Three piece upgrade recomendations

[Joshcore]

Hello everyone

Well my birthday is coming up soon and being the broke, unemployed and lazy person I am I have no money to spend on new bits for my computer, so, I've decided to ask for these parts from my parents as a birthday gift. But... Given the specs of my old system, is it worth installing these parts?

I've only listed what will be upgraded; an complete list of my system is in my signature.

Old Parts:
Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz Processor
Seagate Barracuda 40Gb HDD
128Mb DDR RAM

New Parts:
Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz Processor
Seagate Barracuda 320Gb HDD
2Gb DDR RAM

What I want is better performance from my system. I'm not into heavy gaming or any visual editing so I'm not looking for a good video card or motherboard, because my current one works fine and should be compatible with these upgrades. I can get all of this for under $250, but any suggestions for other upgrades that will give me better performance are welcome.

[jer888]

Sounds like it will help alot. 256MB of RAM has to be painfully slow.:eek:

[Joshcore]

Actually that's what I assumed I had. It's actually 128Mb.

[marine63]

what is your ram speed
if your not going to do a heavy gaming computer than youll need only 1GB or ram

[LeftyAce]

Yeah, the jump from 128MB to 1GB is HUGE. You'll feel like you've got a whole new computer right there.
Let us know which specific processor you're getting, to be sure it's compatible with your motherboard socket and FSB speed.

[Cricket]

What operating system are you using?

:) Cricket

[Joshcore]

Well here's the complete hardware specs for my pc as current:


Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz
1x 128Mb DDR
ECS P4S5MG/GL+
SeaGate Barracuda 40Gb
Onboard sound and graphics.
Windows XP Home Edition (SP2)

I'm planing on getting an Intel Pentium 4 at 2.4Ghz for socket 478 which is what my mobo has on.
RAM will be fine, I have four sockets for DDR but I'm only planning on using two of them for two 1Gb sticks.
And finally, the new hard drive - this will be in IDE of course, my mobo is too old to support any other. I'm going to use my current 40Gb drive for nothing other than my OS and run it as master with the new hard drive as a slave with all my files.

[Cricket]

You have to go to the ECS web site and see if there is a CPU compatibility list for that motherboard so you know exactly which P4 it supports.

And depending on how old that motherboard is it may or may not support a hard drive that big.

As far as the RAM goes, the ECS web site might have a list of RAM that is known to work with that motherboard. If it doesn't, the RAM you plan to use may have a memory configurator on it's web site. Check for compatibility before you buy.

Just noticed you cross posted (http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=184309) in another forum.

:) Cricket

[nocturnx]

The manual for your motherboard says it supports a Socket 478 Pentium 4 with up to 533MHz system bus.
More specifically it says Intel 478: 1.4GHz ~ 2.2GHz, FSB: 400/533MHz

It also has 2 168-pin DIMM slots for SDRAM up to 133Mhz and 2 184-pin DIMM slots for DDR up to 266MHz.

[Joshcore]

Oh ok thanks... Well would i be able to put 2 sticks of 1Gb 168 pin so I have 2Gb only using two channels?

And also can anyone recommend me a processor that will work?

[perkster]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116215

the above looks like a reasonable p4 processor which is right socket type and right FSB.

and i think youre better keeping to 1gb ram, shoudl be enough given the rest of your system specs:

maybe two of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146024

or in fact best memory option would be two of the DDR 266 such as this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145024
it is also cheaper!

again not sure on the max HD capacity that board can handle so maybe need to look into it more or go for a smaller one to save money and still provide a decent upgrade on the 40gb you have.

[Joshcore]

Hummm that would be good but Ilive in Australia and Newegg say they don't ship overseas...

[Alaron]

I checked ECS' website, and your board does support that 2.8Ghz P4 as well as few others: http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Support/CPU_Support_Model.aspx?detailid=43&MenuID=69&LanID=0

Stick with DDR memory, the SDRAM will hold you back.

Unfortunately the Australian vendor I usually check doesn't have older P4s. They do have some memory though: http://www.scorptec.com.au/browse/16/43 The 512MB sticks of Kingston PC2100 would be my first choice, but you could try the faster memory, it *should* work. No guarantees though.

If you know of any other online vendors we can look at to help you, please post a link. :)

[perkster]

joshcore, sorry about that I am in UK and dont use newegg myself either but a lot of people here are in US so i post links from it, and also shows you name and specs of what will be good, then just a matter of finding it from one of your countries suppliers.

[Joshcore]

Okay. Thanks a ton guys, this has pointed me in the right direction, the only thing left to do is find a vendor and purchase the parts :)

Erm... I also thought I should add that the only cooling my system has is the CPU heatsink and fan and that in the PSU... Will this be fine for a new processor or will I have to add some more cooling. Thanks


PS can I get a video card for this mobo?

[Alaron]

You shouldn't need much more cooling. Intel chips run cool. I would wait until everything is upgraded, take a look at the temperatures and decide then. At most, you would just need to add an exhaust fan.

As for a video card, I checked your motherboard specs, and that board only has PCI slots, no AGP. So your video card options are very limited, and won't improve performance by a lot. I'd go for the Radeon 9250 here: http://www.scorptec.com.au/browse/35/61 if you do get a card. Otherwise, if you want to game, you'll need to look into a full system overhaul.

[perkster]

alaron, according to the manual for the motherboard it has 2 32-bit PCI slots and 1 4xAGP slot so shoudl be able to put in some form of graphics card, but may strain the PSU.

manual: http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?detailid=43&DetailName=Manual&DetailDesc=P4S5MG/GL%20%20%20(V7.0)&CategoryID=1&MenuID=82&LanID=0

check page 18