Need help on upgrading HP Pavillion 760d

1318 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Techman, May 29, 2008

Techman

Discussion Starter · May 24, 2008

I have an old p4 prebuilt and it is running so slow that even doing casual surfing is difficult. The system comes with:

intel p4 1.8ghz
256mb pc2100 ddr 266
Asus P4S-LA motherboard sis 650 chipset
onboard shared 32mb vram
40gb hdd ide 7200rpm > just upgraded to 80gb hdd
200W matx power supply
windows xp home edition

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...rodu ct=75904

I have a few questions to clarify prior to upgrading. At the same times also wanted to check compatibilty before purchasing the parts for upgrade.

1. On the specifications link, it shows that the Asus P4S-LA supports PC2100 ram which is what the BIOS is showing too. But why does the sticker label on the ram shows PC2100 133 instead of 266? I am confused whether could it using the PC 133 instead?

2. The motherboard has 2 dimm memory sockets up to max 2gb. Is it advisable to buy all the way straight 1gb or 256mb or 512mb to see a noticable performance gain?

3. Would the Asus P4S-LA supports the Sapphire 9550 AGP graphic card? It is 4x and the card is 8x?http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/produ...?gpid=56&grp=2
What is the Ultra AGP 2 that is stated under http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...rodu ct=75904
Is it the same as AGP?

4. How does the Sapphire 9550 against the nvidia FX5200?

5. Is there a neccesity to upgrade the power supply too? Can the power supply take the load?

Lastly, are there any bottlenecks?

Appreciate.
Techman.

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sobeit

· #2 · May 24, 2008

basically you really need a newer system, imo, it would be better use of the upgrade cash.

However, try going to crucial.com and run their system scan to see exactly what ram you have. IMO, if you are going to increase ram, go to 1 gig. As far as the confusion on the ram, usually the pc manufacturer will use the cheaper ram to keep costs down even though the motherboard will support something better.

as far as your video card, someone else will have to help, but generally you will need a better power supply - especially if gaming.

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Underclocker

· #3 · May 25, 2008

To answer your questions:

1. It shows 133 because that's the actual speed of the RAM, which is double pumped to 266MHz due to the DDR (Double Data Rate) technology.

2. Buy straight to 1GB, and take out the existing module. Check the memory selectors on the various manufacturer websites for compatibility.

3. Yes the board supports the 9550. The card is backwards compatible and will run at AGP 4x speed. Ultra AGP 2 is just the name for the 4x AGP revision. For example, 1x and 2x are AGP 1.x, 4x is AGP 2.0, 8x is AGP 3.0.

4. The Sapphire 9550 is faster than an NVIDIA FX5200.

5. You will mostly require a new power supply with a 18A +12V rail to run it. Since you require a mATX unit, it might be difficult to acquire.

6. You'll be bottlenecked by your CPU, but will still run fine.

Your system will be fine for the basics like browsing and word processing, but it will struggle with heavy applications like Photoshop or newish games made in the last 2 years. If you're looking for an upgrade for the latter, you'll be better off just buying a new computer. Decent Pentium D systems can be had for around $300 on eBay that would serve as much better bases.

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Techman

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 27, 2008

Hi guys. I have taken some precious time taking the picture in order for better assistance in upgrading this system. This is a uATX form factor.

I have some questions.
1. After viewing the first 5 pictures, is it possible to fit in a Sapphire Ati Radeon 9550SE AGP card which supports 4x and 8x? What is the actual dimension of the AGP card? Any risk of it being a high profile card as I supposed the motherboard supports low profile card?

2. The motherboard supports 4x. Is there any risk of wrong voltage being keyed? Reference from http://www.directron.com/15agpguide.html

3. From the third picture, will the ram lock blocks the agp graphic card after it is being installed?

4. From the power supply shown in the picture, is it a matx power supply? Can I simply buy the power supply of a microatx case meant for system builders?

5. How do you find the cable magement?

Thanks all.

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Techman

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 29, 2008

Up this thread. I have did some research on http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html
There stated about the AGP3.0 fits in slot AGP1.5V motherboard but deos not work. Basically the Sapphire 9550SE is a AGP2.0 or 3.0 card?
It supports 4x and 8x but the motherboard supports up to 4x. Although it appears to be backward compatible but is the voltage compatible?

AGP2.0-1.5V
AGP3.0-0.8V

Now most importantly is the Sapphire 9550SE a AGP2.0 or 3.0 card?

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