486 Upgrade

[Emory7]

I have a no name mid size nice case 486 I would like to upgrade for my son so he will get off of my computer. Need suggestions, what AT board/processor will work with this 235 watt power supply. He wants to play games and Napster so I'll need 128 meg ram. large HD and good video. I posted this message about three hours ago and it disappeared, really strange. I will network his computer with mine so he can use my burner.

 

[jd in IL]

Your best bet since your going to buy a HD,MB,RAM,CPU,Vid card is scrap the thing and buy a whole new system. Upgrades are best/cheapest when they are just one or two items in the case. As for burning accross a LAN....uh I wouldn't advise it.

 

[owensdj]

Richard, you really can't do significant amounts of upgrades to a machine that "old." For example, new motherboards are now ATX, not AT, and wouldn't even fit into that AT case. You'd need a new, ATX power supply as well. The only things you might be able to use from that machine would be the floppy drive, CD-ROM, modem, and sound card. In other words, you'd be building a new computer and then adding those few, relatively inexpensive, legacy components. It won't be worth it. If your computer isn't brand new, I'd recommend you hand it down to your son and get yourself a new computer.

You'll probably have problems trying to burn to a CD over the network. Network speeds, even 100Mb Ethernet, aren't fast enough to keep up with a CD burner. If the CD burner can't get the data when it needs it, it could ruin the CD. You'll probably have to copy the files over the network to the machine with the burner and do it off of the local hard drive.

 

[Mucman]

Actually I burn with a P150 that is on a LAN and grabs the mp3's/files from another computer with out a hitch!!! As for upgrading the 486, you might as well build a cheap computer instead because you are just going to be replacing everything anyways.

*note* I do have to halv the burner going at 4x for it to work though.*note*

 

[Emory7]

O.K. I've heard enough...where can I get a good inexpensive box that will run games and be upgradable. He'll transfer files to my computer to burn. I just don't have alot to spend. He'll also share my internet connection.

 

[stingbandel]

A little suggestion is to go to the hot deal forum and see if there is something that you can get cause you know hot deal forum will post all the best deals around. Just a little suggestion

Darno

 

[shawnmos]

Ok here is a cheap socket 370 motherboard ---> http://www.pcbay.net/luc6vviawsou.html It's only $58. Not bad. I found it on Pricewatch.

Shawn

Edit: Oh yeah and the motherboard is AT.

 

[Usul]

Visit anand's system guide ang buy a low end sys.

 

[shawnmos]

Ok a Celeron 500 PPGA costs $51. Generic PC100 128MB ram costs $37. A Maxtor 30.7GB HD costs $101. A Voodoo 3 2000 costs $68. 24x cdrom costs $15. 56k modem costs $5. And a PCI 10/100 Lan cost $4. All these prices are from Pricewatch. It will probably be $75 total to ship everything(maybe more). So it would come out to about $414. But if you bought the stuff off E bay you could probably get all that for maybe $150 cheaper.

Shawn

 

[Tominator]

Somone ha a 503+ and a K6-2 450 for about $115 on the forsale forum. Combibe that with a Vodoo3 and you'll have a happy kid!