motherboard + cpu upgrade suggestions

[Zordiac]

I have a PCChips M726 BXcel board (yes I know, I know) with PII 400
P100 64MEG SDRAM
ATI Rage Pro 8Mb Gfx
8GB seagate HD ST something or the other, sounds like a blacksmiths
foundry but has never errored.
And an ahem almighty powerful 200watt PSU by ?, having said that I
also have a 56k modem and lan card happily working away.

First off lets get this out of the way - I'm contemplating buying
another PC anyway.

Also should say I have had the above PC for 4 years and had no
problems at all. It was from Protek.uk who have sadly gone now and it
was a real bargain....hmmm probably one of the reasons why they have
gone.

With that out of the way I seem to have given myself the challenge -
have to do something as I dont like crossword puzzles - of how I can
speed this existing PC up so it will be capable of playing the odd
not-to-3d-demanding-game and play video full screen (at present it is
tooo slow). I'm going to buy another PC so this is a shoestring jobby
and a chance to dabble. I've swapped graphic cards and hard drives in
PCs before but thats the extent of my experience.

Ok then my first thought was to flash the bios (exciting stuff for me)
as this will allow me to bung in a PIII 500 in (max it will take) and
add in some memory (I think even 133 SDRAMs work). But this all goes
to show that I have taken my eye off the ball for some time as I cant
find a PIII 500 and have seen suggestions in newsgroups that a new
mobo+cpu is better than my risable option.

But since I have a smallish case (mini atx?) I'm not sure of :
a) whether a new mobo would fit - they dont seem to give the size -
and
b) whether the existing components would be compatible. I assume the
ram would not be. Then again some mobos have nvidia graphics in, so
its swings and roundabouts.

I thought the PIII option was sensible as a friend has a dell with a
PIII and a bit more memory and it seems to be a much more capable
machine ie plays the games and vids that mine cannot.

 

[Dave Hull]

Before I upgraded, I had a PII 450 and, for a big improvement, I maxed the
ram (384 mb) and added a GeForce 2 MX 400 w/64 MB. Also, I put in an 80 gb
hard drive on an PCI ATA 133 card. I made the computer usable and I could
even play fairly modern 3D games pretty well. The first two upgrades cost
me under $100 total. I got a good deal on the ram and the video card was
about $39 when I bought it. The hard drive upgrade was, perhaps, the most
useful, since I don't have to remove information to put more on.

Another point of view would be to spend the above $200 on a $75 motherboard,
$45 on 256mb of RAM, and $80 ($90 will get you an XP 2500 with a 333mhz FSB)
on a processor. Remove all of your old components and harvest the case for
the hard drive, video card, and the case itself. This will get you much
faster without being stuck with something you can't upgrade. You might need
to copy your hard drive and then reformat it, so that you don't have any
problems with the upgrade.

Dave

 

[alvin york]

Hi Zordiac!

The least expensive way to upgrade your present computer is to Add More
Memory!
Increase memory from present 64mb to 128mb.

Anything else added or changed on this old PC would be a waste of time and
money!

Also make sure that you are not loading a lot of unnecessary software at
Startup. Doing this will slow loading and operation considerably. Eliminate
any programs running in background which are not Absolutely necessary.

Save your money and time and build a new ATX PC in a different ATX case with
a larger PSU as well.

Save the old PC as a backup or sell it when you have the new one working!