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What are some good upgrades for this old pc

post #1 of 24
3/5/06 at 9:22pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Gateway performance 933 desktop. It was built in '01, It has windows me, 933mhz Plll, and 384mb of ram. Its starting to be too old of technology to use todays products. I have upgraded to an ati radeon 9200 graphics card, network adapter for my dsl, and a usb 2.0 card (which I cant get to work). I have gotten my new laptop so now I really noticed how slow the desktop is. I cant use my office 2003 software on it because its too old and I cant use my flash memory stick on it because they are for usb 2.0. I bought the 2.0 usb card to replace the original 1.1 usb's but I cant get it to work.

I heard the windows me edition was any good so would I be better off upgrading to windows 2000? Xp is too expensive still. Any way to rebuild it with a faster processor? I know with the current motherboard it has a socket 370 for the processor so I would be able to bump up to 1ghz Plll, Is it easy to swap out the motherboard so I can get maybe 1.8 ghz or faster processor? Any other recommendations?
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post #2 of 24
3/5/06 at 10:03pm
I think for the money you would be spending on a new CPU/mobo, it would be best to just get a new system. Which would come with WinXP preinstalled, so you wouldn't have to worry about that either. Also, I think that your USB 2.0 flash memory will still work on the USB 1.1, just at 1.1 speed, not 2.0.
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post #3 of 24
3/5/06 at 10:35pm
don't even bother
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post #4 of 24
3/5/06 at 10:40pm
i was in a similar situation as yours. i had an old 2001 dell desktop with P3 866mhz.

what i did:
-----------
VIDEO:
-stock: intel i810
-upgrade: nvidia fx5700le 128mb

RAM:
-stock: Micron 128mb (1x128)
-upgrade: Kingston 512mb (2x256)

CD-RW:
-stock: 12x cd-rw
-updrade: 48x cd-rw

HDD:
-stock: maxtor 18gb 5400rpm
-upgrade: WesternDigital 40gb 7200rpm

OS:
-stock: Windows ME
-upgrade (current): Mandriva 2005LE

Other upgrades:
- 4 port USB2.0 pci card (mobo has 2 1.1 ports stock)
- Intel Ethernet 100 Pro LAN card (no lan stock)


CPU: (back to original since the replacement fried because i didn't check the fan rating, sure enough it wasn't meant to deal with repaced)
-stock: 866mhz
-upgrade: 1ghz

RESULT:
A way more stable, and powerful office and internet machine. Hell, even pulls off some gaming once in a while (runs ET just fine)
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post #5 of 24
3/5/06 at 10:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiresmokinV8
I know with the current motherboard it has a socket 370 for the processor so I would be able to bump up to 1ghz Plll, Is it easy to swap out the motherboard so I can get maybe 1.8 ghz or faster processor? Any other recommendations?
If you want to know how much it is to upgrade. You can get a Socket 939 motherboard ($60), AMD 64 CPU ($150), 1GB RAM ($70), case w/PS ($70), PCI-e video card ($80),Windows XP home ($70)

That's a total of $500. Pretty cheap considering most manufacturers like Dell and HP only put in 512MB of ram and cost close to $800. Granted I didn't include an LCD monitor but still the functionality and value you get from upgrading and building yourself is priceless.
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post #6 of 24
3/5/06 at 11:52pm
not tru, sometimes buying from dell n hp is cheaper if you get them on a sale.
i got a dim9150 pretty fully loaded with 1gb,dualcore 2.8,dvd rw, weak video card n 2405fpw along with 17lcd for only 1200ish after tax back then. but then again the dell pc is not as great because of limited bios stuff. therefore i sold the pc and built myself an amd rig: the one from my sig. it is better but costs so much more.
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post #7 of 24
3/6/06 at 2:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobile_Hackbox
If you want to know how much it is to upgrade. You can get a Socket 939 motherboard ($60), AMD 64 CPU ($150), 1GB RAM ($70), case w/PS ($70), PCI-e video card ($80),Windows XP home ($70)

That's a total of $500. Pretty cheap considering most manufacturers like Dell and HP only put in 512MB of ram and cost close to $800. Granted I didn't include an LCD monitor but still the functionality and value you get from upgrading and building yourself is priceless.
jeez, thats not really an upgrade. More of a new build if you ask me.
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post #8 of 24
3/6/06 at 5:02pm
what kind of stuff exactly are you doing with this pc?

sometimes, it's just cheaper to buy a whole new pc than to try to upgrade an old one.
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post #9 of 24
3/6/06 at 5:16pm
Thread Starter 
Its a family pc so its mostly used for school work and surfing the net and currently turbo tax. The usb wont work because when I plug in the flash drive I get the ntkern error for the mass storage device. I checked at school today and I can get windows xp pro for 20 bux through the school. Should I go for it. What are the requirements for xp?
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post #10 of 24
3/6/06 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiresmokinV8
Its a family pc so its mostly used for school work and surfing the net and currently turbo tax. The usb wont work because when I plug in the flash drive I get the ntkern error for the mass storage device. I checked at school today and I can get windows xp pro for 20 bux through the school. Should I go for it. What are the requirements for xp?
The speed jump from 933 to 1GHz is negligible. The fastest P3 is the 1.2GHz Tualatin (which I have and overclocked to 1.4GHz). These are rare, as Intel stopped producing them years ago (even for the server market), and inventory is nearly wiped out.

