Upgrading My Pc

[ibsu 0]

I want to upgrade my six year old PC with enough power to run a game like Elders Scroll III: Oblivion but I have a few questions. Is it the "same"? Upgrading a PC and just buying a new one? I have an HP 520c (1.4ghz AMD XP 1400+) so it's pretty old. I've been suggested to build my own PC but I don't know how to do that stuff. If I bought new parts and just replaced them, would it be just as good as a brand new bought computer? Should I just learn how to build a PC? I hear it's pretty cheap to do. Please help!- Thanks

[Wolverine 0]

Basically, your old computer can be upgrade to certain limitseg:- u can't buy sata or large space hddso will be for processor , ram & graphic card slot n allyou can find the limit for your in manuals or sitesso it wont be a completely brand new pcyaa, its pretty easy but depends upon your skills . . .

[dark_drgn 0]

You can?t technically ?learn? how to build a computer, there?s actually not much you need to know. Building computers don?t take too much technical know-how. Unfortunately there are too many things to factor into this so this is a brief and incomplete rundown on what you need to get if you do decide to make your own.1. Pick a power supply, (square boxes with fan, make note of the voltage)2. Select a Case, unless you want to use your old one.3. Pick a motherboard 4. Pick a CPU5. Install the CPU and heatsinks6. Install DDR, RAM, DDR2, RDRAM (Make sure it fits into your slot),7. Install Video Card (PCI and AGP) (If needed)8. Install Hard Drives, CD drives, DVD drives9. Pick a graphics card and Install, (Lots of research involved here)10. Install Modem ?card? (if needed)

[BuffaloHelp 24]

It was feasible few years ago when parts were high in price and you still can buy parts from ebay or whole sellers at a fraction of the price.But in recent months, purchasing computer is just as effective as making your own--with additional benefit. When you purchase a computer, you get a registered operating system with few bundled software. If you were to build a computer, you have to purchase each of them individually.Have you checked Dell's website lately? The last time I saw, they were offering high CPU with mid RAM and HDD with 17" LCD monitor for $500. C'mon, you can't beat that now, can you?By the time you purchase a montherboard and CPU combo, RAM, graphics card and the harddrive you are well over $400 these days. Add $200 for the operating system plus a monitor...you are looking at least $800. I think you should consider Dell or Gateway before you go out and try to do this the "component" style.

[DogEater008 0]

lol.. .. your computer is 6 years old?.. ahaha.. i thought mine was 6 years old ( i got this from a friend.).. it's a duron 700mhz. lolThe only things you can really upgrade on your current computer are-more hard drive space (you can upgrade to SATA if you want by buying a PCI SATA adapter)-more ram (if you have enough space) but usually is not recommanded since older computer tense to use slower ram and it would be a waste of money to go out and buy more slow ram for your computer.-Better graphic card (the graphic grade will use it's 100 percent protential only if you have enough CPU power and ram to support it, you might need to check what kind of AGP slot you have or if you have the new PCI slots that allows much faster data to travel through).-You can also upgrade other stuff like remote control for you computer (window xp media edition)LOL.. but if you are willing to spend all the money on ram, graphic card, and hdd... that would cost a few hundreds dollars. You can buy a new computer for alittle bit more, even though the graphic card might not be as good, but the overall speed should still be faster than your current computer upgraded.I would recommand to get dell. you could check https://slickdeals.net/ for deals on dells computer. I once saw a deal for a dell Pentium 4 2.8ghz that comes with 512 ddr ram, and it comes with a 20 inches widescreen LCD monitor for just only around $650. The 20 inches widescreen itself cost around 400 dollars excluding taxes. So you are bascially paying 250 for a 2.8ghz computer.

[Inspiron 0]

It's definately not the same between upgrading your current computer and buying a new one. Your current computer is already six years old. Upgrading it will hardly get the overall same performance as getting a brand new computer. I'd suggest getting a new computer, either customised, or branded. If you are going for a branded computer, I'd recommend Dell. It's the best computer manufacturer known in the computer industry. It's well known for it's stability and support. I've tried other brands of computer before, as well as some experiences from friends, many other brands os computers are not stable. And some were worst in their support. Some of their support people simply made you wait on the phone and dragged as long as they could. Otherwise they would refer you to elsewhere where it's out of their business, in which you will have to pay for support. I've got 2 Dell computers at home. They are still work fine since 5 years ago. There were no major problems occurred. Hence in terms of stability, I would say Dell is better.Building your own computer is another way. It also means a brand new computer since it's built up from scratch, like what the computer manufacturers will do. Just that this time, you build it yourself. Although it's not easy to build a computer, it's always good to learn building one. Because you get to choose the parts for your computer, it could be a cheap computer overall.

[T100 0]

Frankly, I think your computer is simply too old to be upgraded. Even the power supply needs to be replaced if you are getting a new 24 pin motherboard. A lot have changed in these 6 years. The RAM has changed to DDR and DDR2, the processors are now dual cores. Although I don?t think you need a dual core at this moment, as most programs still don?t support dual core CPU, I think it may be worthwhile to get a CPU with more L2 Cache, say the Intel 6 series, get P4 of 3.4G with 2MB cache, get 1GB of RAM at least (they are not expensive at all), in 512x2 configuration for dual channel. A PCI-E video card of around USD$150 is good enough (e.g. Raedon X1600). The reason for having such a computer is that a new OS is coming. Vista is expected to take up huge amount of computing resources. I think you should take this into consideration as well.

