old comp

  • Thread starter SS69
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SS69

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ok so my comp is old. about 4 - 5 years. and now i need to upgrade it. i havent talked to my brother yet. he could probably upgrade it for free. but anyways. it has 570 mhz, pentium 2, 64mb ram. so can i upgrade it fairly cheap or should i just get a new one? i know should get another ram chip. a mother board and a processor. but it think i should just get a new comp. what do you think?
 
I would take pieces from your old computer and put them together with new hardware and build a new computer. You'll have to throw away the Pentium 2 and motherboard. It's just too old to upgrade. But, hardware like your CD-ROM drive, modem, hard drives, etc., you can keep and use them for your new computer.
 
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I would suggest that it's more economical to throw the whole thing away and buy a new PC. Maybe not throw it away - you could put Linux on it and use it as a development/test/learning machine.
 
Slap a ATI 8500 in it and let it rip. YOu could get some additional game play out of it before you have to retire it. ;)

Just a thought, that's just my conservative side coming or as Giles suggested, try some experimenting with it. Maybe someone in the house needs something just for emails and word processing. :)
 
Originally posted by Pako
Slap a ATI 8500 in it and let it rip. YOu could get some additional game play out of it before you have to retire it. ;)

Just a thought, that's just my conservative side coming or as Giles suggested, try some experimenting with it. Maybe someone in the house needs something just for emails and word processing. :)
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Indeed. NT4 Workstation would be stable for productivity apps (Outlook, Word etc), and would fly.
 
Sorry to dig up an old thread but I have an old desktop and I'm entertaining Upgrading it to be able to play new games like GTR on it and surf the web.

I think all we need is the motherboard/cpu, memory and a video card. I don't really know a lot about specs but my dad is looking around. I wanted to get your guys input. He says we can decently upgrade the mb/cpu and memory for around $300 but I'm skeptical I think it will be around $500 because of memory. What do you guys think?
 
VIPFREAK
Sorry to dig up an old thread but I have an old desktop and I'm entertaining Upgrading it to be able to play new games like GTR on it and surf the web.

I think all we need is the motherboard/cpu, memory and a video card. I don't really know a lot about specs but my dad is looking around. I wanted to get your guys input. He says we can decently upgrade the mb/cpu and memory for around $300 but I'm skeptical I think it will be around $500 because of memory. What do you guys think?
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eBay it. You can get a lot of old computer parts for cheap there. We just got a new motherboard with a 550Mhz PIII for $25.
 
:odd: PIII? We were thinking like P4 and around 2.8ghz or so I think to start off with... that or AMD 64 but it doesn't seem worth it according to my dad.
 
Event
eBay it. You can get a lot of old computer parts for cheap there. We just got a new motherboard with a 550Mhz PIII for $25.
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You're NEVER going to play GTR with a PIII 550mhz. :odd:
 
Depending on the PSU you've got atm you might need to upgrade that too. A newer CPU and perhaps a newer graphics card might need a heftier lump. What are your current specs (the more detailed, the more helpful)?
 
I don't think it makes a difference but... I think it's closer to SS69's specs but I believe it was a PIII 800mhz?
 
VIPFREAK
I don't think it makes a difference but... I think it's closer to SS69's specs but I believe it was a PIII 800mhz?
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Do you know what your PSU is rated at? If not, take a look in the case and see if you can see the manufacturer's sticker on it. On a P3 800MHz machine, it's almost certainly gonna be <300W and probably 250W. If you're getting an AMD64 (and I'd recommend an AMD over an Intel any day), and you'll probably need to get a new graphics card, plus your hard drive(s) and any optical drives will push the needs of the machine up quite high.

edit: Take a look at this http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
 
Also when building a new system 2 things you should take time looking over are:

PC Case
PSU

Aswell make sure you get a CPU with 64bit since the next microsoft OS needs a 64bit CPU.

Make sure the motherboard also supports PCI Express, plus remember make sure the case can also support BTX since thats the next step up in case design from ATX.
 
