Upgrade a old computer???

[kimbrly]

I've been concerned about the fans in my computer going "wild". I play internet games and when I do the fans run extremely "hard", almost like it is about to "blow up" I've replaced the cooling fans, upgraded the memory to 4 GB, the hard drive is not even a 1/4 full. Nothing has helped so I am going for the processor next, I hope!! Hopefully that will solve the fan issue. I understand my computer is 8 years old and way out of date but I am trying to fix what I can, slowly. What would be a processor that would be a decent upgrade?


Specifications
Part Number: 1015002RGateway GT5656 Desktop Computer
Model: GT5656
The following table provides the specifications for the Gateway® GT5656 desktop computer.





Feature

Specification



Processor

AMD Athlon™64 X2 6000+, 64-bit dual core processor ■Operates at 3.0 GHz
■2 x 1 MB L2 cache
■2000 MHz system bus



Chipset

NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150SE



Memory

•Installed: 3072 MB DDR2, 667 MHz, (PC2-5300) dual channel memory (two 1024 MB and two 512 MB modules)
•Expandable to: 4 GB (4 DDR2 DIMM slots)



Hard Drive

500 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA II hard drive
Support for up to two hard drives



Optical Drive

DVD ±RW, 18X super multi-format dual layer drive with Lableflash™ support, (up to 8.5GB) ■Write max: 18X DVD±R, 8X DVD+R DL, 8X DVD-R DL, 8X DVD+R DL, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 12X DVD-RAM, 48X CD-R, 32X CD-RW
■Read max: 16X DVD-ROM, 48X CD-ROM
■Supports Labelflash™ on disc printing (req. Labelflash media)



Media Card Reader

15-in-1 high speed digital media manager supporting the following: ■Compact Flash (CF) I, II
■IBM Microdrive™ (MD)
■SmartMedia Card (SMC)
■Memory Stick™ (MS)
■Memory Stick Duo (MS Duo)
■Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO)
■Memory Stick PRO Duo (MS PRO Duo)
■Secure Digital™ (SD)
■Mini Secure Digital (MiniSD)
■Multi Media Card (MMC)
■RS Multi Media Card (RS-MMC) (need adapter)
■Multi Media Plus Card (MMC Plus)
■Multi Media Mobile Card (MMC Mobile)
■xD-Picture Card (xD)



Video

Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE graphics
•128MB of shared video memory



Audio

Integrated 8-Channel (7.1) High Definition Audio



Network Support

Integrated MARVELL 88E8056 10/100 Ethernet LAN



Modem

56K ITU V.92 ready Fax/Modem with RJ-11 ports



Power Supply

300 watt



Add-in Card Slots

•One PCI Express ×16 (graphics interface)
•One PCI Express ×1
•Two PCI conventional



External Connectors

•One PS/2 keyboard port
•One PS/2 mouse port
•One VGA monitor port
•One Parallel port
•One Serial port
•Six USB ports (four rear, two front)
•Two IEEE 1394a port (one rear, one front)
•One RJ-45 Ethernet LAN port
•Eight audio jacks (six rear, two front)



Drive Bays

Five total: ■Two external 5.25-inch
■One external 3.5-inch (with a docking bay for optional Gateway 2.5-inch removable USB hard drive)
■Two internal 3.5-inch (hard drive)



Physical Dimensions
(H × W × D)

15.6 × 7.2 × 16.1 inches



Weight (Unpackaged)

Minimum 23.4 lbs. (varies with configuration)

 

[mildgamer001]

if you dont need to play high end games (like in this situation) why the hell are you guys trying to sell her such high end expencive stuff, internet games will not be any harder to run in the future so dont pull the it will last longer, the parts would start to break down before they were too slow to do what she is doing.. she doesnt want to completely rebuild, if she does, there are much cheaper and more reasonable solutions than the most powerful parts in the market right now (ivy bridge.)

if she ends up absolutely haveing to rebuild, maybe a simple apu or intel pentium g620 or something would be more than enough, and still a lot more piowerful than the current computer, oh, and athlon 64s are POSes, my grandmother has a desktop with one and it plays games better than my new laptop with intel hd graphics, kimb's computer is strong enough for what she needs right now, so how about we try to help her with what she is asking about. starting new isnt always the answer..

kimbrly when did the fans start to overwork? recently? has it been this way for a long time? oh, and also the one plugged into the power supply directly will always run at full throttle anyway, so maybe it just happens to be a very loud fan that is louder than the rest so it sounds like they are all doing it. and im not totally sure but maybe the fan controller on the mobo/cpu is damaged or not working correctly?

