Upgrading Old PC

[nmakes]

I have an old PC (I mean really old). And I am upgrading it a bit, just to see how it performs and learn from it.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 511 (2.8 GHz) (x64)
Motherboard: intel D101GGC
RAM: 1.5 GB
HDD: 80 GB
+ TV Tuner + Internal Dial Up Modem

I am willing to buy a 1GB RAM (Replace the .5 GB with 1 GB - to use 64 bit) and a Geforce 210. And Install Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit in it.

Please tell me whether this motherboard will support Geforce 210 or not.

PS: I know it's time to buy a new build, but I'll do that next year. Until then, I want to learn and tweak my old PC. (I haven't worked with graphic cards yet, so I want to learn about that before I buy a costlier build).

 

[ust4ever]

It should be able too, but the GPU won't be able to max out because it is a PCI E 1.0 board, not 2.0, so the GPU will work, but not as well...

What PSU wattage have you got? You'll need at least 300W to get that card to work, but it'll be very close, anything below 350-400 and:
It will work.
It will kinda work, but not very well.
It will fail catastrophically.



~ Adam

 

[nmakes]

I have a 430W PSU (lolzz... I have been wasting that extra power capability all these years).
My board says:
One PCI Express* x16
One PCI Express* x1
Two PCI
(See this..: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d101ggc/sb/cs-021717.htm)
So, will it work?
I have used Ubuntu, Fedora, DSL, Suse - a lot. But I got back to Windows because it is somehow faster than the linux guyz.

 

[nmakes]

SPAM

WRONG Forum Mr....

 

[ust4ever]

Bear in mind that the board will be unable to max out with a 1.0 PCI E port!
(Oh, and I'd mark the thread as solved if I where you xD)

 

[nmakes]

Will the DDR2 graphic card thingie work?
If I can buy a better one, which one will you suggest?

 

[sna]

Will the DDR2 graphic card thingie work?
If I can buy a better one, which one will you suggest?

if you have a PCI express Slot , then you have tons of options.

The Question is , how much are you willing to pay ?

and if you ask me , don't pay anything on this machine. at all .

it is not worth it. the 210 card you are talking about, all onboard graphics today beats it at low price as well. even the low voltage ones. there is no point.

tell me how much you want to pay , you can get a motherboard + AMD APU + 4G of ram for around 100$ only and it will be better than your PC

 

[nmakes]

Well I know, but I am planning to make a high end PC next year (as I would graduate from high school). So, before doing that, I just want to test out whether I know my stuff or not. So, I just want to learn how to handle with things before I go out and invest really big amount.
Can you tell me, what could do the job?
Well, Tell me.. If I buy this card and then for the next PC, can I use it as physx processor? Like if I have 2 GTX 780 on SLI and this one for physx, will it work? Or will it be a bottleneck?

 

[sna]

Well I know, but I am planning to make a high end PC next year (as I would graduate from high school). So, before doing that, I just want to test out whether I know my stuff or not. So, I just want to learn how to handle with things before I go out and invest really big amount.
Can you tell me, what could do the job?
Well, Tell me.. If I buy this card and then for the next PC, can I use it as physx processor? Like if I have 2 GTX 780 on SLI and this one for physx, will it work? Or will it be a bottleneck?

you wont be needing any dedicated PhysX card even with a single GTX 780 .

and the 210 is very slow for a dedicated PhysX card.

don't buy old cards .. it is a waste of money.

 

[nmakes]

Well I know, but I am planning to make a high end PC next year (as I would graduate from high school). So, before doing that, I just want to test out whether I know my stuff or not. So, I just want to learn how to handle with things before I go out and invest really big amount.
Can you tell me, what could do the job?
Well, Tell me.. If I buy this card and then for the next PC, can I use it as physx processor? Like if I have 2 GTX 780 on SLI and this one for physx, will it work? Or will it be a bottleneck?

If you are planning on building a new high end PC, then the main thing you need to know about handling the sensitive electrical parts is to not touch the components before you discharge any built up static electricity in your hands by touching a metal (preferably steel, iron or copper) surface to ground it out. An old PC will have many of the basic parts that a new PC will have. If you want to get familiar with the parts, instead of upgrading it, I would suggest that you take the entire system apart: every single bolt and nut that you can unbolt. Take out the hard drives, optical drives, USB ports, power supply, RAM, CPU, GPU, fans & every wire on the motherboard until you are left with a bare case and a pile of PC guts... Then, put it back together. If you can do that then you can build any PC from scratch and you will know what parts to order. That P4 PC is very similar to new ones especially if it has SATA ports. If it has IDE ports, then it is even a little more complicated installing drives on it than a modern PC. This is the perfect machine to do something like this on for the first time. Growing up, I was fortunate to have access to many old PCs from the first IBM personal computer, the XT to 286's, 386's, 486's, P1, P2, P3, P4, and a bunch of Commodores, Apples and AMDs in between. Since the XT, the layout of the PC hasn't changed much. As the tech evolved, the drives, connectors and expansion slots have changed shape, usually getting smaller and faster, but their functions remain the same.

You should also learn how to access and use the BIOS if you already haven't as it is essential to setting up a PC especially if you want to learn how to overclock.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
The only thing I need to learn about is SATA & PCIe (My HDD has that broad flat ATA connector). Rest all I have done, from removing the processor, PSU, ODD, HDD, Even case connections, fans blablabla... I mean, everything. And ya, I overclocked the ram from 400MHz to 533MHz too! I'm familiar with my BIOS
And ya, I need to learn about voltage and stuff. My BIOS does not have option to modify voltage and change cpu frequency (probably because of my PSU or Mobo - don't know why). So, I'm really desperate to experiment with a 64 bit system with 2 GB RAM, 1GB geforce 210 and check out how it performs!

BTW, does D101GGC support cpu overclocking? I can't see any option to modify cpu voltage and frequency.
So, that's what

 

[nmakes]

Nah. This PC is assembled. I was in grade 4 at that time, so I didn't know much about all its stuff. Well, I have applied the BIOS update, and I think all the drivers are up to date.

I wanna know one thing. In windows, find the processor in device manager and it mentions the drivers are up to date. Why is that so? Can processor activity also be controlled using some drivers? Or is it "how windows uses the processor?"