my old gateway needs new parts

JoeFaheyx

Senior member
May 22, 2004
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hi, i have an old gateway( 2-3 years old) And it needs some new parts, more ram better mobo ext.
i will try to give you mostly what i have for parts, and mabye you could suggest whyat i should buy for it.......THANKS

audio card: audio pci 0046
video card:all it says it MS-8817
power supply- 250 W
hard drive- IBM model DTLA-307045 46.12 gig 7200 rpm then it says rated: 5v


i am looking for very very low cost parts, not to make it anything special but to mabye to use aol's AIM or some medal of honor (128mb games) thanks!!!
 

johnjkr1

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2003
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You need to provide some more info...cpu speed and type, ram speed and type. Since it is 2-3 years old I am assuming not much can be upgraded. Most new motherboards need DDR ram, which you probably do not have. Also, the standard power supply for a gateway will likely not be enough for an upgrade, if a new motherboard would even fit in your case. It sounds like you should consider starting over and bringing along what you can.
 

JoeFaheyx

Senior member
May 22, 2004
325
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well it has 128 mb of SDRAM, an amd athlong processor, not sure of model yet....but either way, i think i gonna basically build a new computer inside it, so, thanks anyways
 

JoeFaheyx

Senior member
May 22, 2004
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and can you tell me how good these parts are at all? THANKS

video card:MS-8817
sound card: audio pci 0047
and what makes a newer harddrive better, besides gigs.....mine is 46 gigs and 7200 rpms....what would be different about a newer one?
 

Cheetah8799

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2001
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google search says maybe the video card is a GeForce 2 w/ 32mb ram.
sound card is probably a generic cheapo. Hard to say.

Check in the Windows Device Manager to see what models it says they are. Maybe that'll help.

Problem with upgrading older systems is that you may end up having to buy more than you think. If you go with a high end system you probably will need a new more powerful power supply, something 350W or better, and maybe with the new 12v plugs for P4 systems (if that's what you build). Then this new mobo might need different ram, so your sdram is no good anymore. It'll probably have onboard audio, which is fine. The video card you have there might work ok, but if you want to do newer games you will need to upgrade.

Your hard drive though is probably ok. 7200rpm is fine, probably only a 2mb cache. Newer models will likely be faster, but it all depends on what you do with it. You may never notice the difference if you aren't a "power user".
 

cpars

Golden Member
Feb 4, 2000
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Also you will probably run into what i just did in upgrading my old gateway file server.
The connecter for power switch and reset etc. is proprietary, I had to cut the gateway connector and splice in connectors to match the new motherboard.