Hardware Upgrade?

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by glaucon, Oct 3, 2004.

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  1. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    OK folks, I'm not much of a hardware guy so, be gentle with me here...

    I'm considering doing a basic upgrade on my system. Right now I'm running a P3 733Mhz with 640MB sdRAM ( I believe this is on a 440BX motherboard...?). Anyways, what I'm thinking about is trying to basically get up to say, the lowest level P4 chip. Obviously this means a new motherboard, and power supply as well methinks. So, a number of questions arise: Would a new motherboard support my sdRam? If it was designed for SATA, will it accept IDE? (or can I even get one to accept IDE anymore?) Will this even fit properly in my case? (I imagine mine is ATX form factor or whatever...)
    I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole bunch of things, but these stand out for the moment. Absolutely any help, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks guys.
     
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  3. MagiAwen Registered Senior Member

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    Yes.

    If it says it will it will. There still are motherboards out there that have dual support. They might be getting harder to find for retail. By dual support I mean there are slots for sdram and for ddr. Now, remember that on a dual support board you may not have as many sdram slots as you have memory so you might need to purchase memory sticks...

    Yes they still sell motherboards that use IDE and some just include the SATA support.
    If your case is not proprietary and it is say a full ATX and the board you get is full ATX or smaller it should fit. However, if your case is proprietary it may or may not fit. Same goes for the power supply. You can find cases pretty cheap though if you don't care what it looks like.

    Here is an ok site to look on if you want to see information about motherboards and components. They do a pretty good job keeping the details of the product up to date and the site is pretty easy to get around on http://www.tigerdirect.com/
     
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  5. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    I'm not 100% about the P4 systems currently, however I would guess that perhaps some of the first lower P4's would have SDRAM slots for PC-100/133 RAM as well as DDRAM slots, however since the P4's are higher in Mhz I would suggest that you get DDRAM for the system because the SDRAM might not have a quick enough BUS speed to cover the processor.

    Whether you pick up a board with IDE or SATA is up to you, however the one thing you should think of is that it doesn't matter which one it is if you are prepared to purchase a PCI controller card. (For instance you could get an IDE Controller card for the drives if you only have SATA on the board).

    Just make sure what ever motherboard you get that you make sure you get a decent enough powerbox to power not just the board and chip but also Fans (although I think you would need less fans than an Athlon)

    What I would do in your situation is rather than pulling your 733Mhz box to bits, just by a Basic PC package from a supplier with the very basics. Then upgrade the basic box with what ever extra's you require (in what ever time period you're happy with)

    For instance if the Graphics card isn't too brilliant then upgrade that.
    You might be able to find a Canadian website that allows you to "build your order" online (there are a few companies that do that in the UK like www.savastore.com which you could use to work out if a build would work.) but they allow you usually to "jigsaw puzzle" your PC together, if it doesn't fit then it will tell you.
     
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  7. maxzuk Registered Senior Member

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  8. SKULLZ Banned Banned

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    DDR ram isnt that expensive nowadays,id advise you get a decent P4 board with a 400watt PSU and 512mb of ddr,on paper 512mb of ddr can perform better than 640mb or sdram.

    If your case is a small atx case and is cheap they sometimes (and i know this for a fact) have the power supply INFRONT of the mainboard,instead of out of the way and at the top of the chassis,this might be ok for what you got,but not for a p4.

    If its a standard midi atx case with the power supply right at the top you shouldnt have any problems,sometimes you have to move the standoffs to suit the board.

    Get yourself an anti-static wrist band with a alligator clip put that on the metal of the case,also make an earth only plug,when i built or changed my pc's i had a power connector lead with the live and neutral prongs and cable removed,i plugged it in as normal while i worked,that ensured 100% that id be static free.
     
  9. SKULLZ Banned Banned

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    Thats all wrong,building your own computer is not that difficult,you dont need any special schooling or go to university and pass exams,you can teach yourself if you put the effort in,there is no real excuse not to except bone idle lazyness.

    Anyway youre wrong,buying a new computer is not cheaper,the lifespan of most components in a pc is long,its possible that most parts never reach the end of thier life due to upgrading.

    Its because of this,that is the reason new regs will come in to force bumping the price up due to so much waste material on a garbage dump,cos parts get thrown away before they are even worn out or broken,its just they are too old to be used by most people.

    Changing a motherboard with a new cpu and new ram doesnt cost much at all,if youre a gamer youre not gonna buy a new computer each time,you HAVE to upgrade the graphics card,so essentially you only need to upgrade things to which are important for the software youre gonna run.
     
  10. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    5,502
    Thanks for the great suggestions. I've been looking at some 'basic box' type kits I could probably just throw my Hard Drives, Opticals and cards in.
    BY the by... I'm purposely avoiding Dell this time around.... wow.. what a hassle they were; a proprietary BIOS ontop of an OEM BIOS???!!##???
    Crazy... man... I couldn't even begin to tell you the ridiculosity I've encountered from Dell.
    eeek.
    I'd rather start by upgrading a TRS-80.
     
  11. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    Heres something for you guys and girls to think about:

    Lets say you have $1000 to buy a computer, You look through a list of computers and find one that is "Mid-specs" of what you want, it's not the newest machine on the market but it's around $500 whereas the newest on the market has a bunch of mod-con's and would empty your wallet in one hit.

    Now the point here is 2-3 years later if you buy that very same Mod-con machine you could of had 2-3 years previously, it will be about $500 in price.

    My suggestion is this, if you can make do with the Middle range machine, then do so.
    Then after 2-3 years you can buy the one you wanted to begin with.

    Total cost: $1000 over 2-3 years (meaning you can place the $500 remainder in a bank during the time your original model takes to get to circa $500)

    Doing this will mean you get 2 machines out of your money not just one.
     
  12. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    5,502
    Good point Stryder...
    When I bought my (first) PC from Dell (arrrg) back in 2000, I made sure to pretty much max out my chip and memory... everything else I went mid on... and nixed the peripherals. All of this stuff can, and has been easily (and cheaper) upgraded.
     
  13. maxzuk Registered Senior Member

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    Good Luck with your upgrade glaucon.

    You may want to check this site out:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/

    He's a lot more commercial then he was in the mid-90's
    but he stays up on the latest and greatest - all platforms.
     
  14. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    5,502
    Right on.
    Killer link.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  15. Xerxes asdfghjkl Valued Senior Member

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    Stryder,

    was that you on slashdot the other day?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    I maybe surfing the net too much, but I believe I read that exact comment before
     
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