VIPFREAK
FSB is important too... we were looking at ones with 800mhz and 2gb of memory (that or 1gb?).
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought only the newer the P4's that run hot enough to use as a hotplate to cook your meat on have 800mhz FSB. And Windows will never take advantage of more than 1GB of memory. Save your money and use the extra money you were going to spend on a CPU with more punch.
 
Shannon
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought only the newer the P4's that run hot enough to use as a hotplate to cook your meat on have 800mhz FSB. And Windows will never take advantage of more than 1GB of memory. Save your money and use the extra money you were going to spend on a CPU with more punch.
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Well, win32 can take advantage of (theoretically at least) up to 4GB. It's true though, that under normal operating conditions you shouldn't need more than a gig, but maybe you want to run 20 instances of Photoshop at the same time ;)
 
TVR&Ferrari_Fan
I know the next Windows can handle up to 1TB and more of memory.
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There's a difference between being able to address memory and being able to handle it though...

Plus the practical difficulties in getting 1TB of ram wedged into a motherboard are daunting to say the least. The applications of 1TB of RAM are very interesting though...who needs a magnetic hard drive when you're sitting with a terabyte of RAM, people being able to hold their entire media library (well, almost) in RAM, no looking around for that DVD you put somewhere.No more loading times for games for one thing.
 
TVR&Ferrari_Fan
I know the next Windows can handle up to 1TB and more of memory.
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64-bit is capable of addressing up to 16 exabytes of memory.

2^32 = 4,294,967,296 bytes (4GB)
2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes (16EB)

For the uneducated:

1 Terabyte (TB) = 1024 Gigabytes
1 Petabyte (PB) = 1024 Terabytes
1 Exabyte (EB) = 1024 Petabytes

Considering that we'll all be dead before they even manufacture exabyte ram sticks, 64-bit is considered to be able to address a virtually unlimited amount of memory. In fact, that is the only real advtantage of 64-bit, which only servers will take advantage of anyway.

Now, the next Windows may be able to handle 1TB (or more) of memory, being built on 64-bit, but will it ever take advtange of that? I doubt it. 32-bit is capable of addressing 4GB of memory, but as discussed earlier, no 32-bit edition of Windows to-date uses even a quarter of that.
 
Shannon
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought only the newer the P4's that run hot enough to use as a hotplate to cook your meat on have 800mhz FSB. And Windows will never take advantage of more than 1GB of memory. Save your money and use the extra money you were going to spend on a CPU with more punch.
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Ok, that sounds sensible, I just thought the higher the FSB the faster everything will work. On my laptop, it's a 1.8ghz P4 with 512mb of memory but simple stuff like pressing start to see my programs would appear very slowly, even if nothing was running.

amp88
Well, win32 can take advantage of (theoretically at least) up to 4GB. It's true though, that under normal operating conditions you shouldn't need more than a gig, but maybe you want to run 20 instances of Photoshop at the same time ;)
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:drool: That sounds good to me! I have Photoshop and Illustrator open at the same time a lot. Oh and I do use 3D rendering so anything that make those programs run better is always a plus!
 
Actually, I have what would be considered an outdated PC, 650 mhz AMD, 512mb ram, 1.5 gb virtual, 2 hds 20 & 40gb, WinXp, NTFS fs...
I dont play games on it but do use most other apps that anyone else would use, the only thing I'd say it would lack in is, if I played intense 3d games or digital video recording, it lags abit when doing that ..

You can overclock your cpu but obviously have to be careful and make sure it stays cool, you are also said to be able to overclock your memory ..

I usually use some of the items from my current system when upgrading, such as cd,rw,dvd,rw floppy, hard drives, peripherals, monitor, ofcourse it depends on the reason for upgrading, I wouldnt use old components w\ a high performance pc or if the components came from the time of the old vaccum tube PC, I'd consider a full upgrade for something you might use for CAD, -which most say they run outside of Windows since it takes so many resources, or video recording/edting, intense 3D gameplay, other large, resource-hogging apps etc ...

