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upgrading old computer

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drewdude420

Junior Member
hello friends. I am looking to repair or upgrade my old computer but I don't know what the best solution is for my budget. I don't know whether it's best to use the current CPU and memory. The two dead components are the motherboard and hard drive so those must be replaced.

this system currently has an athlon t-bird 1.33 ghz. with a Lite-On AA280 (http://www.liteon.com/prod/getProduct.do?cid=1_2_2&xml_id=4_2&menu_id=4_2_2).

the system has 384 MB DDR memory.

Some questions I have:
1) suppose I buy a KT333 replacement board and keep the CPU, will a SATA hard drive be able to work with the board?
2) If I upgrade the motherboard/CPU, will I be able to use the current memory I have?

I'd like to know what would be the best solution to get this computer working for $300 or less. I'm looking for suggestions on replacement components. Thanks!
 
My friend, you need to give more info.

Which brand and model is your dead motherboard? Which socket is the CPU.
Depending on the socket of your CPU, you can chose a motherboard with or without SATA. But your choice would be limited since it sounds like you had prety old motherboard.

Give us more info on the CPU Socket. Suppose your RAM is DDR.
 
Originally posted by: drewdude420
this system currently has an athlon t-bird 1.33 ghz. with a Lite-On AA280.

the system has 384 MB DDR memory.

Some questions I have:
1) suppose I buy a KT333 replacement board and keep the CPU, will a SATA hard drive be able to work with the board?
2) If I upgrade the motherboard/CPU, will I be able to use the current memory I have?

I'd like to know what would be the best solution to get this computer working for $300 or less. I'm looking for suggestions on replacement components.
Click to expand...
1. Forget about any VIA MB for an AMD CPU.
2. You'll have to let go of the dream of using your old memory, for any newish CPU/MB combo.
3. With a PC that old, your other components probably suffer from age and suckage.
4. Sorry

 
Sounds like you're going to need...
CPU, MB, RAM, HD and possibly a PS.

BTW, What video card are you running? If it's really old, you might need a newer one.
 
gf4 ti 4200 128mb. I just want a decent system. The graphics capability of the computer was good enough for my purposes. But this likely would be upgraded in the future. psu is the newest component in the system 400w.
 
The Biostar MB doesn't have any SATA ports. Besides that, SATA performs about the same as IDE. The Seagate IDE HD in my link is about the snappiest IDE HD you can buy.
I'd go with SATA drives IF I was doing a full system build or total upgrade, not just replacing a MB. 😉

Your funds are tight. Go cheap to get your PC up and running again. You can always use the HD in a different rig later.
 
Originally posted by: drewdude420
you don't think it's worth it to upgrade for SATA?
Click to expand...

SATA in itself isn't an upgrade, just a different interface.

If you're determined to keep as much of your old system as possible, look for a motherboard based on the NForce2 chipset (from NVidia), such as the Abit NF7 series. These will be backwards-compatible with older socket A processors, and the full range of DDR memory. The Abit NF7-S v2 has two SATA ports (SiliconImage RAID chip).
 
I think you would be better off looking at a low end AM2 Sempron. This would not be a enthusiast choice, but for the budget you have this could bring you up to 1GB of memory, a 250 GB hard drive (even SATA if you want) and a new platform with upgrading options. Even the slowest AM2 Sempron is 1.6 GHz, so it is faster than your T-bird cpu at 1.33 not to mention the integrated memory controller and SSE support that you dont have with that T-bird.

Some people hate the idea of budget parts, but when you have a low budget you dont splurge.
I don't have time to look up and recommend specific parts right now, but I know this is possible (even with shipping costs factord in).

Just a few other quick thoughts, get memory that will run at rated speed without having to raise from stock motherboard voltage, this should help eliminate any stability problems from using a budget motherboard that may not have a lot of voltage options. Since you commented that you would upgrade video in the future anyway and your video card has quite a bit of age you might consider using integrated video for a while that way you can get a motherboard that supports PCI-E instead of AGP, and not be stuck with an old standard.

 
SATA was basically invented to take up less room, well in my opinion, I have not noticed any preformance differences, although I do like the fact that is smaller thinner cables but that is about it, as for your ram as long as you get a socket 939 motherboard you can still you generation 1 ddr ram, as for the socket A you will not be able to buy a new mobo with all the bells and whistles that accepts socket it A, oddly enough that was my first AMD CPU, the video card is beyond out of date, I would suggest a new PCIe card
 
Try and find used combos in the FS/T forum. That's about the biggest bang for your buck.
If you want a MB, CPU, HD and RAM... your $300 won't get you very far, buying "New".
 
First of all, if you need to get a new power supply, I'd recommend this one. It's $41.50, and you can get free shipping from newegg right now. Just do a google search, and you'll be able to find out how.

Here's what I would recommend for your system:

$54 - Biostar AM2 mobo w/ GeForce 6100
$55 - WD 160GB SATA
$90 - PQI 1GB DDR2
low-end processor recommendation: $44 - Sempron 2800 (1.6GHz)
higher-end processor recommendation: $131 - X2 3800 (2.0 GHz dual-core)

If you don't have to get a new power supply, then these components with the Sempron 2800 would equal $243. With the X2 3800, they would equal $330.

I'd like to clarify a few things in my recommendations. I recommended a 160GB hard drive, because I don't think your hard drive should be one-third of your budget. If you need the extra space, then by all means get a larger drive. However, I wouldn't recommend getting anything smaller than 160GB, because the price/GB is not very good. For example an 80GB drive runs about $45, which is 56 cents/GB. A 160GB drive at $55 is 34 cents/GB, so you're getting much more for your money.

I recommended the Biostar, because it has integrated graphics and also has a PCI-e slot for a future upgrade. I'm pretty sure that the integrated graphics are about on par with your 4200. I recommended 1 stick of RAM, because the mobo only has two slots, so you'll want the second slot free for another 1GB stick later on. If you went with the Sempron processor and didn't need the power supply, then that would leave $57 for a video card. Here are a few options:

7300GT for $40AR AGC
7600GT for $79AR

I know the 7600GT is stretching the budget, especially before the rebate, but it will be a HUGE increase in gaming performance.

And, as others have stated, you'll probably get more for your money by buying used in the FS/FT forums. I say probably, because sometimes you can find better deals on new stuff than used stuff, especially if you're diligent about shopping around.

Good luck!
 
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