motherboard upgrade

[imported_gillian]

I have an HP Pavilion 771n (tweaked) and devoted to audio recording. I would like to upgrade/improve it's capability; can it be easily done ?

Motherboard:

 

[imported_Kiwi]

While I can't speak for anyone else who writes messages at AT, I personally have been a PC "enthusiast" since 1988 or so. I haven't bought anyone's brand-named PC since 1987 or earlier (it was a genuine IBM True-Blue PC-AT). So your model number means nothing at all to me.

Most branded computers can be upgraded quite a lot without requiring special skills or knowledge. You just swap some faster parts in. You do run up against a power limit very early on in upgrading, because very typically the OEM psu is chosen to handle exactly the requirements of the currently installed hardware. As soon as you swap in more stuff, the psu is running behind what the system needs.

Then, when you need to replace the psu, it's probably non-standard, so you can't just walk into your corner CompUSA store and use the ATX psu's they sell. In other words, you do need some help along the way.

Typically, the brand-name PC's have a bare minimum video system, probably built into the motherboard. If it wasn't the cheapest PC they were selling at the time, it may have an AGP slot for a more powerful video card.

Added RAM almost always speeds things up, and for the most part, all desktop PC's use RAM you *can* go into CompUSA and purchase. Hard drives are standardized totally, so when you want to replace an old, slow, and small Hdd, that's a snap. DVD/R's are popular and standard; if you want to add one, there should be no problem doing so.

So: is that what you wanted to know?