Desktops forum: Tracking a desktop's internal hardware

Forgot to ask the actual question, lol.

If someone knows just what that site was (or have something that does a similar job) could you please post the link here?

Well, it's definitely not that SIW Pro thing... last time it was very quick and easy, and it didn't cost me anything. I'm not sure if I even downloaded anything, or if I did it did so very quickly. It was a website that offered the service... I can't for the life of me remember what it was called though.

It's not the one I was looking for, but it seems to have done the job. My current desktop is a rathr compact model, and even when I open the side I can't see the RAM slots (it's laid out so that the DVD-drive is on top of it). I'm not really confident enough to take appart any more than that, and I was wondering how many available RAM slots I have to work with.

Turns out I have 4, Yay!

Also I Googled the question of how much RAM Windows 7 could handle (theoretically) and estimates ranged from 8 GB for the basic, up to 128 GB for the super premium. I also saw the notice that to run things smoothly, Windows 7 64-bit should have at least 4 GB of RAM. My Windows 7 came with 3 GBs on it, should I be worried?

Among the things I wanted to know was exactly what kind of PCI slots I had, and what kind of cards I could fit in them. Upon opening the side I have been able to determine I have 2 of them, but they are very different from one another. One is tiny, I think the technical term is PCI express or something, and the other is more normal.

Ideally I'd like to put a wifi/bluetooth card in one, and a graphics card in the other, but really I don't know what's meant to go in them. And after scanning with this Belarc program I'm just more confused.

Under "Bus Adapters" I found
"Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller (2x)"
"Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller (2x)"

Does this mean all the PCI slots are good for are adding more USB ports? Even though the computer already has 9? Or am I missing something?

I don't mean to bump my own thread, but I have to believe someone here knows more about these PCI slots. Any information would be appreciated.

You can download the technical manual for your computer (from the OEM) or systemboard (from the manufacturer), depending on if you built a computer or bought one from an OEM...You will have some number of PCI express 16, 8, 4, or 2, and some regular PCI slots, depending on how old the computer is. My computer has a PCI-E (PCI Express) 16 slot, PCI-E 4 slot, and a PCI-E 2 slot, as well as a couple of regular PCI slots. This is in the specs for my computer, and they're all shown on a diagram as well and labeled, what each slot is from it's location on the system board. There's also a version for PCI-E, like 1.0 or 2.1 or whatever. However, PCI-E slots are not compatible with PCI slots, since PCI-E slots use serial data transfer, and PCI slots use shared parallel data/address line transfer...The later versions of PCI-E, like 2.1, are compatible with the earlier ones, and so on. Slots and boards need to match, as you know, both the kind of bus and the version of the bus.

Your technical specs will also show you what slots you have available for memory DIMM's. You have to be careful with memory, since your system board will only be compatible with a certain set of memory chips, based on the speed and capacity. Most of the sites where you buy memory will help you figure out what's compatible. You also need to take care with how you use the slots...for example, in my computer, the slots are used in pairs (2-channel memory), so you have to buy memory DIMM's in pairs. But the companies that sell memory chips will tell you this, and this will also be in your systemboard specs. There should be information on which slots to use when you're adding memory. One other thing about adding memory, it doesn't help to add faster memory chips, since your memory as a whole runs at the speed of the slowest chips...so if you have 1033MHz. memory, and you add 1333MHz. memory, your memory will still run at 1033MHz. If you want your memory to run at 1333MHz. in this example, you need to replace all your memory chips with 1333MHz. memory chips.

All of the above are pretty easy to do as long as you have correct information for your systemboard...there's lots of different ones out there. The newer boards have 3-channel memory. So you absolutely need to get the right information for your system board.

I've added and changed memory many times, and put in other cards, upgraded power supplies, and it all is pretty simple as long as you're prepared before you start buying parts and putting them in *smile*.

Oh yeah, by the way, your Windows 7 computer only having 3GB of memory instead of 4GB is fine. Typically, for a 32-bit OS a certain amount of the 3-4GB memory space is used for mapping your graphics card or integrated graphics anyways. If you want to have 4 GB of memory (or more) and really use it, you need a 64-bit OS. You can find out whether you have a 32-bit OS or not by right-clicking on the "My Computer" icon (or that entry in the "Start" menu. Then click on "Properties", and the window that comes up will tell you. If you have a 64-bit OS, and can use more than 4GB of memory, it will say 64-bit. If it doesn't say 64-bit, then you have a 32-bit OS. My computer has a 64-bit OS, Windows 7, that I installed, it came with 32-bit Vista a couple of years ago. It currently has 8GB of memory, which is more than enough for me. You only need more than 3GB if you are running a bunch of large applications. A lot of people have more memory than they really need or ever use because they don't know how to find out what their computer is really using.

