 2.6GHz Celeron CDRW 512MB RAM XP Pro, 10/100MB Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports $127 +$40 shipping

Dell outlet
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

Dimension E521 Small Mini-Tower:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0GHz)
Windows Vista Home Basic (basic version is poor)
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
80 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive
V.92/56K PCI DataFax Modem
16X DVD ROM (not burner)
Scratch & Dent
System Price : $229.00 includes full warranty

Dimension E521 Small Mini-Tower:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0GHz)
Windows Vista Home Premium
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs)
80 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
V.92/56K PCI DataFax Modem
USB Keyboard and mouse
48X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive (not burner)
Corel Paint Shop Pro XI - Advanced photo editing
Microsoft Works 8.5
USB Keyboard Dell Optical USB 2-button Mouse
Scratch & Dent
System Price : $279.00 includes full warranty

Answer 2

You may be able to upgrade the processor to a Intel P3 1.26GHz socket 370. Get a new CPU fan for it though, the old one will not cool the CPU enough. Use "Arctic Silver" CPU thermal grease (paste) when you install the new CPU fan. If you do that, you will have to re-activate your copy of WinXP by phone. Any major changes to the configuration of your computer i.e. mobo or processor. will trigger the reactivation. You could add another HDD for storage. A DVD burner is what I hope you are installing, since it is the most versatile. 512 MB of Ram is the max that the mobo will handle. It is only worth upgrading if your going to use it! It would probably cost you about $250-$300 to upgrade this one. You can get new low end desktops for about the same money. I wouldn't upgrade the processor. Do the burner and memory, if you want another hard drive, go to garage sales and find an old computer that you can part out for the HDD. That would be the cheapest way to do it.

http://www.santechusa.com/desc.asp?Global_Category_Id=1&category_id=1&id=8303&weight=1&item_name=INTEL%20PIII%201.26GHZ/512/1.45%20FC/370%20SL5QL%20CPU&item_price=65

Answer 3

It has socket 370 CPU and Celeron is pre Pentium. This pc will make for a good secondary pc. Memory and burner dont cost much so thats a reasonable upgrade, but to start upgrading the core hardware like the cpu, etc i believe is a waste of time/money.

Yes there are things you can do to the Windows operating system to make it better/faster performance wise. If you add me to yahoo messenger i'll show you some tricks. sadeyzluv is my yahoo id.

Answer 4

Nope u cant improve in simple terms through procuring a clean GPU u will could desire to purchase a clean mom board with extra effective GPU or new laptop with extra effective GPU that the only strategies u can improve.if u choose a upgradeable laptop then purchase a working laptop or laptop that say non-integrated GPU or video card

Answer 5

What kind of upgrades can you do?

Everything from a couple of cards (memory / vid / sound) to a new mobo, processor, etc.

Answer 6

you can do processor,motherboard,sound card,video,card,hard drive, you can do whatever you want the possibilities are endless.

after looking at your spec's just buy a new one cause to do alot of upgrading then your just building one. you can do that too just use the pc's shell.