Need Opinon for computer upgrade

Uranium-235 · 10-11-2005, 10:50 PM

heh, for once I'm asking a question, anyways..

I went to my grandmothers house the other day, I built her system 3 years ago and totally forgot what I put in. I thought I put in like a Duron 800, but to my BIG suprise, it was a 1900+.
The only thing, is back then I was stupid and I:

* Put this nice DDR processor on a SDR board
* Put two sticks of PC100 in there (causing the chip to run at 1.2ghz)
* Put a Diamond Stealth Trio64 2M PCI card for video in there

I'm looking to upgrade it, and now that I actually know what I'm doing, I actually found 2 decent possibilities for about the same price (we're on a budget here)

Keep the current motherboard (MSI K7T Turbo 2)
put:
256M PC133 + 128M PC133 (same company)
GeForce MX 4000 64M (it's $27 bucks, and she's not going to be gaming)

or

Get a new motherboard (PC CHIPS M811LU - some people like this board and some hate it - eather way, it's $26 bucks)
256M DDR 266
Same GeForce MX 4000 64M

which do you think would perform better (under an NT OS If that helps)
384M PC133 - K7T Turbo 2
256M DDR266 PC Chips M811LU

so it's more slower memory, or less faster memory

thx

**please** · 10-12-2005, 01:20 PM

I would imagine the newer PCChips board with the later version chips would be a faster board. I would also think the 256mb DDR would be faster and provide greater bandwidth than the 384mb PC133 stuff. The downside is the hassle of rebuilding the entire machine and reinstalling everything if grandma is just surfing and emailing. I doubt she would notice the slight performance increase IMHO.

ebackhus · 10-12-2005, 04:44 PM

I'm with Please on this one. Unless she plans to really push that machine then she's already sitting on enough power.

Uranium-235 · 10-12-2005, 09:28 PM

well, My dad decided to go with the 256M DDR & PC chips board. Alot of people have been getting that board to work, only if they have decent power, and when I looked I believe I saw a 350W Rosewill PSU in her current case. But I might replace it. It's a slient one with a very low RPM fan and a big grate opening inside, which is heating up it's casing (cause the power regulators heatsink is hooked to the casing)...which heating up the back of the computer. I'll probably end up putting an extra fan infront too.

the main thing is I'll be putting Windows 2000 on, which should fix some of her problems (she's on 98SE).

It's also kinda of partially for me (actually like 5% for me since she'll be using it alot more then I will). I mean, even though I did get one of the cheapest GPU's on newegg, its still a MX 4000. After we're done with thanksgiving dinner, I'm usually sitting in the living room bored out of my mind. This way I can at least play Max Payne or something like that. ;)

10-11-2005, 10:50 PM	#1 (permalink)
Uranium-235 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Milky Way/Alpha Quadrant/Earth/US/Texas Posts: 189 OS: Windows 2000 Professional 2195	Need Opinon for computer upgrade heh, for once I'm asking a question, anyways.. I went to my grandmothers house the other day, I built her system 3 years ago and totally forgot what I put in. I thought I put in like a Duron 800, but to my BIG suprise, it was a 1900+. The only thing, is back then I was stupid and I: * Put this nice DDR processor on a SDR board * Put two sticks of PC100 in there (causing the chip to run at 1.2ghz) * Put a Diamond Stealth Trio64 2M PCI card for video in there I'm looking to upgrade it, and now that I actually know what I'm doing, I actually found 2 decent possibilities for about the same price (we're on a budget here) Keep the current motherboard (MSI K7T Turbo 2) put: 256M PC133 + 128M PC133 (same company) GeForce MX 4000 64M (it's $27 bucks, and she's not going to be gaming) or Get a new motherboard (PC CHIPS M811LU - some people like this board and some hate it - eather way, it's $26 bucks) 256M DDR 266 Same GeForce MX 4000 64M which do you think would perform better (under an NT OS If that helps) 384M PC133 - K7T Turbo 2 256M DDR266 PC Chips M811LU so it's more slower memory, or less faster memory thx

10-12-2005, 01:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
please Tech Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 1,185 OS: WinXP SP2	I would imagine the newer PCChips board with the later version chips would be a faster board. I would also think the 256mb DDR would be faster and provide greater bandwidth than the 384mb PC133 stuff. The downside is the hassle of rebuilding the entire machine and reinstalling everything if grandma is just surfing and emailing. I doubt she would notice the slight performance increase IMHO. __________________ P4P800E-D:~:P4 3.0C@3.75GHz:~:Zal7000AlCu:~:OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K@250MHz 2.5-3-3-7 WinXP SP2>2X160GB Samsung SATA ICH5R RAID1:~:2x80GB Samsung SATA Promise RAID0 ATI A-I-W X800XT~SB Audigy2 ZS~2X BenQ1620~Antec SLK3700AMB~Antec SmartPower2.0 500W

10-12-2005, 04:44 PM	#3 (permalink)
ebackhus Manager, Design Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: SATX Posts: 14,262 OS: WinXP Pro SP3/Windows 7 RTM My System Blog Entries: 28	I'm with Please on this one. Unless she plans to really push that machine then she's already sitting on enough power. __________________ ----------------------------- There are no dumb questions, unless a customer is asking them. Help in the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses.

10-12-2005, 09:28 PM	#4 (permalink)
Uranium-235 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Milky Way/Alpha Quadrant/Earth/US/Texas Posts: 189 OS: Windows 2000 Professional 2195	well, My dad decided to go with the 256M DDR & PC chips board. Alot of people have been getting that board to work, only if they have decent power, and when I looked I believe I saw a 350W Rosewill PSU in her current case. But I might replace it. It's a slient one with a very low RPM fan and a big grate opening inside, which is heating up it's casing (cause the power regulators heatsink is hooked to the casing)...which heating up the back of the computer. I'll probably end up putting an extra fan infront too. the main thing is I'll be putting Windows 2000 on, which should fix some of her problems (she's on 98SE). It's also kinda of partially for me (actually like 5% for me since she'll be using it alot more then I will). I mean, even though I did get one of the cheapest GPU's on newegg, its still a MX 4000. After we're done with thanksgiving dinner, I'm usually sitting in the living room bored out of my mind. This way I can at least play Max Payne or something like that. ;) Last edited by Uranium-235; 10-12-2005 at 09:30 PM.