Need Some help

[Guest]

I'm looking to upgrade my system in order to hold me over for a few years when I can buy something really nice

My system right now is an emachines with the following stats:

366 mhz celeron (not sure on the mobo, but I heard all celerons are the same mobo?)
96 mb ram (one 64mb strip one 32 mb strip in the only two ram slots)
voodoo 3 2000 16mb vid card (pci slot)
40x cd-rom
20gb 7200rpm hd
crystal sound fusion sound card

I am hoping some knowledgeable people could help me decide the best way to upgrade this system for under $500. I am an avid gamer, so I’m looking for things that will keep my system playable for the next few years.

 

[girish]

you should get new:
processor
motherboard
memory
power supply
display card

if you want a good stable system at low cost Athlon Tbird is the choice. you can sell the older parts of at around $100 I guess, I dont know what the seconds cost in the US.

and go for (assuming you budget is now $600)
Athlon Tbird 1.1 GHz (you can later overclock it to 1.4+ MHz)
Asus A7A266 motherboard (you could buy SDRAM right now and go for the DDR memory later)
get some good 256 MB PC133 (or DDR- PC2100) memory form a popular brand like Crucial)
Get a 350 W or better power supply.
Get a GeForce2 MX display card, or if still some cash is left go for a GeForce2 with 32 MB DDR graphics card! Asus cards are costly but good!!

rst of the parts are quite okay I guess and wont need an urgent upgrade. hard disk, maybe, if it fits in your budget get another one 40~60 GB ATA/100.

i dont know what it would cost in US$, let me know if it fits in your wallet.

girish

<font color=red>No system is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

 

[Atolsammeek]

Did your system come in a small case? What I m thinking is this. You have a slimline case. Where part of the mother board is a slot too. Sorry it sound strange. Just make sure your mother board is flat. If not look for a new case.

Most Normal systsem are the case is 1 foot 4 to 5 inches by 7 inchs wide give or take or bigger.

I have not seen a Emachine. I do know some companys that sell computers cheap they try to make them as small as possable.

other then that that Girish right

 

[Rop]

Well after reading your post i would also suggest an almost total upgrade. But considering your budget i did a quick check at www.mwave.com for prices and such and will suggest the following taking what i found there for you as an example.

First of all Keep the 40x Cdrom the 20gb Harddrive and the rest sell it for the most you can get.

After you have done this check this out i did this small bundle for ya on mwave.com
AMD DURON SYSTEMS
1.44MB FDD(Floppy)
Motherboard MSI 6340M(includes onboard sound)
AMD DURON 950Mhz(200MHZ)
32X64 256MB PC133
MWAVE 6606/300 ATX Case
$249.00
Plus a nice video card from leadtek as well taking mwave as an example:
LEADTEK GEFORCE 2 DUAL HEAD PRO MX 32MB 4XAGP $109.00

Wich addds up to $358.00
wich is well under your budget

That will be a mayor upgrade for your current system and keeping it all in budget. As you can see you will have a great system very cheaply


Rop

Why do I use LINUX ? Cause its the BEST OS
Why do I use Windows? Cause its the BEST Nintendo..

 

[girish]

in that case (I dont know what emachines was) you might want to upgrade your chassis too. of course that come with the PS upgrade I suggested.

and if it doesnt fit in your budget you could go for a Duron 850.

girish

<font color=red>No system is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

 

[o1die]

You sound like you don't have much experience building systems. I would just buy a complete generic athlon 1.4 system. I checked pricewatch, and tufshop (whom I have done business with before) has a decent generic system with Dram and separate components for about $475 plus shipping. You get win98 and a warranty. Then, I would sell your old system in the local newspaper if you end up over budget, or need to buy a new monitor. Go to the first page of pc windows in pricewatch and write down some 800 numbers. You may have to wait 10-14 days to get your system. That will give you time to sell your old system.

