[Nevrsumr22]

My work sells old computers for $25.00 and I got one finally. Came with everything but it's slow as all hell. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best route here to get it to do what I want it to do. My main things for it is.

1) Burn DVD's
2) Burn Music
3) Internet

I'm not going to play games or anything graphic related. I don't know if it's just cheaper to buy a whole new computer though. I got on New Egg and was pricing out parts. I just really want to know if I can get away with this setup. I was going to try and leave the PIII in there and just get a 40 gb hard drive, dvd burner, and some memory but I might upgrade the PIII since it's like 330 mhz to a 700 + mhz. Can I still get away with a slow processor if I want to burn DVD's? Any help on what I should do would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[thelazyone]

Want kind of board is it first of all? Will the board be able to support the new processor & memory? If so, you might have to flash the BIOS.

 

[ASCI_Blue]

I'll be damned if I remember but I think you could just drop a 700 into that machine IF it's a socket chip rather than a slot. Open the case and look for the CPU if it looks like a large rectangle then you're fucked. If it's a little square you might be in business. Also you could probably just drop new guts into that computer although I'm not sure if the power supply would be able to handle a P4 or Athlon XP.

 

[YZF600_SILVER_CAT]

computer hardware

The best thing that I would suggest is that you start with something a little more current. Dell always has sales and you can pick up a 2.4mhz for like 299.00 and then you can go to new egg and add a dvd burner and more ram cheaper there than Dell. Plus you will have Windows XP. Just my 2 cents worth. If you are wanting to rip and burn dvd's you better get the software quick. About 2 weeks ago they put a cease and desist order on the dvd ripping software that I use to back up my kids movies. You can get a free membership to www.dslreports and then go the the hot deals forum and they always have cheaps deals that they have found on the internet. I paid like 70 bucks for a 160gb hard drive over a year ago. Good luck on your quest....

 

[Nevrsumr22]

Well I went home at lunch and checked. It's an Optiplex GX100. It's not even a pentium its a celeron. I'll try and look up what's inside.

 

[SqDancerLynn1]

You could look the motherboard mfg up & see what it supports, Their is nothing wriong with Celeron It just depends what you plan on doing. On that old of a computer Let the kids play with it & buy a new computer like sugested It will cost more to upgrade it than the new one would cost. Just a HD change will run you into compatibility problems

 

[Nevrsumr22]

Yea I got the specs for it off Dell and I looked at this stuff

Celeron 733 chip upgrade - $33.
DVD burner - $42.
80 GB IEDE Drive - $50.
256 Memory card - $49 which seems really fucking high but It's hard to find the 100 mhz 168 pin cards.

Anyway that is about $175 but 733 mhz still sucks. Can't decide. I don't know if I need a 2.5 ghz machine for what I use it for.

 

[black7R]

Nevrsumr22, I would seriously consider a new machine.

Even a basic bottom of the line machine today will be a hundred times better than that older one. There are a few things to consider when doing serious upgrades.
You might run into some compatability issues, might have trouble installing a newer DVD burner into such an old machine, ect.
I would highly recommend you find a cheap, (299) brand new machine.
Although you dont feel you need a 2+ gig machine, trust me, burning DVDs and doing lots of multimedia stuff will require a good processor, and an old 3xx or 7xx meg just wont cut it. Not todays programs.

Take my advise and save yourself a bunch of headaches.
Also, you will really really enjoy opening up and setting up a brand new machine pre-loaded with XP, burning software ect.

 

[Nevrsumr22]

I actually know a thing or two (have my degree in comp sci) but haven't done hardware in a long time. I even built my first computer from scratch. I'm just wondering if it's cheaper to gut it or buy new. You might be right. Might save $100 bucks by building it but might fuck it up in the process.

The one I said I built, when I threw the power for the first time it knocked out the entire building at my college. It was an old server with a huge power supply and a gigantic switch with 4 pins on the back that I put on wrong. :lol

 

[fiveninerzero]

Plenty of 2 Ghz class processor based systems out there for less than 300 bucks, when you throw the celery out the window let me know

 

[SqDancerLynn1]

The motherboard probably only supportes ATA 33 & 66 80G HD is probably ATA133
ultra ATA133 NOT compatible without & adapter card