I know very little when it comes to replacing and/or upgrading computer parts so please correct me if I am wrong on anything.

I have an older compaq that I am trying to upgrade, mainly for the source of gaming. The card in it is a Nvidia vanta 16mb (just to let you know how old this comp is), i want to put an ATI 256 mb in there.

Here is my question....
Can I simply upgrade my video card and not worry about it burning anything else up by 'overworking' it. Granted, I understand that the card might not perform to its highest potential given that my ram and/or processor simply is not as up to date as the newly acquired card.

which brings me to another question...
My computer uses SDRam, which I have never heard of until now. How difficult is it to switch that to a DDR?

Any help is appreciated, im very new when it comes to this stuff.

You cannot change what RAM the motherboard will accept. That is built into the board.

Your graphics are also dependent on the board. If you have AGP 2X then you are not really going to find any new compatible cards. AGP 8X is backwards compatible to 4X but not 2X. You need to dig up the motherboard specs for that computer.

Also new cards especially with high RAM require larger PSU's than you most likely have. In the long run it is better to go for a new system then trying to upgrade something that old. Most high end games would not play on it.

What is the precise Compaq model?

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

Compaq Model 5320 US
Intel pentium 4 processor 1.5 GHz
512 mb syncDRAM
AGP 4x

See, I thought about the ram. I also was told that compaq motherboards are impossible to change. How true is that?

I dont necessarily need anything thats gonna play outrageously high graphic games, just something that I can use above 16mb, cause it hardly does anything smoothly.

I would suggest an AGP 8X/4X card with 128MB RAM.

You will find many models of this type between $35 & $100 USD.

Here is a starting point to look:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...610&name=128MB

Changing the motherboard would not be beneficial. You'd be best off building a new system.

thanks for the help man

No problem. Let us know how it goes or if we can help further. eace: