Uprarding Computer...How Far Should I Go?

S

SRF

New Member
Hey everyone,
I plan on upgrading my computer a little bit, but I have been told it may be better to just build a new one. I originally only wanted to do the hard drive but also considered the Video card. However I was told that if I wanted to do these two I better get a PSU as well. (My current PSU is pretty cheap and outdated) I've also heard that Windows XP can be pretty bad for "switching" new hardware out and not recognizing or having problems with the new hardware. My general question is...do you think Windows will have a problem with doing the HDD, PSU, and a Video Card? If so...what would you recommend? (I didn't want to build a new computer right now...as I am pretty tight for cash and would only be able to build about half...)

Thanks for any feedback :)
 
Could You Give Us Some Detailed Stats Of Your Computer and What You Plan To Do With It. That Way We can Give The Best Advise And Hopefully Keep The New Rig Builders At Bay ;)

Windows XP is great for hardware changes. I never had any problem installing new hardware onto a XP machine. Now I can't say that much for Windows 98 but if you were running that I might say build a new rig.
 
Sorry

My Aplogise..completly forgot to list my system...
The reason I plan to do an upgrade is that it is getting pretty outdated..I wanted to do the whole mobo and porcessor...but like I said im tight for cash. My main reason for upgrade is gaming...slowly I am running out of games my card can support.

System:
CPU - AMD Athlon XP, 1833 MHz 2500+
Mobo - MSI K7N2 Delta-L (MS-6570G)
RAM - 1024 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (128 MB)
HDD - Maxtor 6Y080L0 (80 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)

and I'm running Windows XP Home...

As you can see it is getting pretty outdated...and my HDD is full...hence the reason for the HDD upgrade...

Thanks for the reply
 
Yep, build another one of course only if you want to play the more recent games. On the other hand you may want to use it for e-mail, word, music and for that the upgrades you mentioned would work just fine. And no! XP is great for new hardware IMO...
 
My best advice to you is to do one thing at a time.

Regarding the HDD, as you are dealing with IDE (PATA) then you might want to read up on Jumpers. Are you considering replacing this hard drive or just simply adding a new and bigger slave? My advice would be to buy a IDE HDD with capacity that suits your needs (only you can answer that) and install it on the same cable as the current master and set the jumpers to master/slave respectively, then you don’t have to do too much to the current HDD. And you get the benefit of a dual HDD set-up.

Regarding a Video card. I think your running in to a dead end, (similar to me actually). Putting a decent video card in a system that has a old processor is not good, Ideally in your situation it would be good if you could pick up a cheap 6800 or 7600, but there is no point spending more on a better card that is going to be let down by the processor.

Regarding the PSU. I would say not to bother. I recently just did a HDD and video card upgrade on a computer and that had a "weak" PSU, but no problems ever occurred. So this comes down to personal preference

So my recommendations would be to add a New IDE HDD as a slave, possible look at getting a cheap 7600GT video card and only worry about the PSU if you feel it’s necessary. Could you post up the Watt rating of the current PSU, should be on a label

P.S an uptodate copy of XP will be fine
 
Here Is A Nice Set For A HDD and Power Supply:

For HDD:
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L250R0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144422
-60 Dollars Shipping All
For Power Supply:
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply 115/230 V - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023
-33 Dollars Shipped

Total $93 from NewEgg. If you were to buy any items for this computer I would recommend these because they could be used in a new build if you choose to build one.
 
Leon79 said:
Here Is A Nice Set For A HDD and Power Supply:

For HDD:
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L250R0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144422
-60 Dollars Shipping All
For Power Supply:
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply 115/230 V - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023
-33 Dollars Shipped

Total $93 from NewEgg. If you were to buy any items for this computer I would recommend these because they could be used in a new build if you choose to build one.
Click to expand...

ATA133 is old. Very old. I'd get a minimum of a SATAII drive...

And that PSU has only 18A... won't get you far...
 
oscaryu1 said:
ATA133 is old. Very old. I'd get a minimum of a SATAII drive...

And that PSU has only 18A... won't get you far...
Click to expand...

I did have a SATAII Drive Picked Out But His Current Motherboard does not support SATA. I may need to be educated on picking power supplies but for the price I thought that it was decent. But what would you recommend yourself?
 
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