I'm not sure why you're talking about adding more USB ports. Do you need more than 9 USB ports? I really doubt it, but if you do, yes, you can add a few more USB ports, or a powered USB hub via a PCI or PCI-E card, and get more USB ports. However, PCI and PCI-E ports are usually used for adding better graphics cards or network cards such as wireless cards if you want to use your computer on a wireless network, etc. Or you could add a PCI-E card that would provide USB-3 ports, which are faster than USB-2 ports (if your system board came with USB-2) if you have a use for USB-3 ports (like using external USB-3 backup disk). I have a PCI card with 2 eSATA ports that I use with an external eSATA disk for backup that runs faster than USB-2, another example of expansion card use.

If you have more questions, ask them and people will answer them. I'm sure that the above will raise more questions.

My money got scarce and I pushed aside the notion of buying upgrades for my little comp, but a big bonus at work just gave me the funds to revive my hopes.

I want to thank Zeppo and Doh for their thorough help suggestions, I'm going to try those ASAP. And just to let you guys know I do have a 64-bit Windows 7 computer, so pushing past 4 gigs of RAM isn't out of the question I'm guessing.

The main thing that worries me about handling all the inards of a computer is that I worry if I take it apart too much, I'll forget how it went back together again. That and the concept of improper grounding and deadly static damage terrifies me. I should probably start by getting myself one of those anti-static bracelets....

I'm having trouble finding my computer's OEM technical manuals. I have all of the info that's given on the desktop itself, and what I found in the Computer Properties, but Acer is being of very little help.

<div>All their technical manuels tell me is that there are PCI slots (that vary with model), no information on what kind of PCI card is optimized for which slot. Or if it doesn't even matter... The desktop says it's an Acer Aspire AX3400-E3202. I googled it and it seems to be a very obscure model... Apparently it's a dumbed down model of another AX3400 that had a
triple-core and 4GB of RAM. Mine has a dual-core and 3 GB of RAM.</div>

<div>Another question
I had was... how exactly does buying the RAM in pairs work? I finally did pop open the computer (I felt like was defusing a bomb? I had to remove the Hard Drive!) And it turns out there are 2 RAM sticks in there, one is a 1GB stick and the other is a 2GB. They are each in the "black" slots. The two "blue" slots are empty. Here's what was written on them.</div>

<div><div>
1GB 1Rx8 PC3-10600U-09-10-ZZZ
<div> M378B2873FHS-CH9 1021

</div>
2GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600U-09-10-B0
<div> M378B5673FH0-CH9 1025

</div>
<div>Now? I'm still not sure what this means. If I buy a new pair of sticks, what MHz rating should I get? I know 1333 MHz is
pretty standard these days, but how do I tell if these are at that frequency? And if I buy a pair of 2GB sticks, adding 4 to wind up with a total of 7, is that OK? Is it bad if I have an odd number of RAM?</div>

Also, Belaric Advisor has... stopped working for some reason. I have no idea why.

2nd Also, I typed this up in Microsoft word and copy-pasted it here. That's why there are those "div" things I think. I... don't know how to get rid of them.
</div></div>

If you have BOTH PCI Express and PCI slots, you may be able to buy a type of card that will fit PCI Express or PCI slots. For example, graphics cards are easily found that will fit into PCI Express slots, and that is the best slot to use for them; however, there are still graphics cards sold that will slip into ONLY a PCI slot.

What I am trying to make clear here is that you cannot buy a PCI card and use it in a PCI Express slot - the card has to be specifically for the type of slot you have available.

I don't think you can find a graphics card for MiniPCI Express. Graphics cards use standard long PCI Express slots, usually PCI Express x16. See the comparision here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PCIExpress.jpg

In the photo you see these PCI Express slots: From top to bottom: x4 , x16, x1 (Mini) and x16, compared to a traditional 32-bit PCI slot (at bottom).

You will only be able to buy a MiniPCI Express card to fill your MiniPCI Express slot. Not sure what kind of card that might be. Could be a MiniPCI Express card to add more USB ports or to add wireless capabilities to your desktop.