I dont like buying name-brand PC's so much because if you have to maintain them, you most likely will have to use their drivers for reinstalling everything, its been my passed experience w\ such, w\ HP, CPq they won't except generic drivers, they are mnftr specific ...

In buying new systems, some can seem fairly inexpensive but I often find that, you are not getting what you might think you are paying for, limited expansion slots (PCI), often micro atx boards, few memory slots, meaning memory expansion is limited &/ or you have to spend more $$ to buy larger capacity memory modules just to get xxx memory ..

Some boards I've seen in new systems come w\ only 1 or 2 memory slots, meaning if you require a good bit of memory, you have to buy two 512mb mods for 1 gb or you have to try to find one or two 1 gb memory modules , I seen some when the first 1gb kits came out around I think $500-$800 or so ... It was mostly businesses buying them at that time ...

Other boards I've seen, barebones etc, usually have no more than 4 memory slots, it atleast gives you some flexibility, and often a higher supported capacity ..

I'm wondering VIP, have you pressed CTRL ALT DEL to bring up the close program or windows task manager box to see what may be running in the "background", also, what about scanning your pc for spyware/viruses and have you ran diskclean, error checking and defragemented your hard drive(s) ?

They often say, 3 things that have to do w\ your PC's performance are hard drive selection, CPU and memory.. Memory is usually one thing thats hyped up alot ..
It sounds like the programs you use are resource intensive, maybe you should consider opting for 1 gb of memory ?

What are the requirements for the products you use ? OFten you want to go above those requirements, because, those are usually just enough to get the program to function I would say, reasonably well, I've found it true from experience, you also have to think about, how many other programs might be running specific to your system, some things you just can't turn off ... or don't want to ..

As for the FSB, Front Side Bus, that is important, as I think that has to do w\ the speed of data transfer between the cpu and other components of your system...

SATA , I think that stands for Serial Advanced Technology Association or something ... it is said to be the new faster hard drive interface, Its said to have the potential of up to 200, 233, 266mbps data transfer ?, I think the old IDE, ATA had started w\ dtr's of 33,66, 100 and then EIDE 133,166mbps, I think SCSI drives, SCSI Wide drives are supposed to be the higher perfomance drives... I'm not sure but the SATA's may have greater performance ...

Someone on here mentioned PCIExpress, I read abit on that awhile back, its post to replace PCI and possibly AGP eventually ? That its speeds could reach 16x +?where I think AGP is currently 8x ... Well, I just thought I'd offer a few tidbits, some things I may be mistaken or misinformed, I'm not MS cert or a PC engr I jus TRY to keep somewhat informed ..
 
TVR&Ferrari_Fan
Aswell make sure you get a CPU with 64bit since the next microsoft OS needs a 64bit CPU.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Current software today doesn't really even support 64 bit architecture and most of the time it would be running in compatibility mode for 32 bit processing (If you were using the FX-55, for example). There's no real advantage to buying a 64 bit processor when most of today's programs are still only 32 bit compatible. Is Longhorn supposed to be 64-bit though? I haven't done much reading on that. I'm only speaking from current standards, of course.
 
COSTAR_
Actually, I have what would be considered an outdated PC, 650 mhz AMD, 512mb ram, 1.5 gb virtual, 2 hds 20 & 40gb, WinXp, NTFS fs...
I dont play games on it but do use most other apps that anyone else would use, the only thing I'd say it would lack in is, if I played intense 3d games or digital video recording, it lags abit when doing that ..

You can overclock your cpu but obviously have to be careful and make sure it stays cool, you are also said to be able to overclock your memory ..

