Rebuilding my PC:::Opinions needed to help me decide...

[Larry_OHF]

Well, I brought my CPU in today to have the helpdesk guys look at it. They were very impressed with the system I had. Yet, they pointed out some obvious needs. Let me make a list for you of what I have, currently:

• A-Bit BH-6 motherboard
• Pentium III, 450 processor
• 10.2GB hard drive
• 128 MB memory card (PC100)
• Soud Blaster Live
• Unidentified video card

Now, the boys tell me that they suggest the following:

• Update BIOS (completed, 11/27/01)
• Newer Power Supply box, (optional)
• 1GB Hard Drive
• A Pentium III 800 (Socket 370) and at least 7200 RPM
• Fill the three memory slots with PC133 Memory cards (256MB each)
• Newer video card (optional)

What do you guys/gals think???????

I think the guys at that place are right. What is most in need of upgrading is the 450 mhz processor. The rest is pretty good, you could manage without any real upgrades for a long time and still be reasonably up to date, but the processor is the heart of the computer, and, although a 450 isn't bad, you could do with something a little faster.

The other parts are really up to you, they're not that important, and can be upgraded quite cheaply at your leisure anytime in the future.

[MILAMBER]

I deal with this stuff all the time and I this is what I think:

I used to have the BH-6 motherboard a long time ago and there are a couple of things that you need to fix.

With a bios update, you can get your BH-6 to support ATA33 hard disk support. That is a maximum of 33 megs per second transfer rate from your hard drive. They are up to ATA133 now and believe me it makes a world of difference. So, if your HD is ATA 66 or better, I would recomend a hard disk controller card.

The BH-6 is also a slot PIII board so the only way you can get to a socket 370 PIII is with a daughter board and those suck. Additionally, any PIII you buy now will have a 133 mhz bus, and the BH-6 doesn't support a 133 mhz bus.

Your power supply won't do anything for you unless your current one is going bad. You could probably tell if that was the case because it would make noise. If your current is 250 W or better you shouold be fine for a PIII. When you get into P4 and AMD chips the power becomes more of an issue.

Buy a a$$load of ram while the prices are down. You can get a 512 meg chip for about $39.00 now and a couple of those will make a difference.

Upgrade your OS. Win2K and XP are about 30% faster then Win9x for most things, internet especially. You will also love the stability.

A new graphics card can never hurt. A good card for the money is the Geforce2 Ti200. You can get one for under $100.00 and it will run anything you would want game-wise without any problems.


Unless you want to swap your motherboard and processor out (and I would do both at the same time) just do these other things and you will notice a huge difference. The first priorities are the ATA 100 disk controller with a HD that can use it, Win2K or XP, and memory. These are all things you will want to change eventually anyways and things that you can take with you when you step up the rest of the machine.

Milamber, you seem to know what you're talking about.... and I was wondering.... would it be possible for me to upgrade my laptop's processor? It's now a measly PII 366, and I wanted something a little faster. Some people say it can be done, others say it can't.... so I'm a little confused

[MILAMBER]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Arledrian:
Milamber, you seem to know what you're talking about.... and I was wondering.... would it be possible for me to upgrade my laptop's processor? It's now a measly PII 366, and I wanted something a little faster. Some people say it can be done, others say it can't.... so I'm a little confused

---

On your laptop it would be way more trouble then it's worth it. Even if your laptop could support a faster processor, I would be amazed if you could get better then a PII 450 on it. There is no way it would take a PIII. Would it really be worth all the pain of trying to buy or even just finding a mobile PII somewhere with the end result of boosting your performance 85 mhz? Believe me, it's not worth it. About the only thing you can do is add some ram.

[Tarox]

The question I think is what do you use your PC for?
Also is money no object? or are you a realist and the computer doesnt come before buying other things in your life [img]smile.gif[/img]

The first thing i notice is the graphics card is non specific and Id say go for that
The power supply doesn't need upgrading with what you have its fine
128 RAM-hmm sure it always helps to have more.......maybe get another 128 [img]smile.gif[/img]
The chip is gonna need upgrading at some point..we'll be on Pentium 9 50GHz before you know it [img]smile.gif[/img]

Again depends what you use it for and how much you wanna spend
I think A geoforce 2 or 3 is your first choice [img]smile.gif[/img]