Ok, my family is upgrading our Desktop PC. As resident nerd, I was nominated for the task, the bad news is I'm not a computer nerd, and as such, don't know what I'm doing. I would like to build a respectible rig, and not hurt our wallets too much (under a grand definately, under 700 is the ideal) Below is a brief list of specs for my current PC. I know I will need to upgrade a lot, but if at all possible, I'd like to salvage some parts to help with the cost...
SONY VAIO PCV-RS 410 running Windows XP home edition on an Intel Pentium 4 processor 2.66 GHz with 504Mb RAM
120 Gb Hard Drive (it's split, 20 Gb on C Drive, 100 on D) and I have a 200 Gb Maxtor hard drive (xmas present, still in the box) and 300 Gb external hard drive
SONY DM-HX93 19" Screen
845GV Intel Extreme Graphics
Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controler
256 PC-2100 DDR
2 i.LINK S400 ports an 4 USB 2.0 ports
CD-ROM drive and DVD+-RW/CD-RW drive
I'm new at building PC's, so don't make it too hard, good luck!
2007-06-09 10:07:01 · 9 answers · asked by Joe D 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
first of all you need to ind out what socket your processor is.
Pentium 4s come in 2 socket flavors:
socket 478
LGA 775
If your motherboard supports lga775 the good news is you can upgrade to a dual core Pentium D (possibly by updating your BIOS - very easy)
I actually bought a dual core pentium D at frys electronics the other day for $50
You may want to get the memory to about a gig also,
most likely your motherboard can support up to ddr 1 pc3200 ram, so just get 2 sticks of 512MB and slap them in, this shouldnt cost more than about $100
the final thing you may want to upgrade is your video card. I am guessing that your motherboard either has PCI slots, or pci slots and an AGP.
an AGP card would give you the best performance over a PCI video card.
Use a program like http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html to identify some of the slots and specs of your computer without opening the side up. If you do choose to open your computer chasis, you will be able to tell the AGP slot from the PCI slots (which are usually white) because it will be indented (compared with the pci slots) and most likely a different color
When it comes to choosing a video card, dont just go with one based on the amount of memory it has, as this is not the biggest factor. You can, for example, have an nvidia fx6600 with 128mb that will completely own a fx5200 with 256mb
the Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controler basically takes some of your physical ram and uses it for video...so its like using 1 person for 2 jobs...is a bit slower. By getting a dedicated video card you will free up your memory so that it can stick to tasks it was truly meant for instead of being spread thin for video tasks
overall, you shouldnt have to spend more than $200-400 upgrading your machine. Feel free to email me for any more specifics/questions
Best of luck to you
BTW Newegg.com and 3btech.com are great websites for purchasing computer parts
2007-06-09 10:24:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
why don't you just get a bear bone system from a local shop that way you will have a better service should anything go wrong with it
that way it will be built and tested...
a bearbone system is =
Case + power pack
Motherboard
CPU (your choice)
Memory
Graphics Card
then when it arrives you will then install the Hard drive, cd and dvd and hey bingo you have your new system
by the way there is nothing wrong with the system you have now,, I am still running a Pentium 2.4 and thats fast... but I am not running windows, I use linux ubuntu... which out shines windows Vista in every way
just check out what you can do with what you already have,,, you may need more memory though but it will run... click on the youtube link
to give you an idea what a bearbone is check out the links below click on any of the other links
2007-06-09 10:22:05 · answer #2 · answered by Carling 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
well you have plenty of harddrive capacity. you can keep all that and use it again in the new pc. i would also recommend keeping the case because thats the most reusable thing there is. monitor, cd/dvd drive, floppy drive, and any pci cards or expansion slots you might have. motherboard, ram, cpu, powersupply, and video card if you want dedicated graphics all need to be replaced.
http://secure.newegg.com/Newversion/Shopping/shoppingcart.asp?submit=view
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828919&CatId=1079
those two links are links to everything you need to upgrade to a budget yet very respectful computer system. the power supply even happens to be the same one i use. i dont know the format of your computer case but the motherboard i picked will fit most any. if needbe you can go on newegg.com and pick up a new case for 20 - 30 dollars. happy building.
2007-06-09 10:28:18 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
everything you have listed is very outdated. If you are planning on building this, and dont know too much about computers then I would suggest trying a premade company. But if you are going to do it yourself. I would get a new processor, just make sure it fits the same socket. I would also get a graphics card, if you have a PCI-E slot. The ram is really unacceptable, I would get ddr400 and at least 1.5 gigs of it.
2007-06-09 10:13:16 · answer #4 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Your hardware is NOT outdated (I still utilize two 1.8GHz P4 pc's on my network). It just depends on what you want to do with it. Yes, you definitely need more RAM (at least 1 Gb), but unless you do a lot of gaming (either networked or online) your hardware is fine. I would recommend repartitioning your hard drive to a minimum 50-50% split (Partition Magic Is what we use at work). Beyond the RAM upgrade (which will help XP immensely), you might want to look at another pc and network the two. They can share hardware and software, and an internet connection.
2007-06-09 10:31:55 · answer #5 · answered by Steve B 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You didnt say what brand of mobo you had.#1upgrade to pentium 4 3.0 or 3.4 GHz processor.Shop around on internet about $100.00.#2Install more ram.PC3200 1 GB=$46.00 you need 2.You can get at Spartan Technologies,Elk Grove,ILL.Toll free 1-888-393-0340( PC3200 Part# MDD400)Install the above componets and the 200GB hard drive and youll have what you want.Everything else is ok
2007-06-09 10:44:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Windows XP Minimum Specifications OS: Windows XP with SP3 CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater RAM: 1GB or more Video: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater DVD ROM (Physical copy) 20 GB HD space
2016-05-21 00:46:51 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yea, definately work on your RAM. Keeping your computer defrag'd and clean, and also 1GB+ of RAM will make it super quick!
Since i only know a lot about RAM im not going to give my opinion on anything other than quite a few of those things are a bit outdated.
2007-06-09 10:16:31 · answer #8 · answered by Guido~CdubZ 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Get a new processor
Get new RAM (Faster the Better)
Get a new Graphics Card
2007-06-09 10:18:29 · answer #9 · answered by Brent W 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