Upgrade help

[ANNR]

Hello everyone. I have a Sony Vaio desktop and I would like to know what is the fastest CPU, Type/max Ram, GPU I can upgrade it to.

I looked all over the place on google but I can't find any information on the mobo so I have no idea what I can upgrade this vaio to.

I know this is old computer, I just want to upgrade it and let my dad use it.

Thanks allot for all your help.

Thanks.

Here is some screen shot from the CPU-Z

 

[The_Other_One]

I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but that computer really wouldn't be worth your while upgrading. Searching around ebay you may find some replacement processors that'd work for a semi decent price, but performance increases would be minuscule at best.

However, the real problem will be the motherboard. You could very well research the chipset and get a fair idea what hardware it can handle. However, I've seen many BIOS's in such computers remain rather outdated and unsupported . Even though the hardware support is there, they are limited to certain processors/speeds/architectures.

My suggestion would be get some more RAM in there, give it a fresh copy of Windows XP and it should be pretty decent. As long as the load is kept pretty light (not too many background programs) it'd probably be a fair computer for webbrowsing and such.

 

[ANNR]

I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but that computer really wouldn't be worth your while upgrading. Searching around ebay you may find some replacement processors that'd work for a semi decent price, but performance increases would be minuscule at best.

However, the real problem will be the motherboard. You could very well research the chipset and get a fair idea what hardware it can handle. However, I've seen many BIOS's in such computers remain rather outdated and unsupported . Even though the hardware support is there, they are limited to certain processors/speeds/architectures.

My suggestion would be get some more RAM in there, give it a fresh copy of Windows XP and it should be pretty decent. As long as the load is kept pretty light (not too many background programs) it'd probably be a fair computer for webbrowsing and such.

Thanks The_Other_One

Ebay was just the place I have in mind for buying the CPU, RAM, and GPU to upgrade this PC. I am thinking of upgrading it because these parts are very cheap now, especilly since I don't mind spending month after month to find the lowest price.

I just want to upgrade it as far as the mobo can take. But I can't find any information on the mobo and what cpu it supports.

I think this mobo can support CPU with 533fsb including the p4 with HT support. But I don't know for sure.

What is the max RAM this mobo can support?

What is the best GPU that is available for this mobo?

 

[The_Other_One]

Looked up the chipset. Yup, it's 400/533MHz. Probably about any P4 that supports 533MHz would be fine. I'm seeing some specs about that chipset saying "1.7GHz and above" Oh yeah, and HT should be supported as you mentioned... Just try and find the latest bios before you begin installing new processors.

As for RAM, I don't know for sure, but I see many similar boards with 4 sockets supporting 2GB or RAM... Sooo, I assume 512MB sticks of plain-old DDR would be your tops. Probably should TRY to find the correct speed, though PC3200 should work...

Best GPU, there really shouldn't be any limitations. Any AGP board should work fine. You might need a new PSU if you upgrade much more though. Is there any reason you're upgrading? My suggestion would be to leave it. The MX400 isn't a bad board for basic computing. If you upgrade, you wouldn't gain anything in performance unless you played games or something, which still would be heavily limited in a system such as that one.

 

[ANNR]

I'm seeing some specs about that chipset saying "1.7GHz and above" Oh yeah, and HT should be supported as you mentioned... Just try and find the latest bios before you begin installing new processors.

That is great. All I know was that the mobo is mad by Asus and its model number and could not find anymore information on it. Any idea on where I might be able to find the Bios update?

As for RAM, I don't know for sure, but I see many similar boards with 4 sockets supporting 2GB or RAM... Sooo, I assume 512MB sticks of plain-old DDR would be your tops. Probably should TRY to find the correct speed, though PC3200 should work...

This was really confusing me because like you found, the board can support up to 2gb of RAM and I have seen a same model desktop with 2GB of RAM in it. But the spec on Sony's marketing sheep sais 1GB tops.

Anyway I think your right about the 2GB limit.

Best GPU, there really shouldn't be any limitations. Any AGP board should work fine. You might need a new PSU if you upgrade much more though. Is there any reason you're upgrading? My suggestion would be to leave it. The MX400 isn't a bad board for basic computing. If you upgrade, you wouldn't gain anything in performance unless you played games or something, which still would be heavily limited in a system such as that one.

Mostly because My mom will be watching a lot of videos on this computer. reasons being I noticed a big picture quality different between the MX400 and the cards on my other system.

The GPU will be mostly for multimedia use rather than Gaming. Would ATI cards work better in this instance?

Thanks again for your help The_Other_One