Ugrading iem

[Petey]

Hi all

I have a (5yr old) HP Pavilion 7917 with winxp oem (recovery is partitioned
on the hard drive - no physical xp cd). My question is: Can one upgrade one
of these "preconfig." type machines? Currently running 128MB RAM 1.1gig
pentium 4 processor with a 30 gig HD? Do I have to gut out this tower and
start from scratch? Or can I put in a new motherboard and more ram? Maybe
better off to purchase new unit. I know what I know and am not afraid to
ask when I don't. thx very much

Petey

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi all

I have a (5yr old) HP Pavilion 7917 with winxp oem (recovery is
partitioned on the hard drive - no physical xp cd). My question is:
Can one upgrade one of these "preconfig." type machines?

Sure.


Currently
running 128MB RAM 1.1gig pentium 4 processor with a 30 gig HD? Do I
have to gut out this tower and start from scratch?

No.


Or can I put in a
new motherboard and more ram?

You can put in whatever you want. More RAM will be no problem, but if you
change the motherboard, you may find that Windows XP will stop working and
you will have to buy a new copy. Many OEM copies of Windows are BIOS-locked
to the motherboard that they came with.

Maybe better off to purchase new unit.

Maybe. I think whever you contemplate upgrading, you need to look at the
overall costs of what you want to replace and compare it to buying a new
computer. Sometimes, especially if you're planning on replacing a lot, it's
a better deal to buy a new computer.