Philippe,

Go here to see the specifications for your X3400 Series Acer Aspire:

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/2010/acer/Aspire/AspireX3400/AspireX3400sp2.shtml

Because the X3400 Series (I assume AX3400 is part of the X3400 Series) specifications cover all models, you will see. For Operating Systems, as an example, there are several versions. You will need to identify the one that applies to you - in this case the first one listed, Winodws 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Next, under Processors, there are several listed which I believe yours is the last one in that list, AMD Athlon II X2 dual-core.

Chipsets shows you already have an NVIDIA nForce 9200 GeForce graphics card installed (all models have the same card), which is probably using your existing PCI Express x 16 slot (notice your ports down where it lists I/O ports). You other port is a PCI Express x 1 slot, not the same as a Mini-PCI slot! Mini-PCI slots are used primarily in laptops, it appears.

Under Communications, you could have one of three items in your particular computer: 1) WLAN; 2) LAN: Gigabit Ethernet; or 3) Modem. I would imagine that you have the second one, an ethernet port.

Notice the section for TV-tuner has this heading: "Acer TV-Tuner options." When the word "options" is used, you may have one or none of those items in your computer.

Finally, from this Acer website page you can get a general manual for your X3400 Series desktop:

http://support.acer.com/us/en/acerpanam/desktop/2010/acer/Aspire/AspireX3400/AspireX3400nv.shtml

Oh, if you are curious as to what you can put in your existing PCI Express x1 slot, you can take a look here at NewEgg.com (there are 11 pages):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=pci+express+x1

(Again, you may have to copy pastes some of these links into your browser to get them to work)

Hope this helps.

Apparently x1 refers to one lane.

Go here to read more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_Mini_Card

You will have to scroll down to "Physical layer" to find this:

"A connection between any two PCIe devices is known as a link, and is built up from a collection of 1 or more lanes. All devices must minimally support single-lane (x1) link. Devices may optionally support wider links composed of 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, or 32 lanes. This allows for very good compatibility in two ways:a PCIe card will physically fit (and work correctly) in any slot that is at least as large as it is (e.g., an 1 sized card will work in any sized slot);a slot of a large physical size (e.g., 16) can be wired electrically with fewer lanes (e.g., 1, 4, 8, or 12) as long as it provides the ground connections required by the larger physical slot size.In both cases, PCIe will negotiate the highest mutually supported number of lanes. Many graphics cards, motherboards and bios versions are verified to support 1, 4, 8 and 16 connectivity on the same connection.

The width of a PCIe connector is 8.8 mm, while the height is 11.25 mm, and the length is variable. The fixed section of the connector is 11.65 mm in length and contains 2 rows of 11 (22 pins total), while the length of the other section is variable depending on the number of lanes. The pins are spaced at 1 mm intervals, and the thickness of the card going into the connector is 1.8 mm."

And just below the above quote you will notice a table that might make some sense. There you have it - the "why" of x1, x4, x8, x16, etc!

Glad you had such good service. I've done business with them for years now and have always had good service.

It's still technically about tracking and changing internal hardware... but I'm probably going to have to make a dedicated thread regarding changing CPUs.

I guess we'll keep the discussion in this thread if it's preferred.

So here is the gadget that is making me worried about my current CPU (I notice it seems to act up particularly when I run iTunes for some reason.) http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc42/Edward_Wolf/Refference/Gadget.png

And these are the results from that CPU-Z program you suggested.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc42/Edward_Wolf/Refference/CPU-Z2011-06-14.png

One of the first things I noticed was that my current CPU seems to be of a rather low voltage. 65W from what I gather. Most of the X4 CPUs I've been looking over in newegg are more like 90W to 125W. I did find one low-power X4 chip that seems to run on 65W, in this following link.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103907&cm_re=AM3_65W-_-19-103-907-_-Product

But it's a bit pricey... does the wattage matter that much? Would my motherboard be able to supply the extra power that a bigger chip might require? Oh, and I checked the socket, apparently AM2, AM2+, and AM3 are all the same. And they should all be able to fit in my MoBo.

Also, what about the BIOS? That report says mine came from 04/02/2010... is there a risk that an X4 chip might have an incompatible BIOS and not work when I plug it in? Would I need to do something before hand? I've heard that messing with the BIOS is risky.