I usually use some of the items from my current system when upgrading, such as cd,rw,dvd,rw floppy, hard drives, peripherals, monitor, ofcourse it depends on the reason for upgrading, I wouldnt use old components w\ a high performance pc or if the components came from the time of the old vaccum tube PC, I'd consider a full upgrade for something you might use for CAD, -which most say they run outside of Windows since it takes so many resources, or video recording/edting, intense 3D gameplay, other large, resource-hogging apps etc ...

I dont like buying name-brand PC's so much because if you have to maintain them, you most likely will have to use their drivers for reinstalling everything, its been my passed experience w\ such, w\ HP, CPq they won't except generic drivers, they are mnftr specific ...

In buying new systems, some can seem fairly inexpensive but I often find that, you are not getting what you might think you are paying for, limited expansion slots (PCI), often micro atx boards, few memory slots, meaning memory expansion is limited &/ or you have to spend more $$ to buy larger capacity memory modules just to get xxx memory ..

Some boards I've seen in new systems come w\ only 1 or 2 memory slots, meaning if you require a good bit of memory, you have to buy two 512mb mods for 1 gb or you have to try to find one or two 1 gb memory modules , I seen some when the first 1gb kits came out around I think $500-$800 or so ... It was mostly businesses buying them at that time ...

Other boards I've seen, barebones etc, usually have no more than 4 memory slots, it atleast gives you some flexibility, and often a higher supported capacity ..

I'm wondering VIP, have you pressed CTRL ALT DEL to bring up the close program or windows task manager box to see what may be running in the "background", also, what about scanning your pc for spyware/viruses and have you ran diskclean, error checking and defragemented your hard drive(s) ?

They often say, 3 things that have to do w\ your PC's performance are hard drive selection, CPU and memory.. Memory is usually one thing thats hyped up alot ..
It sounds like the programs you use are resource intensive, maybe you should consider opting for 1 gb of memory ?

What are the requirements for the products you use ? OFten you want to go above those requirements, because, those are usually just enough to get the program to function I would say, reasonably well, I've found it true from experience, you also have to think about, how many other programs might be running specific to your system, some things you just can't turn off ... or don't want to ..

As for the FSB, Front Side Bus, that is important, as I think that has to do w\ the speed of data transfer between the cpu and other components of your system...

SATA , I think that stands for Serial Advanced Technology Association or something ... it is said to be the new faster hard drive interface, Its said to have the potential of up to 200, 233, 266mbps data transfer ?, I think the old IDE, ATA had started w\ dtr's of 33,66, 100 and then EIDE 133,166mbps, I think SCSI drives, SCSI Wide drives are supposed to be the higher perfomance drives... I'm not sure but the SATA's may have greater performance ...

Someone on here mentioned PCIExpress, I read abit on that awhile back, its post to replace PCI and possibly AGP eventually ? That its speeds could reach 16x +?where I think AGP is currently 8x ... Well, I just thought I'd offer a few tidbits, some things I may be mistaken or misinformed, I'm not MS cert or a PC engr I jus TRY to keep somewhat informed ..
Click to expand...

I don't wanna mess with stuff like that since I really don't know what I'm doing.

Yeah, seems like a waste plus like I said I only need the Mobo, Mem, and Vid card

I do make sure I don't have extra stuff running but I haven't done a defrag.

At this point it's so old I don't really care about doing anything to my laptop because the vid card alone kills everything and I can't change that.

Yeah, I was thinking just get something over powered that way EVERYTHING runs good and in 6 mos. it's not that obsolete. :dopey:
 
Matrixhasu77
I disagree. Current software today doesn't really even support 64 bit architecture and most of the time it would be running in compatibility mode for 32 bit processing (If you were using the FX-55, for example). There's no real advantage to buying a 64 bit processor when most of today's programs are still only 32 bit compatible. Is Longhorn supposed to be 64-bit though? I haven't done much reading on that. I'm only speaking from current standards, of course.
Click to expand...
Longhorn should be 64-bit, if I am not mistaken. I don't see why you would want to buy a 32-bit CPU when 32-bit CPUs are practically on death row. Why buy obsolete hardware?
 

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