Upgrade by piecemeal?

[Suezoled]

Sooo... I've decided since I am dirt poor but I need an a better computer... I'm going to just build it. I have a piecemeal tower, and I really do think I can just upgrade some pieces, instead of buying a whole new system...

Okay okay, I really don't know anything on how to do this. Any references? Or am I all wrong and should just give up...? (I mean, my system uses such old RAM, it has to be special ordered, since it's not stocked normally in stores anymore)....

[shanek]

It depends on a lot of stuff, starting with what you want to upgrade. Hard drive? No problem. DVD-R drive? Simple.

Processor? You'll have to figure out what kind of processor your motherboard can take and what speeds. If it turns out that you can't upgrade the processor to what you want, you need a new motherboard. Same thing if you want to upgrade the memory beyond what the motherboard can hold.

Now, it's relatively simple to find the proper motherboard for your case's form factor. But, if you buy a new motherboard and processor, your old memory might not work; or if you buy a new motherboard and the memory, your old processor might not work. But if you're planning on upgrading both the processor and the memory as well, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Unless, of course, you've got some older cards (like ISA cards) and your new motherboard doesn't support them. Or any number of other incompatabilities.

And that's without even considering the shock to your OS installation. You may end up having to reinstall it.

In other words, look into it, find out what you would need to do to upgrade the system, take the costs of that plus the time and effort you would put into that and see whether or not it's greater than just buying a whole new system.

[Brian]

Originally posted by Suezoled
Sooo... I've decided since I am dirt poor but I need an a better computer... I'm going to just build it. I have a piecemeal tower, and I really do think I can just upgrade some pieces, instead of buying a whole new system...

Okay okay, I really don't know anything on how to do this. Any references? Or am I all wrong and should just give up...? (I mean, my system uses such old RAM, it has to be special ordered, since it's not stocked normally in stores anymore)....

Is your RAM RDRAM or EDO? If it's either of those, remember you have to put them in in pairs. A single 128 meg module will be of no use to you.
If it's EDO RAM you should really think about upgrading.

[Zep]

Sue, if you can, post pictures of the inside of your PC. Most of the "nerds" here (alas I'm one too) can probably start reasonably from there.

Then figure out what you REALLY want to use your PC for. Be realistic about this too. That helps decide what config is going to be needed and so how much/little money you need to spend on what you have already.

[Brian]

Also, maybe goto www.belarc.com (http://www.belarc.com)
and d/l the belarc advisor, it's free. Run it and post what it tells you here. Looking mainly for: amount and type of RAM, motherboard name and serial #, processor type and speed.

[DVFinn]

I build custom PCs as a side business. Tell me what you've got I can tell you what to do with it.

[Iconoclast]

Originally posted by DVFinn
I build custom PCs as a side business. Tell me what you've got I can tell you what to do with it.
Um, do you have anything a little..... smaller?

[corplinx]

Just buy a shuttle xpc. Network/video/sound, mobo, case. Then add a processor, memory, hard disk, cdrom and you are gravy. Newer ones even have an agp slot so you can upgrade the graphics.

[a_unique_person]

First of all, you have to tell us what you have got. Then it is possible to work out what can be done with it. Depending on what you have, several options will have to be excluded.

[ceptimus]

I always used to upgrade my PC.

But nowadays, if you wish to change more than 3 or 4 of the main items (motherboard, RAM, processor, HD, graphics card. etc.), then it is cheaper to buy a complete new PC, and sell off the old one second-hand for whatever it will fetch.

[Captain_Snort]

I always upgrade mine bit by bit.

If you do that, you eventually get enough to build another one, or 2 or 3.

Hence I now have my own wee home network.

but anyway suez, without seeing the system, I would say memory, or if its older than about 3 years, new MB / CPU and memory, a lot of shops do bundles just for this very reason.

Oh and DVFinn, your build PC reminds me of when I last went to the new bit in the science museum in London, they had a lot of PC's running the exhibits in perspex so you could 'wow' at them, but alas they ran windows and about 20% of screens has BSOD showing.

Suez: why not upgrade to linux?

[Kopji]

A place I can recommend for price comparisons is JDR Microdevices (http://www.jdr.com/interact/default.asp).

Compare what it costs to buy / build one.

[Soapy Sam]

Suez-
Shop around. Contact Dell and ask what it would cost them to build one to your spec. When you start bolting bits together, complex incompatibilities occur. You find the motherboard can't handle the graphics card at optimum rate, or the processor only sees half your RAM. Individually it all works, but not together. When you call Asus for support, they refer you to Radeon and then it's join hands in a circle time.

My advice is either read some mags for home PC building / modding , find someone who already did it or go to a company who sell packages with service contracts.