 

[kimbrly]

I had to reboot my computer to get to the bios settings to get to the temp. I dont know if there is another way, if there is, can you tell me how to do that PLEASE???
It just started about a month ago and seems to be getting faster, but only when I play certian games on facebook. If you need to know what games they are zinga games, like Castleville (especially), hidden chronicles, etc. The computer runs great as long as I am not playing those specific games. The only things I have upgraded are the 2 fans and added memory (to 4 GB)

Almost forgot to mention, the system was throwing off ALOT of heat. I took the cover off to let it breath better. Dont know if that matters but I figured i'd let you know just in case.

 

[geekapproved]

Upgrade to Ivy Bridge. Its a reasonable mobo and processor for what you are doing. You will also get better fan control too.

Yes get an Ivy Bridge to play internet games, at least you will have better fan control. ROFL

Anyways, the setup I suggested is your best bet and it's inexpensive.

Are you sure it's not the psu fan that's "going crazy" ? That would make sense since you replaced the other fans.

 

[popatim]

With the cover off you can use a pen or something to stop the fans momentarilly to see which one is the one making all the noise. Sometimes theres one in the front cover thats hard to see so look there if you cant find the noisy one.

 

[rds1220]

That works or you can unpulg them one by one to see which one is making all the noise. I don't like sticking pens into the fan I'm afraid of messing up the motor.

 

[kimbrly]

I'm so frustrated with it right now. My birthday is this weekend so I think I'm just gonna ask for a new one!! Sounds like it could be just about anything!! By the time I finish upgrading everything it will be at about the same price as a new tower!! I'm not to crazy about sticking things where they dont belong, meaning a pen in the tower!! No offense there POPATIM, but i just dont know about that!! What is a new computer that you would recommend? What should I look for in what I need it for?? Nothing big and fancy or hard on the wallet. Any advise would be very much appreciated!!!

 

[rds1220]

I like HP the best but Lenovo doesn't seem to bad either. I'm not really a fan of Dell IMO their stuff is garbage and when it breaks expect horrible customer service. You said your husband is good with hardware maybe he could build a cheap one for you.

Case-$50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133076

PSU-$80

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703035

I3 2120-$125

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077

socket 1155 motherboard-$62

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157256

4-8 gigs of DDR3 RAM

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=H61M-GE&Cat=RAM

 

[geekapproved]

She already has a DVDRW and a HD, I suggested her a i3/H61 and memory and provided her links.

Case is up to her.

 

[rds1220]

Yea I did I had to look it up first.

 

[kimbrly]

I like HP too. This computer I have now is the first Gateway one I have ever owned. I'll see if the husband wants to build one or just buy a new one!!
I'll save all the links from both of you so he can see what he will need. Thank you for all the help!! It is very much appreciated!!

 

[rds1220]

Ok. If your question was answered don't forget to slect a best answer so the mods can close the thread.

 

[kimbrly]

ok. but before that happens, i wanted to let you know, my question about "what to look for" was in a NEW computer. I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks again.!!

 

[mildgamer001]

look for maybe a pentium cpu, 4gb ram, internet games dotn need much gpu power, i would suggest asus, acer, and lenovo over hp dell or toshiba any day.

with a custom, even a celeron g530 is fairly good (new celerons are pretty close to modern pentiums, the old ones sucked not the new ones) or spend 65$ and get a pentium g620, 4gb ddr3 1333, you could reuse case, fans (they arent what is causeing the heat so they should still be fine), hdd, dvd, any accesories, all you would need is cpu, mobo, ram, and power supply. (i hate oem power supplies, total trash) but your husband would probably be able to find the parts you need for a custom

, and i suggest simply staying away from hp, dell, gateway, emachines (acer makes but i think they really skimp out with them), any off-brand ones that you havent heard of, and stick to mostly asus, lenovo, and acer (acer is really more if you get a laptop, idk about their desktops)

 

[kimbrly]

OK. I'll see what hubby wants to do or not do
Thank you again!!

 

[kimbrly]

Best answer selected by kimbrly.

 

[mildgamer001]

your welcome, good luck with the nw computer, also you MIGHT be able to make some side cash selling the parts like ram cpu power supply (prob not tho for the psu) and stuff like that you wont be reusing in a new rig if you get a custom, wont make much but at least the ram might get you like 20$ on ebay.. cpu might as well.
anyway good luck! oh and also if you reuse the hard drive you can probably save a lto of your files and such, if you buy new (at a low price range it is prob the best option, you will have to figur eout the costs etc of buying vs building) if so just get a big flash drive or something to carry over the music, documents, pictures, stuff like that, probably not the biger stuff though, i found that flash drives is simply the easiest and fastest way to move smaller files... prob already knew that though xD