computer upgrade

[mitmaks]

hey guys, this question is for guys that know about computers (I think Barry and Jeff) I have 500MHz etower 500is eMachines computer with 32MB (256Max), installed another 32Mb so its 64 now. hard drive is 4.3GB and ive bought maxtor 120 GB. Processor is intel celeron, ive installed dvd-rom and cd-rw drives. now its time for 256mb of ram and 120gb hard drive, but ive heard that i couldnt just install 120gb hard drive. Ill need "adaptor card"? will this just solve it, if i install this "adaptor card" i really need that space and faster computer, that 4.3 gb is very small and i am so frustrated with it. help me out guys.

[dancake]

Before you go mad, think about your processor speed. I got a brand new motherboard with xp2000+ chip for about 130 uk pounds. This will compliment any memory and hard disc you get. You will then be expandable to about 1 gig of memory and be able to run the most recent applications. think about this: You can wait till the Janurary Sales and get a 2000Mhz system with dvd etc etc etc for not much more than you are spending on upgrading your 500Mhz system!

[mitmaks]

2000MHz? is that 2.0Ghz system? well that will cost me additional $$$ to uprade processor/motherboard..besides i dont like xp much, theyre not compatible with every program, unlike windows 98SE which are used like for every program out there, and i am looking to spend as less $$ on computer as possible. it might be new in 2004 but in 2006 it wont be worth 1/4 of what uve paid for it. i really dont like investing in computers, but in my cars oh ya, bring it on!

[Nd4SpdSe]

its not an adaptor card, its just an add-on card, but i wouldnt recommend that size of a hard drive on a win98 system, fat32 can address that much, but it gonna cause problems if you run anytihng over 60gb running fat32...its an PCi IDE controller card, it may or may not bypass your motherboards IDE limitation

One thing i highly suggest in hard drive it to get an 8mb buffer hard drives, not onyl do they give a little performance boost, but carry a 3yr warranty...

I would suggest running windows xp and format that 120gb as NTFS, but i wouldnt recommend running XP on a machine less than ~1Ghz with 256MB RAM...and i believe that 98's support does bye-bye next year, and less and less program will support 9x based OS's

And one thing about CPU speed, when buying, dont judge Mhz/Ghz as a true value of performance...cause it isnt. ie:Pentium4 2.4 = Athlon Xp2000+ = Centrino 1.3Ghz in terms of performance. Read reviews, compares benchmarks, educate yourself...dont give in you that marketing crap, cause its all numbers to make them look good

[azmtbkr81]

Dancake is right, if I were you I'd go ahead and buy a new motherboard/processer combo. You can get an AMD athalon XP 2Ghz and motherboard for under $100. You probably also want to buy a new case and power supply for about $50. If you don't want to put the thing together bring it to a local computer shop and they will put it together for pretty cheap. I think this will save you a lot of frustration in the end.

As far as XP goes, I can tell you it runs great on a 500 MHz Celeron with 256 ram because that is what I use for my beater machine. I used to hate XP but the more I use it the better I like it. I think it runs even better than '98 used to on my Celeron, but I have no evidence to back that up just my opinion.

If you are set on keeping the Celeron, there is potential to overclock Celerons pretty easily depending on what motherboard and bios you have. Since yours is a pre-made system I am guessing your bios is locked just like it is on my Dell but if you happen to have an ABIT motherboard and Award bios it might be worth looking into.

[synap]

If your motherboard can support 256MB of ram, you should be fine. If you are going to update soon it's hold off to get the newer type of ram.

The hard drive may work if your motherboard and bios supports it. You may need to check the support pages for your motherboard to verify this. You should not need an adapter card. Unless you want the hard drive to run at the full potential.

(ex: the hard drive is probally 133MHz, you motherboard may be 33MHz, the adapter card will allow you to run the drive at 100/133MHz.)

Hope this helps!

[uppitycracker]

Also when buying a new processor dont be fooled into a Celeron, even though its cheaper, get an AMD or Straight Intel. If you do wanna spend a bit of money go for the new Intels that go with the 800mhz bus speed mother boards and ddram. You'll only be disappointed if you try to upgrade what you have.

Currently I have a p3 800mhz, 384mb sdr, geforce4, and aopen mother board. It runs everyhting awesome, games at full graphics, and a system like mine you could probably get for 100-200CND. Actually you could get better, but thats just an idea of what you can do with little money. I know Im replacing my system before the new Halflife comes out.

Oh and dont buy a package, buy the parts and get a friend that knows computers to help you get it together, if I buy my new comp as a package Id pay 2000+, but Im paying 1200 and thats tax included.

I wanted to know why celerons suck so I looked it up :

"Core - The Celeron chip is based on a Pentium 4 core.

