Old pentium 4 pc, worth upgrading?

[Guest]

Hello guys,
I was recently given an old socket 478 Pentium 4 HT computer, @ 3.20ghz, 2gb ram, 160gb sata hard drive, Windows 7 Pro 32 bit. It handles basic tasks pretty well, such as checking e-mail. Facebook, browsing the web, things like that. It tends to freeze up during multitasking though. Anyways, I have some old games that don't run well on today's hardware, and was wondering if this system is worth investing in. Here's the card I chose.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130477&cm_re=6200-_-14-130-477-_-Product

and replacing the ram with a dual channel pair of DDR 400,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226082&cm_re=ddr_400_2gb-_-20-226-082-_-Product
Worth it, or no?

 

[AdviserKulikov]

You're overdue for an upgrade of an entire PC, not just parts. If you can keep the windows license that will save you some money if you're willing to build a PC.

 

[Eximo]

Not worth it. Latest OS you can install is Windows 8.0 not 8.1 and 10 won't work either. The CPU is missing a vital instruction set.

If you want a legacy build, I would actually seek out older tech, or just run a VM.

 

[morpheas768]

How did you even find this gfx card? EVGA 6 GeForce 6200 DirectX 9....wait what? How is this still being sold?
And 43 dollars, no less Holy Cow!

It is literally a steal, dont even think about it. I mean hell, give some random homeless person your money if you want to spend it so bad. Not joking, give it to charity, because this is insane.
The card you are looking to buy is PCI. Not AGP, or PCI Express, but good ol' PCI.
Dont....just dont.
I'm sure your motherboard has got an AGP slot, and if not then it has a PCI Express (but doubt it).

Anyways, this system isnt worth investing anything, unless you can get a whole bunch of stuff for like 5 bucks, and even then, I'm not even sure its worth the trouble of installing them.

Dont do this, just get a new PC. Save whatever money you have, put them in a jar and eventually you can get a new PC. Anything new you can buy now, is waaaaaaay better than what you have.

And btw, you dont have to buy new parts. You can find used parts, or even whole used PC's for cheap that will perform well and even be able to play modern games on it.

Dont....

 

[Wolfshadw]

You may need to check the specs of that motherboard. If you cannot upgrade the RAM beyond 2GB, then no. It's not worth any effort to update the rest of the system.

-Wolf sends

 

[Guest]

You may need to check the specs of that motherboard. If you cannot upgrade the RAM beyond 2GB, then no. It's not worth any effort to update the rest of the system.

-Wolf sends

I can install a maximum of 4 x 1GB PC3200 in this system.

 

[Wolfshadw]

You may need to check the specs of that motherboard. If you cannot upgrade the RAM beyond 2GB, then no. It's not worth any effort to update the rest of the system.

-Wolf sends

I can install a maximum of 4 x 1GB PC3200 in this system.

Next, I would check to see if you have and AGP port, which would be a great improvement over just a PCI slot and then look for an AGP card. Something like the 6600GT; used on e-bay. Otherwise, I would agree that $43 for that card is far too high (even new).

-Wolf sends

 

[Guest]

You may need to check the specs of that motherboard. If you cannot upgrade the RAM beyond 2GB, then no. It's not worth any effort to update the rest of the system.

-Wolf sends

I can install a maximum of 4 x 1GB PC3200 in this system.

Next, I would check to see if you have and AGP port, which would be a great improvement over just a PCI slot and then look for an AGP card. Something like the 6600GT; used on e-bay. Otherwise, I would agree that $43 for that card is far too high (even new).

-Wolf sends

The motherboard does in fact have an AGP Slot, and I'm looking into this card.

https://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-512MB-DVI-I-Graphics/dp/B005DD5BX0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

It's a bit pricey, but will allow me to watch HD video and play classic games.

 

[morpheas768]

The motherboard does in fact have an AGP Slot, and I'm looking into this card.

https://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-512MB-DVI-I-Graphics/dp/B005DD5BX0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

It's a bit pricey, but will allow me to watch HD video and play classic games.

You can actually buy used PC's (whole tower) for less than 100 dollars with a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad in them, and something like 7600 GT or 8600 GS for a gfx card.
Also, the card you are looking to buy (Radeon 3450) is worse than Intel Integrated Graphics 3000, i.e. the integrated gpu that an i5-2500k has got.

You are throwing your money away, but its your choice not mine.
I've done all I can to help you.

 

[Wolfshadw]

You may need to check the specs of that motherboard. If you cannot upgrade the RAM beyond 2GB, then no. It's not worth any effort to update the rest of the system.

-Wolf sends

I can install a maximum of 4 x 1GB PC3200 in this system.

Next, I would check to see if you have and AGP port, which would be a great improvement over just a PCI slot and then look for an AGP card. Something like the 6600GT; used on e-bay. Otherwise, I would agree that $43 for that card is far too high (even new).

-Wolf sends

The motherboard does in fact have an AGP Slot, and I'm looking into this card.

https://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-512MB-DVI-I-Graphics/dp/B005DD5BX0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

It's a bit pricey, but will allow me to watch HD video and play classic games.

Sorry. I should have been more careful. That motherboard is pretty old and there are a number of AGP versions out there. You will need to check the voltage available for your motherboard's AGP slot. It may very well be that it AGP 8x cards are not compatible.

This image, when compared to the AGP slot in your motherboard will tell you what AGP voltage card you can use:

This table, base on the voltage, will tell you what version AGP card is compatible:

Specification 	Voltage    Clock 	Speed 	Transfers/clock 	Rate (MB/s)
PCI 	        3.3/5 V    33 MHz 	— 	1 	                      133
PCI 2.1 	3.3/5 V    33/66 MHz 	— 	1 	                      266
AGP 1.0 	3.3 V 	    66 MHz 	1× 	1 	                      266
AGP 1.0 	3.3 V 	    66 MHz 	2× 	2 	                      533
AGP 2.0 	1.5 V 	    66 MHz 	4× 	4 	                     1066
AGP 3.0 	0.8 V 	    66 MHz 	8× 	8 	                     2133
AGP 3.5* 	0.8 V 	    66 MHz 	8× 	8 	                     2133

I would note that the AGP 8x cards also use the 1.5v expansion slot, so you will often find cards labelled AGP 4x/8x.

-Wolf sends

 

[Guest]

You may need to check the specs of that motherboard. If you cannot upgrade the RAM beyond 2GB, then no. It's not worth any effort to update the rest of the system.

-Wolf sends

I can install a maximum of 4 x 1GB PC3200 in this system.

Next, I would check to see if you have and AGP port, which would be a great improvement over just a PCI slot and then look for an AGP card. Something like the 6600GT; used on e-bay. Otherwise, I would agree that $43 for that card is far too high (even new).

-Wolf sends

The motherboard does in fact have an AGP Slot, and I'm looking into this card.

https://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-512MB-DVI-I-Graphics/dp/B005DD5BX0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

It's a bit pricey, but will allow me to watch HD video and play classic games.

Sorry. I should have been more careful. That motherboard is pretty old and there are a number of AGP versions out there. You will need to check the voltage available for your motherboard's AGP slot. It may very well be that it AGP 8x cards are not compatible.

This image, when compared to the AGP slot in your motherboard will tell you what AGP voltage card you can use:

This table, base on the voltage, will tell you what version AGP card is compatible:

Specification 	Voltage    Clock 	Speed 	Transfers/clock 	Rate (MB/s)
PCI 	        3.3/5 V    33 MHz 	— 	1 	                      133
PCI 2.1 	3.3/5 V    33/66 MHz 	— 	1 	                      266
AGP 1.0 	3.3 V 	    66 MHz 	1× 	1 	                      266
AGP 1.0 	3.3 V 	    66 MHz 	2× 	2 	                      533
AGP 2.0 	1.5 V 	    66 MHz 	4× 	4 	                     1066
AGP 3.0 	0.8 V 	    66 MHz 	8× 	8 	                     2133
AGP 3.5* 	0.8 V 	    66 MHz 	8× 	8 	                     2133

I would note that the AGP 8x cards also use the 1.5v expansion slot, so you will often find cards labelled AGP 4x/8x.

-Wolf sends

This is the motherboard,

 

[Wolfshadw]

Yeah, It's keyed for 1.5v so it will accept an AGP 4x/8x graphics card.

-Wolf sends

 

[Guest]

Yeah, It's keyed for 1.5v so it will accept an AGP 4x/8x graphics card.

-Wolf sends

Would this be a good budget (under $50) agp card for watching HD videos on Youtube, streaming Netflix, and playing old games like Half Life 2, and Sim City 3000?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/162063509986?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

[Wolfshadw]

Should be ok for movies, but not sure about games (but if they're old games, I expect it will be fine).

-Wolf sends

 

[Gaetano77]

I also have a old socket 478 Pentium 4 3.40E (SL7PP) CPU on Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard, 2 Gb DDR400 in dual channel configuration, 120 Gb Seagate hard drive, VGA ATI Radeon 9600 Sapphire 256 Mb, Windows 7 Professional 32-bit.
This machine is powerful enough to handle basic tasks, such as Office works, light web browsing (checking e-mail, Facebook...) and playing YouTube videos up to 480p resolution; please note that my VGA doesn't support hardware acceleration for new VP8/VP9 codecs, so decoding of stream videos is fully loaded on the CPU!

 

[Gaetano77]

Should be ok for movies, but not sure about games (but if they're old games, I expect it will be fine).

-Wolf sends

This VGA should be ok for Hd movies, but it is need to install h264ify extension in web browser, which forces YouTube server to send stream videos in old H.264 codec, rather than in new VP8/VP9 ones.