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Thread ID: 68008 2006-04-14 00:09:00 Upgrading PC ramu (726) Press F1
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446122 2006-04-14 00:09:00 A few years ago I went into a PC man's shop & wanted him to build a PC for me. I said that I could upgrade it in the future to a faster CPU, add additional memory and CD/DVD wrtiers in addtion to a CD player- minimum wishes an inexperienced & unskilled PC user will ever have.

I ended up with a PC where I paid over $1,300.00 but stuck with very little or limited scope of doing any of the above. To put all in short, I had to buy a new larger case within a week to replace the PC's noisy CPU HS/Fan because its power supply unit's position blocked its installation.

So now please tell me you experienced brothers & sisters, how would I go to upgrade my PC & what are the things I should be looking at buying as we have PCIe & stuffs like that posing to replace the old PCI slots etc. I am sure, I am growing in knowledge!!! because of the interaction with PCWorld of cousre! I won't be looking at spending more than a $1000 at this stage. Thanks.
ramu (726)
446123 2006-04-14 00:23:00 What exactly do you use the PC for?

Do you know the model of the hardware, ie CPU, motherboard etc?
The_End_Of_Reality (334)
446124 2006-04-14 00:37:00 You bought it a "few years ago"? There comes a point in a computers lifespan that it isn't really possible to upgrade it further .

If I was to build one now, with future-proofing in mind, I'd tell the customer to wait and get a socket AM2 motherboard .

Socket AM2 will be the new standard, who know for how long . It will take DDR2 - 800Mhz .

Even then, who's to say they don't change the boards again later - so that PCI-E is obsolete or the CPU socket or something?

The current socket is 939, takes DDR400 ram and anything from a single core 3200+ CPU up to a 4800+ Dual core .

And PCI-express graphics cards .

You can upgrade to a faster graphics card, add more ram and a faster CPU but only to a point . Once you need to change the motherboard you are more or less getting a whole new PC .
pctek (84)
446125 2006-04-14 22:27:00 Thanks to you guys, for the lovely replies.
A few yeras was 'three'. I understand how fast the technology changes.
My use:I check my emails, browse web for gen info & news etc; use the MS Office for various things. And that's all.

The current CPU I have is just 950MHz. As I am not a profuse user of PC, this seems to be OK for the time being. But that was not what I expected.
Cheers.
ramu (726)
446126 2006-04-14 23:13:00 That is probably too old to be even Socket A. You will have a hard time finding an upgrade for the CPU. Best you can do is add some more Ram (probably takes pc133 SD RAM) & if you don't have a video card, get a radeon 9200 or something like that - anything better would be overkill.

You will need 512mb of RAM if you like to have a lot of tabs open in your web browser & keep your email client open all the time while doing other stuff like playing mp3s or videos.

DVD writers are cheap, but if you computer can handle burning DVDs, it will probably only handle it at slow speeds.
Greven (91)
446127 2006-04-15 00:54:00 My use:I check my emails, browse web for gen info & news etc; use the MS Office for various things. And that's all.

Then you don't need a powerful PC. What you have is fine, just add a bit more ram as others have suggested.
pctek (84)
446128 2006-04-16 09:25:00 Quote:
Originally Posted by ramu
My use:I check my emails, browse web for gen info & news etc; use the MS Office for various things . And that's all .

I have a Slot 1, 366 Celeron, 128MB ram, W98 system that does all the above . I also use it for CAD, and PLC programming . It is certainly not as fast as the new XP Pro machine I use at work, but it still gives acceptable performance .

I might get some flak on this, but I believe that if your computer is reliable and performs the tasks that you ask of it, then stay with it . The time to upgrade is when it can't perform, or looses reliability .

B
b.... (7683)
446129 2006-04-16 19:52:00 "I might get some flak on this, but I believe that if your computer is reliable and performs the tasks that you ask of it, then stay with it. The time to upgrade is when it can't perform, or looses reliability."

Agree wholeheartedly. There is a vast difference between "needing" and "wanting"
JJJJJ (528)
446130 2006-04-16 22:05:00 As jjjjjj is a master of the upgrade,he should be listened to. :thumbs: Cicero (40)
446131 2006-04-17 06:26:00 There is a vast difference between "needing" and "wanting"

well said :thumbs:

just add more ram, you will want about atleast 512
motorbyclist (188)
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