Desktops: upgrades For P3?
upgrades For P3?
by Vonmoldy - 1/24/07 1:14 PMI have a dell dimension xps t600 P3600mhz win2000 with 512mb ram It has a nvidia geforce2 mx 100/200 in it now. I am looking to speed it up and since I got enough ram I was wondering if better video card would help?
What about a better sound card. I use it mostly for web browsing some photo editing no games I listen to pandora alot.
Would it even be worth it or would I better spend the money with a new barebon kit and putting my stuff in that?
Re: speed it up
by Kees Bakker
- 1/24/07 1:23 PM
In reply to: upgrades For P3? by Vonmoldy
Enough RAM, video card and sound card not important at all for current use. Limiting factors for speed:
- CPU: can't really be upgraded
- hard disk too full, fragmented (minor influence, unless near the border): cleaning
- too much background software running (including viruses and other malware): cleaning
- speed of Internet connection (if dial-up or in the low-broadband range)
Depending on what's limiting in your case, another machine might be one of the possibilities.
I just upgraded a Celeron 333 to a Core 2 Duo (a new machine, in fact) and it makes a lot of difference in displaying web-pages indeed. Hard disk is faster also, but that's not really important when browsing. Same internet connection (4 Mb/s ADSL), RAM and hard disk size and background software were no problem in the old machine.
Kees
upgrading processor
by Vonmoldy - 1/25/07 11:43 AM In reply to: Re: speed it up by Kees Bakker
lets say I buy a better pc still an older pc but one that is much better than the p3. how do i know if the preocessor could be swapped to a dual core which is what i really want? can new processor be added to an old motherboard? or did you upgrade the motherboard with the processor?
Re: motherboard and processor
by Kees Bakker - 1/25/07 3:14 PM
In reply to: upgrading processor by Vonmoldy
Vonmoldy,
Each motherboard will support a limited range of CPU's, and the manual that comes with it (or that you can download from the makers site) should tell which ones it was tested with.
As processors come in generations, older mobo's generally don't accommodate newer processors and the other way around. It's best to buy them as a set, in my opinion. You might need new memory (RAM) also.
Kees
Pleae ignore this... it's just a test...
by unijuglr - 11/1/07 2:49 PM
In reply to: upgrades For P3? by Vonmoldy
I know, test posts go in the test section... unfortunately, that section is blocked from showing up in the area I need to see this... so, just bare with me...
Time to leave
by Willy - 11/1/07 4:07 PM In reply to: upgrades For P3? by VonmoldyIn your current system, the best $ spend would be for the max. amount of ram supported. Then go for a better video BUT!!! its important that whatever you do just $ spend better on a newer system. Even, if the new system is P4, would be leaps and bounds better than the P3 setup. At least in most cases you can find used parts and go from there. A barebone system will be great should you go that way. Even a basic latest offering is going to run rings around the P3 setup. I thought though any h/w or materials will transfer to the new system, so be forewarned. OEM systems at $400 and above range will just be a turnkey operation, however $600+ is more realistic.
enjoy ------Willy 
upgrades For P3?
by logger99 - 11/2/07 8:52 PM In reply to: upgrades For P3? by VonmoldyUpgrade to a 1.0G cpu. Make sure you have 256MB RAM in each memory slot(768MB is maximum for your computer). The latest BIOS lets you use 80G hard drives. Get an ATA controller card and setup two 80G drives in RAID. Upgrade your video with a Geforce 4, or Geforce FX 5500. They work fine. Don't forget to upgrade your power supply to at least a quality 300 watt unit. Then you will have a machine that behaves mush faster than your current one.........the question really is:
Do you want to spend that amount of money to upgrade an antiquated machine as yours, or take that money and save a little more and get an off-the-shelf new machine that you don't have to worry about (using Win XP Pro of course, NOT Vista)?
Or you could go this route and install your current W2k on here:
http://www.pcsurplusonline.com/viewprod.cfm?ID=13656
pc
by ddbpack - 2/22/08 1:06 PM In reply to: upgrades For P3? by Vonmoldyget a new pc that ones to old to upgrade
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