[ibsu 0]

Wow!

Thanks EVERYONE for such great replies. I've been going through HP's desktop customize walk-throughs and I completely forgot about Dell/Gateway. Average cost for a brand new quality HP was around 1000-1200. I customized a kick-butt computer on Gateway (influenced by everyone's advice here) and it came out to be $800! (I chose Geforce 7300LE 256MB as my graphic card, is that good enough for today's graphic-instense games?)

 

I'm excited~

Edited May 3, 2006 by ibsu (see edit history)

[Cool_Freaker 0]

Wow!

Thanks EVERYONE for such great replies. I've been going through HP's desktop customize walk-throughs and I completely forgot about Dell/Gateway. Average cost for a brand new quality HP was around 1000-1200. I customized a kick-butt computer on Gateway (influenced by everyone's advice here) and it came out to be $800! (I chose Geforce 7300LE 256MB as my graphic card, is that good enough for today's graphic-instense games?)

 

I'm excited~

 

That's a low end card. It will probably play todays games, such as Oblivion, but you're looking at lowest settings. Seeing as this is a whole new system I would be recommending at least a GeForce 7600GT for gaming (especially GPU intensive Oblivion).

 

Dells are good if you can't build it yourself, or don't know a good shop (or friend) who can. I find though usually budget systems are a much better deal with Dell (ie you get an LCD screen and XP Home included in an already cheap package) - the higher end stuff seems overpriced. If you want a decent gaming PC I would still say find someone to build it.

 

I only just upgraded from my 1.2ghz Athlon in December, and there was really nothing salvagable apart from the floppy drive. Even the CD-RW drive wasn't worth taking out considering I've got a DVD burner in this system, whilst the hardrive is old.

 

Anyway, as T100 said, Vista will be coming, though it's touted to not be for a while. I would still recommend waiting until the new AMD chips come out (AM2), and if you're willing to wait even longer the Intel Conroe chip should be coming this year. The Conroe, anyway, will offer some significant performance gains if you want to hold off (or even instigate some price drops over the CPU range)

[dazappa 0]

Well you have many things to look at before deciding to buy or build your own. If you are going to buy one, I would suggest having it custom made. Because if you just buy a dell pc, theres hundreds of thousands of the same exact thing, and it probably isn't very good for gaming. Heres the thing: you can almost NEVER upgrade your processor. To get a better processor you are going to have to buy a motherboard with one on it. Something that is upgradable in all computers is ram. I would suggest getting 2 512mb ram sticks, for a total of 1gb of ram. This can greatly help your computer out. Also, for many games now they require good graphics cards. You need to know what slots your computer has, and what slot the graphics card goes in before you buy it. I would suggest getting a graphics card with at least 64mb. What have we learned about upgrading here:1)Upgrade your ram2)Get a video card that works with your pcNow, the first thing you must decide when building your own pc is budget. You need to know how much you are willing to spend first. Then decide what parts you need to buy. A great thing to get is called a "barebones kit" these kits usually consist of a power supply, a motherboard, and the case(tower) and may or may not have other parts included. The great part with this is that you know the motherboard will fit in the tower.

[JC05 0]

Well, in my opinion, building a custom computer is cheaper than going out and buying one, for intance. Dell sells a $4000 gaming computer, And you could go build it your self for about $2500. If you take some crash course's in building a custom computer than I would do that. Again it is up to you. It is not that hard I don't think to build a computer. Then again I have been around them all my life. But If you do want to build you own, Tigerdirect.com has some good ones. Barebone kits there called. Hope that helps.

[Inspiron 0]

Definately, like JC05 said, that customised computers are always cheaper than branded ones. In exchange, the ones you built is taken cared for all by yourself. You have to be an expertise IT personal to settle all computer problems from the basic hardware to software areas. If you buy a branded computer, they will always provide support for at least 1 year, in which you can exchange damaged hardware without any cost. You definately cannot do that when you've customised a computer. A point to note that a customised computer has higher chance of getting damaged or generates fussy and irritating problems than branded computers if you don't build it correct. Hence you need to be expertise in building one.If you want a computer as cheap as a customised computer, and have better support, try JC's custom computers. They claimed that they beat dell, so you might want to check that out! <_<Check JC05's signature for the URL.

[nightscript 0]

i think, on the subject of upgrading your *hehe* six year old comp, you should completely take it apart and sell the individual peices on ebay. That way theres a chance you'll get more than the worth. Then go to Dell or someplace and buy a new high end computer. Find the best one, add memory and everything possible to it, buy a liquid nitrogen case for it then overclock as much as possible then you should be able to play any game you want no matter the requirements. Thats a high end computer with a pretty big budget but it wont ever melt down thanks to the nitrogen case and that pretty much makes overclocking at super high speeds safe lol. you may have to replace a fan motor or something every once in a while but i think its totally worth it if you are a full time gamer like myself. But here's all my big tech talk while im running on a windows 95 upgraded the os to 98 on dial up lol. If youre rich i say go for all of the above (plus internet 2 or DSL) but if you're saving up to be poor like me then just be happy with what you have. Anyways thats my message lol, thanks for everyone's attention an feedback, Nightscript