OLD COMPUTER!

[Brody8877]

My aunt call me up one day and ask me to upgrade there old HP Pavilion 8370 (Pentium 2 class). They want it to make the computer faster. They also want a new processor because the pentium II 350Mhz is not cutting it. I know the HP 8370 have a Slot 1 pentium 2 class processor. Where can i find a slot 1?? Will 133Mhz work with my mobo?

Computer specs:
PII 350Mhz
192Mb SDRAM
8GB HD
Some cheap @$$ sound card
intergrated 8mb video

upgrade budget - $400

 

[o1die]

I would honestly tell you to keep the old unit intact. Start over. I saw a complete Linux system at Fry's electronics for only $179 (everything but monitor). You could spend that much on upgrades, and maybe only get half the performance of a cheap new system. I upgrade systems with Fry's combo specials, but even the cost of mobo,cpu,heatsink,memory, and video can surpass the $179 pricetag. With that cheap system from Fry's (similar deals can be ordered on pricewatch), all you need is a monitor, and you can use your old windows cd if you prefer windows over linux. Some pricewatch systems come with windows, some without. Some are difficult to order, but you can call an 800 number for most venders for questions about system specials. Even the $499 specials from dell are a bargain when you start pricing separate components for an upgrade.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Brody8877
My aunt call me up one day and ask me to upgrade there old HP Pavilion 8370 (Pentium 2 class). They want it to make the computer faster. They also want a new processor because the pentium II 350Mhz is not cutting it. I know the HP 8370 have a Slot 1 pentium 2 class processor. Where can i find a slot 1?? Will 133Mhz work with my mobo?

Computer specs:
PII 350Mhz
192Mb SDRAM
8GB HD
Some cheap @$$ sound card
intergrated 8mb video

upgrade budget - $400

$400?

re-use the floppy and get them a cheap athlon system.

 

[mechBgon]

What do you think of this, it's about $413 before shipping: link to Newegg wish list

That would be a retail AthlonXP 2000+, nForce2 IGP mobo with onboard dual-head GF4MX video, 256MB of RAM, a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive with Nero Express, WinXP Home, a 40GB Maxtor hard drive, and a microATX case with a fairly respectable 300W PSU (this case also accepts full-sized ATX PSUs, nice for servicability reasons down the road).

If they could justify a little more, then I'd suggest

• a Seagate 80GB drive for another $20 or so (5-year warranty, probably faster)
• the full-ATX version of that case, with the Inwin i530 card-reader included (these are nice, front-audio ports too)
• WinXP Professional so they can have Limited user accounts for their daily-driver stuff (and one for visitors too) to prevent spyware and junk like that. XP Pro is also supported for several years longer than XP Home.
• another 256MB of RAM
• some antivirus software

That would get them the performance and stability of WinXP, Microsoft security-patch support until 2009, and a fair amount of expandability, plus a 100% industry-standard system made of all new parts. Hope that's food for thought

 

[ts3433]

Upgrading is really not worth it in this case. Check out JPeyton's excellent guides in General Hardware for some recommendations to play with.

 

[RearAdmiral]

Take that money and go ebay. Find a decent system, then just ghost all their junk over to the new one. Hmm maybe you can buy my P3 600 for that much. Let me know

 

[apainttown]

with a 400 dollar budget i would just browse around for a system w/ or w/o a monitor. take a gander and see what 400.dollars will get ya at pricewatch.com for example;

Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz 533MHZ or a AMD Athlon XP 2800 Win XP...

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
What do you think of this, it's about $413 before shipping: link to Newegg wish list

That would be a retail AthlonXP 2000+, nForce2 IGP mobo with onboard dual-head GF4MX video, 256MB of RAM, a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive with Nero Express, WinXP Home, a 40GB Maxtor hard drive, and a microATX case with a fairly respectable 300W PSU (this case also accepts full-sized ATX PSUs, nice for servicability reasons down the road).

If they could justify a little more, then I'd suggest

• a Seagate 80GB drive for another $20 or so (5-year warranty, probably faster)
• the full-ATX version of that case, with the Inwin i530 card-reader included (these are nice, front-audio ports too)
• WinXP Professional so they can have Limited user accounts for their daily-driver stuff (and one for visitors too) to prevent spyware and junk like that. XP Pro is also supported for several years longer than XP Home.
• another 256MB of RAM
• some antivirus software

That would get them the performance and stability of WinXP, Microsoft security-patch support until 2009, and a fair amount of expandability, plus a 100% industry-standard system made of all new parts. Hope that's food for thought

ditto this.

plus if you want to save a few more bucks, go with the biostar motherboard from newegg. i just had a build with it and its great.