Knowing the rarity of finding P3's faster than 1GHz, it's alot more cost effective to buy a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card.
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post #11 of 24
3/6/06 at 7:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiresmokinV8
Its a family pc so its mostly used for school work and surfing the net and currently turbo tax. The usb wont work because when I plug in the flash drive I get the ntkern error for the mass storage device. I checked at school today and I can get windows xp pro for 20 bux through the school. Should I go for it. What are the requirements for xp?
It'll do XP pro just fine. I ran it on my old P3 600MHz laptop with 256MB ram for a few years (it still has it but I just upgraded the laptop). It'll definatley run better thnat he ME and will probably even resolve the USB 2.0 issure you had.

You'll want to throw more ram in there, go to whatever the max is for that model, sicne it'll probably be 133MHz, it shouldn't be too expensive.
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post #12 of 24
3/7/06 at 2:29am
Thread Starter 
Yea it uses the pc100/133 ram but they are terribly expensive. I checked newegg and from them its around 60 and up for 256mb. That got me thinking that it may be cheaper to get a motherboard that accepts the cheaper yet faster ram and a Pentium 4 maybe around 2-2.5 ghz processor. What are my options for a motherboard? It needs to have at least one apg slot for my graphics card and I would like at least 4 pci slots. With the faster proceessor what to I need cooling wise? Doesnt the pentium 4's have a fan on top of the processor? How would I wire up that fan? I just want something faster and quicker without having to get a whole new computer and load all my old programs and such. I dont need a bigger hardrive and the cdrom and the cd rw drive are both fine.
Thanks
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post #13 of 24
3/7/06 at 2:33am
Well, if you get a new motherboard, you're going to have to reformat.
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post #14 of 24
3/7/06 at 4:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiresmokinV8
Yea it uses the pc100/133 ram but they are terribly expensive. I checked newegg and from them its around 60 and up for 256mb. That got me thinking that it may be cheaper to get a motherboard that accepts the cheaper yet faster ram and a Pentium 4 maybe around 2-2.5 ghz processor. What are my options for a motherboard? It needs to have at least one apg slot for my graphics card and I would like at least 4 pci slots. With the faster proceessor what to I need cooling wise? Doesnt the pentium 4's have a fan on top of the processor? How would I wire up that fan? I just want something faster and quicker without having to get a whole new computer and load all my old programs and such. I dont need a bigger hardrive and the cdrom and the cd rw drive are both fine.
Thanks
If you buy a retail CPU, they come with a heatsink & fan combo. The CPU fan has a small 3-pin connector that plugs into the motherboard. If you have enough money for a cheap PCI-E video card, I'd suggest going for it.

But for $50 you can get a socket 939 motherboard, $35 gets a 512MB 200MHz RAM DIMM, and $145 an A64 3000+ CPU w/ heatsink. If you go PCIe video, that'll be extra, but for ~$230 you can get nearly a whole new system.
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post #15 of 24
3/7/06 at 12:00pm
My guess is that you could find 100/133 Mhz RAM much cheaper then 60. More then a year ago upgraded my GF's 800 PIII. ANyway she is using it for home stuff so not much needed. Here's what we changed:
128 MB 133 SD Ram -> 384 MB ($20 - and they were already out of official shops)
10 GB HDD -> 80 GB HDD ($100 - at that time)
TNT2 32 MB -> she is still waiting for my GF2 400 - 64MB )
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post #16 of 24
3/7/06 at 1:02pm
Thread Starter 
I think Ill stick with my current video card since its fine for what we do. Its an ati 128mb radeon 9200se agp. Whats the difference between the AMD 3000+ cpu and the pentium 4 cpu? Ive been checking ebay for the pentium 4's
that come with the heatsink and fan. The prices arent too bad. Is there anything wrong with getting one that is slightly used but is being sold from a shop that testes them? We have always gotten computers with intel Pentium processors so I dont know much about the AMD's.
If I get a new motherboard and processor then Ill have to reformat the HD? How do I go about doing that? Im not planning on doing anything until tax season is over since my dad is doing everyones taxes on it right now.
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post #17 of 24
3/7/06 at 2:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g00nter
It'll do XP pro just fine. I ran it on my old P3 600MHz laptop with 256MB ram for a few years (it still has it but I just upgraded the laptop). It'll definatley run better thnat he ME and will probably even resolve the USB 2.0 issure you had.

You'll want to throw more ram in there, go to whatever the max is for that model, sicne it'll probably be 133MHz, it shouldn't be too expensive.
I think you should just upgrade the ram, and get that xp pro. your that p3 should run XP just fiine for what you want it to do. I also ran xp on my p3 600 for the longest time...and it still runs today. By doing this, you can get a working xp pro machine for about $150. ($20 for xp, $50 for RAM?, that leaves you $80 for a graphics card)

If you want to go and spend the $$ to upgrade your mobo, cpu, fan/heatsink (which then will mean new ram, and you're going to upgrade the video card anyways...) the best value, is to just get a new machine! (then you'll have 2)
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post #18 of 24
3/7/06 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
I found some 512mb pc133 ram for 55 bux. Its a rosswell brand. Are they any good? I am going to try this and the xp pro first and hope that it may be good enough. It should.
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post #19 of 24
3/7/06 at 11:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiresmokinV8
I found some 512mb pc133 ram for 55 bux. Its a rosswell brand. Are they any good? I am going to try this and the xp pro first and hope that it may be good enough. It should.
...
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post #20 of 24
3/7/06 at 11:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiresmokinV8
I found some 512mb pc133 ram for 55 bux. Its a rosswell brand. Are they any good? I am going to try this and the xp pro first and hope that it may be good enough. It should.
You can get 1GB PC3200 ram at Newegg for $55.
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