Newbie to upgrade help.

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willjm3931

New Member
I am a newbie to upgrading computers and am driving myself crazy trying to figure it out. I have 2 identical computers that I am thinking about upgrading for my kids. They are going to be used for internet, word processing and general computing. I am eventually going to put in a wireless network. I am looking for a motherboard/CPU combo in the $150-200 range. This is an example of a combo that I was looking at. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...hTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2717610&CatId=0
I would like to know what else I may need such as CPU fan, memory, video card or whatever. Below is the info. Off the computers. I hope that I am not being a pain. I like to tinker and thought this would be a fun thing to do.

Ultra Model GG-EM-41258
GA-6BX motherboard
200 Watt power supply
 
The motherboard bundle that you found looks to be very good, and at a resonable price! Good find! :)

You would also obviously need a harddrive... You could get a 200+ GB one fairly cheap probably, that would hold all of their music, games, picture,documents and stuff like that...

Depending on wheather they would be playing games you would get a better video card, if they aren't going to then there isn't any need to upgrade... if they were then maybe look at something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131033

You don't have to splash put loads on a video card if they wont play games that much...

You will need a case for everything to go in...
You could get a new one or you could stick it in the case that you already have... Maybe take everything out and give a spray pain in a colour they like so the see it as their own sort of thing?

The 200 Watt PSU you have may not be powerfull enough... Consider looking into something with at least 400 Watt...

As far as RAM goes, if you go with the board you were looking at, you would have to use DDR 266/333/400MHz RAM... 1 GB isn't very epensive and it will do everything that you want... Play music, games, that kind of stuff...

You will need a CPU fan... You can pick these up in most electrical stores...!

I hope this has helped :D
 
well , considering u just said that they were for word processing and such, i dont think that you would need an amd 3700++ :>

maybe something even cehaper could cut it.
 
That motherboad doesn't come with a CPU but it should be Ok for what you need, you'll need to buy a video card though becasue it doesn't have an intergrated one... You have a lot of choice there though as you have a PCI-E slot and an AGP slot!
 
willjm3931 said:
I am a newbie to upgrading computers and am driving myself crazy trying to figure it out. I have 2 identical computers that I am thinking about upgrading for my kids. They are going to be used for internet, word processing and general computing. I am eventually going to put in a wireless network. I am looking for a motherboard/CPU combo in the $150-200 range. This is an example of a combo that I was looking at. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...hTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2717610&CatId=0
I would like to know what else I may need such as CPU fan, memory, video card or whatever. Below is the info. Off the computers. I hope that I am not being a pain. I like to tinker and thought this would be a fun thing to do.

Ultra Model GG-EM-41258
GA-6BX motherboard
200 Watt power supply
Click to expand...

My last computer had that motherboard and processor. It is really fast, you won't be dissapointed.

As for a video card, I recommend is a x800GTO.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131007
I currently have that card in my computer and for the price, you can't beat it.

As far as ram goes, 1gb is todays standard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Your old power supply won't be able to handle a new computer. I have this one in my computer currently and it works great:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954

As for a heatsink for your new processor, I recommend this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106068
Although I have never used it, everyone I talk to who has used it loves it.

As for a hard drive, your motherboard supports sata2(AKA Sata 3gb/s). Now, I don't know what size you want your hard drive or how much you want to spend, so here is a list of compatible hard drives for the motherboard you posted:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Order=PRICE&Page=1&Category=15&N=2010150014+1035915133&Submit=ENE&Nty=1&SubCategory=14

Before you go out and buy anything, check back with us so we can make sure everything you order is compatible :)

Hope this helps :D
 
Yeah, that looks like a good deal! Two RAM slots, opterunity to upgrade in the future, PCI-E slot, good choice of graphic cards there!

AMD, good company... Cooling looks pretty good too!

And it's a good price, It also has good reviews! I'd say go wih you gut instinct, it looks good, it is good, good price!

Go for it!
 
I am getting down to the nitty gritty. This is the mobo that I would like to get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135036

One of the computers that I am upgrading has this hard drive that is only several months old. Can I use it with this board?

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144094

What do I look for in a power supply? I don't need bells and whistles.

And as stated in the above post. What memory do I need? I am doing 2 computers. Can I get like 2 512's and put one in each until I get them up and running? What else could I run into?

Would this memory work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
 
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Is this the board you were thinking of? One of your links didn't work...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135036

If so, then that board is a great deal! It has a pretty good CPU in it... It has a built in graphics chipset, this will run windows fine, but if your kids wanted to game you may need to buy a graphics card, it has a PCI-E slot so there is lots of choice to chose from... I would try there games first and if you think it needs it then buy a card becasue there isn't any point getting one if it doesn't need it.

That memory would work fine in the mother board you showed us, Yeah!

I don't know if you are looking at a new case too, maybe it would give the kids more of an idea that it is theres?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811148030

Hope I helped :D
 
Yes that is board that I want to get.I wasn't going to get new cases but that costs about as much as getting new power supplies. They are not into gaming so that is no big deal. The hard drive that I have should work ok? Can I split the memory?
Thank you,
 
Yeah, the hard drive will work, but you will have to reformat it as you have all new hardware... You can split the memory providing the other computer you are going to use it in accepts DDR 400 type memory.
 
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