HP a1330n upgrade

[megadomeus]

My son graduated Jr. High and is going to take computer gaming design in his new school next year. We got a Visa gift card for $500 from a friend for him and I would like to spend it upgrading his current computer, an HP a1330n. It has 2 gigs of ram now, and a better video card but the rest is stock. HP says it can support an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800. The hard drive is quite old and I was thinking upgrading the processor to max and getting a really fast hard drive would be of the most benifit to him. I would like to hear some opinions from others more knowledgable in this area than I before purchasing. According to HP the drive is SATA-150.

 

[Ksyder]

My personal opinion is to skip the cpu upgrade unless it is very cheap ( I don't know the going rate for a 4800+ but it is likely overpriced and not worth it, socket 939 is quite dead, and so is ddr1 that the computer uses.) Effectively you have to throw out the whole motherboard, cpu, and ram to get something much faster than it is now. It would be easy to sell as a set though since it has 2 gb of ram which is of course quite desirable.

However, the hard drive would be good to upgrade. For $500 you can upgrade that whole system (you could keep the case and psu, sell the mb and ram and get something much more current)

I'd check this out:

http://www.pcper.com/hwlb.php

There is a $500 system on there that would be much faster than what your son has right now. The unfortunate thing is that is without a case or o.s., but it still could serve as a guide to what is considered current. Your case likely uses a micro-atx motherboard, which typically has integrated graphics. You would most likely be able to re-use the existing videcard as it should be pci-express.

 

[Harvey]

The power supplies in all (or at least most) "department store" computers (HP, Dell, etc.) are undersized and barely adequate for the machines they're in, as built, let alone able to handle a greater load of a bigger, faster CPU and vid card.

If his current "better video card" is adequate, I would suggest restoring the original vid card to the machine, selling the complete, stock machine and using the money plus the $500 gift card to build a better machine from the ground up. That way, you can be sure that all of the components are current and compatible and that the machine is powerful enough for your son's current gaming design needs and expandible as necessary.

If your son is currently into gaming, he and his friends may already know a bit about various currently available components. Do your homework by reading this and other computer forums and sites and checking the better sources for deals, such as newegg.com, frys.com and others. Look for deals on CPU/motherboard combos, drives, cases, power supplies, RAM, etc. You should be able to find several good combos within your budget.

Good luck.

 

[Ksyder]

Or just keep the old computer intact, put something together for $500 (possible) and then your son can learn computer networking too!
Also, the parts listed on the hardware leaderboard are meant to be maximum performance for the money... you can go with cheaper parts than that and that should give you some wiggle room to buy another case and O.S. possibly.