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Your case is a micro atx with a low PS (which kinds of limits you in terms of upgradablility). Like the other guy said, you can salvage your hard drive, Cd-rom drive and Floppy drive and build a 1.0ghz athlon with a very good graphics card for under $500.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[shuke]

Is there a jumper on the board to change the FSB from 66 to 100 or is it in the bios? That chip is a good candidate for o/cing. Hope you're lucky, at least you can extend it's life a little longer by running it at 550.

It don't come easy.......not always.

 

[Guest]

Hi again. Thanks everyone so far for your suggestions.

I’m getting the feeling that the general consensus is scrap this system, save for the HD, and go with a low cost AMD system.

How hard is it to build your own computer? I’m not a total novice as I have installed my own HD, ram, and vid card. I know the basic layout of computers and how they work. Do anyone of you think it would be beyond my capabilities?

If not, would any of you be so kind as to give me a full list of parts and everything I need to do it myself. I would also need a full list of the components, as I’m not quite good enough yet to be totally sure everything I would buy would be compatible with each other. That is to say what mobo goes with what cpu etc. Even better, would be a total listing of the best system you can come up with for under $500 minus the HD (would need to include the full names of all of the needed parts so I could buy them).

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

OEM computers do not have jumpers for any kind of overclocking. The same goes for the BIOS.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Of course it is not out of your capabilities!!! If you know how to use a screwdriver, then you know how to build a computer.
It is not hard at all, but don't be careless either.
Here is what I rounded up in a few minutes from <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">www.newegg.com</A>:

Enlight Medium ATX 300watt Case $50
Sunon Case fan $5
Audio Cable $2
Iwill KK266 PLUS (W/on board 5.1 surround sound audio) $115
ATI Radeon 64mb DDR(Retail) $153
Athlon 1.0ghz 133FSB(OEM) $73
GlobalWin WBK38 heatsink/fan $19
sub total: $417.00 (add around $30-40 for shipping)

then go to <A HREF="http://www.crucial.com" target="_new">Crucial.com</A> and buy 256mb of SD-RAM for $41.39 (free shipping)

That'll give you a computer under $500 if you salvage your harddrive, floppydrive, cd-rom drive, floppy cable, and IDE cables. With the good ram from crucial and the better than average heatsink/fan, you can overclock your CPU to 1.4ghz.

This is just an example, you might be able to find cheaper prices by going to <A HREF="http://www.pricewatch.com" target="_new">Pricewatch.com</A>.


See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Matisaro]

Actually wussy.
on pricewatch they have

duron950=56
tbird900=57

the tbird 900 will whomp the 950 duron for only 1 buck more. Durons are great cpus, but the pricewar has left them in kind of a rut, true the equally clocked tbirds are selling for about 10% more(8-10 bucks) but like the p4 vs athlon, mhz is not everything.

My suggestion is get a 1ghz tbird for
68 bucks, it would perform about as well as an 1100 duron, and its only 12 bucks more. If he really needed that 12 bucks tho, I would reccomend the 900tbird, and overclock it to 1ghz, for only 1 dollar more. If he really NEEDS the dollar, I would not reccomend buying a pc at this time. LOL


~Matisaro~
"Friends don't let friends buy Pentiums"
~Tbird1.3@1.55~

 

[Matisaro]

Actually, I would buy a new compy right now, who knows what will happen in a year, prices are rock bottom right now.

However, if you wait 8 months, I would deffinatly say go with ddr, it will be mature and nearly the standard by then.

~Matisaro~
"Friends don't let friends buy Pentiums"
~Tbird1.3@1.55~

 

[Crashman]

I recommend the Blaster PC kit from TigerDirect (whihc includes motherboard, case, power supply, and SB Live Platinum 5.1 for $150), a PIII 700E FC-PGA overclocked to 933, mounted to an Abit Slotket III adapter, and cooled by an Evercool ND-8 cooler. Total cost is around $300. Add $100 for a GeForce2 GTS, and your up to $400 for good gaming. Use the part you already have to finish it out. You should be able to get around $75 for your old case, power supply, motherboard, and CPU if you resell it.

I'm so tired of cookies I'd settle for spam!