Cache - Celeron chips have less cache memory than Pentium 4 chips do. A Celeron might have 128 kilobytes of L2 cache, while a Pentium 4 can have four times that. The amount of L2 cache memory can have a big effect on performance.

Clock speed - Intel manufactures the Pentium 4 chips to run at a higher clock speed than Celeron chips. The fastest Pentium 4 might be 60 percent faster than the fastest Celeron.

Bus speed - There are differences in the maximum bus speeds that the processors allow. Pentium 4s tend to be about 30 percent faster than Celerons.
When you sort all this out and compare the two chips side by side, it turns out that a Celeron and a Pentium 4 chip running at the same speed are different beasts. The smaller L2 cache size and slower bus speeds can mean serious performance differences depending on what you want to do with your computer. If all you do is check e-mail and browse the Web, the Celeron is fine, and the price difference can save you a lot of money. If you want the fastest machine you can buy, then you need to go with the Pentium 4 to get the highest clock speeds and the fastest system bus. "

<small>[ September 30, 2003, 02:56 AM: Message edited by: uppitycracker ]</small>

[Spydie]

I 2nd that....stay away from Celeron if you plan on doing upgrades. Genuine Intel is best that way. XP uses alot of RAM to opperate (compared to '98 or whatever) 256 is just fine but if you were to double it or even just add a 128 ram the speed difference when multi-tasking is amazing.
And it depends on what you use your puter for. I have WAY too much for what I use it for....but better too much than not enough I guess.
I run an ECS P4 motherboard
Intel Pent.IV 2.7Gig 512MB ram
It's fast as hell but then again my hard disk is practically empty....no games, hardly any programs...all wasted memory really. I'll find something to do with it someday.
So how does any of this answer your original question??? I guess it doesn't...sorry. oh yeah...Celeron works fine but you'll find it becomes obsolete alot sooner than a genuine Intel.

<small>[ September 30, 2003, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Darren Hyderman ]</small>

[2fazed]

He can even go with the combo packages like at Fry's Electronics. For example, my first built computer, I bought they're combo of a Soyo Tower, Motherboard, Duron 1200, 300 power supply for $99. It worked just like my XP2000 and ECS motherboard. They're are tons of options, but the best advice I would say, is ask someone where you live that has built a computer for help. You'll get the best for less.

<small>[ September 30, 2003, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: 2fazed ]</small>

[Steeb]

personally im cheap so i have a xp1800 overclocked to 1.9ghz. cant wait till i get faster ram and a faster board, im gonna try for 2ghz

[curtklze]

How can I upgrade my 486 SLC further, Ive already upgraded my ram from 2MB to 4 MB and I have a 500 MB hard drive.

P.S. is there anything I can do to upgrade my C64? I have the 5 1/4 floppy drive and keyboard with a 2400 BPS modem (up from 1200 BPS)

Also Im looking for a new gun or power glove for my nintendo system, so I can play duck hunt. ( just wait untill I get that bad boy installed into my glove box, gonna let the hunnies play old school )

[Nd4SpdSe]

I'm not gonna even try to answers those questions Curt (I'm surprised you know as much as you do, 486, RAM, MB, man you scare me sometimes)

BTW, i juse did an Upgrade a few days ago:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1GB of Corsair CL2 DDR PC-3200 (TWINX1024-3200C2PRO)
MSI K8T NEO Motherboard

<small>[ October 06, 2003, 11:24 PM: Message edited by: Nd4SpdSe ]</small>

[mitmaks]

ive got reply from yahoo group:
Hi, if you are simply replacing the 4.3gig hard drive with the 120gig there should be no problem as long as the 120gig is "backward compatible" ie supports ATA 133,100,66 and 33, I guess that your systems IDE channels are either 66 or 33. If the new hard drive does not support this, then yes you may have to buy and IDE card (that seats in a spare PCI slot) which will over come this issue as it give you an extra two IDE channels that will support your new Hard drive.

is this true? cause that be cool, some other guy insisted that ill have problems with BIOS and stuff. Ill upgrade motherboard & processor in future, but for now thats all i can afford, and basically buying bolt in components that i can swap on new home built one in future.

[Nd4SpdSe]

no its not, to a certain extent, most likely, if it has a 4.3gb hard drive, the motherboard controller will either top out at 8.3gb or 30gb/40gb, so a 120gb hard drive wont work at all, but it depends on who makes is. Maxtor have a compatibility mode jumper setting for their hard drives, you get set to that, and you run their MaxBlast software and it'll make your full hard drive accessable, but the problem is that you need to boot off THAT hard drive, of not or if you cant, your data in inaccessable, period.

[mitmaks]

i thought of connecting it as second hard drive then ill use it for storage and old one for just booting off of it/storing data files. yes its maxtor, very nice hd, says compatible with my "ultra dma/66"