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upgrading an old computer

E

earthscore

Gawd
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
542
my comp is 3-4 years old, i got a 500$$ budget to upgrade it as much as possible. i really need a new vid card and some ram, could ppl give me some suggestions of what i should do to upgrade my comp with the money.

btw-windows ME,(comp cant take xp), i lag alot in cpu games, and im on i think 112k..

edit: 500 canadian(yeah i know a bummer)
 
i dont know, its old and i was looking through the stuff and i couldnt find a list of what i have now..
 
Sort of makes it hard for us to help if we have no clue what you have to start out with.

Chances are that will be a really tight budget to get what the computer really needs if it is indeed 5 years old. It will probably need a motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card so pretty much the majority of a whole computer for 250 USD...

Download and run This for starters. It is WCPUID which should be able to give us a clue on your processor and amount of RAM. You will probably want to open up the case and check what vid card you have and motherboard make and model but chances are they are going to be so down the list that it won't matter. You comp is probably at the point that almost anything will be an upgrade.
 
Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows ME
OS Service Pack None
Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106 (IE 6.0 SP1)


Motherboard
CPU Type Intel Pentium IIIE, 733 MHz (5.5 x 133)
Motherboard Name Asus CUV4X (1 ISA, 5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 1 AMR, 3 DIMM, Audio)
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8604/5/6 ProSavage PL133/PM133/PN133
System Memory 128 MB (PC100 SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Medallion (06/19/00)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port EPSON Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter 3dfx Voodoo3
3D Accelerator 3Dfx Voodoo3
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (103358916)

Multimedia
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! 5.1 Sound Card

Storage
Floppy Drive GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK
Disk Drive GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE47
Optical Drive E-IDE CD-ROM 56X/AKH (56x CD-ROM)
Optical Drive LITE-ON LTR-48246S (48x/24x/48x CD-RW)

Partitions
C: (FAT32) 38160 MB (29412 MB free)

Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Mouse PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port



Peripherals
Printer EPSON Stylus COLOR 670
USB Device Unknown Device


woot! go some program i downloaded ;)
 
For $500 you could build a new AMD XP 2000 System with OS. It might not be the best gaming machine, but it will beat the hell out of anything you have now.
 
Say we keep your hard drive and optical drive. Here is a example system for you from New Egg.

XP2000 CPU w/HSF $59
FOXCONN "400M01-G-6L" (has onboard nic, sound and video, 8x agp, 3 pci) $51
Viking 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-2700 $73
Win Xp Home
Cheap Case

Probably around $300. You can use the other $200 for upgrades you might want like video card, sound, better memory, faster processor.
 
Yeah.. definitely get away from WinME.. ;)

Anyhoo.
In USD.. about 370 bones to play with.. [Just lookin on newegg for some base prices]
$225 Radeon 9800Pro 128MB
$60 nForce2 Motherboard [perhaps an Asus A7N8X model..]
$60 AMD A XP 2000+ w/heatsink
$80 512MB RAM [Mushkin or Corsair]
____
425

Find about $70 more canadian bones and that would be a good start.

Ideally ya might want to go for 1GB RAM.. but on a tight budget.. the 512 should do for now. I have an older A7N8X Deluxe board with an AMD 2500+, 9800Pro and have been pleased with it. Just recently upgraded to 1GB RAM [Corsair] and find map loadings are a bit faster, gaming a bit smoother.. but it was playable with 512 and just upgraded cause I used my old RAM in a friends computer.
You could downgrade the videocard and save a little money for a new case or the RAM. Here is an idea on the different performances of the lower end cards. There has been a lot of driver improcements since that was done but it will give you an idea. I think they have comparisons for different games, also.
 
start by looking in the used section for memory. you want at least 512MB total. a 512MB stick will cost you about $110. Three 128's will cost you more. check EBay, too. Also check for a faster processor; a 1.0G will go for about $100 new. There are quite a few different versions of your motherboard. check the ASUS website for manuals, etc.

I still miss my old V3000. There are a few updated drivers out there - even for WXP, although how they work with games I do not know.

I bought a MadDog ATI 7200 for $3 after rebates. Even this old board may be more powerful than the V3000. Basically you want a videocard for about $100. There are quite a few out there, especially after rebates. Again, check the used section and EBay.

For now all you really need is more memory. You should be able to find 512MB for cheap. Just run memtest86 on it once you get it. Are there used computer stores near you? check the universities and the newspapers.
 
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