Dear Everybody,

Hi I've so far spent $360 New zealand dollers on a computer. It is a Pentinum Three 1000mhz processor, has 256mb of ram 20gig hard drive CDRW drive, Windows melenium edition. I'm wanting to put 512 PC133 SD ram in it, a dVD re-writable drive, A graphics card for gaming and emulation and a bigger hard-drive and Windows XP home edition on it also buying A Sound Blaster Live box) Just wondering how much would this cost me(I'm thinking of buying second-hand off e-bay or amazon or trade-me) and if it is worth spending the money when it's a Pentinum Three processor.

Thanks For your time
any help would be apprirated

ballgirlnz:scatter: :scatter:

Hi ballgirlnz here again

Also my power supply is 250watts also just wondering if I could put 1gig of ram in it it's got 256mb so far and has two more free slots left. If I put everything in it (see first post) including 1gig ram would it be overloading the Power Supply?

thanks any guidance would be appriated.
ballgirlnz

What is the make and model of the motherboard?

This will tell you the RAM you need and the maximum capacity. It will also tell you the available graphics options. Probably AGP 4x at the most.

Most high end new games would probably not run well on a PIII and AGP 4x.

If gaming is your goal building a new system is what I would recommend.

You can have this other for backup or general usage.

I have a second computer pretty much the same as yours and for the amount of money you will spend getting all those upgrades you might be better off just getting a new system. You won't spend nearly as much on a new computer now as you did when you bought the P3 1000 and even if you do upgrade that system, it will still be way behind the times. You don't have to spend money on a monitor or a case for that matter if you build it on your own. The onboard video and sound cards on most motherboards now are just as powerful as the ones you have plugged in your PCI slots on your P3. You probably won't be able to put more than an 80GB H/D in it and you will definately need to upgrade your PSU. I would get a new one dude.

Great Advice A local computer store can do me the following deal just wondering would it be better to get this deal or build one myself and If I build one myself how do i do that?

here is the computer store's deal

ATX M/T Case with 350p/s
ASUS Skt 775 Mainboard (On-board Video and Sound)
Intel Pentinum 4 3.0ghz Processor
512mb DDR400 RAM
160gb Sata Hard Drive
Windows XP Home Edition O/S
Assembled (Data transfer not Included) $895.00

Also Does this Mainboard have a pci-e slot and would it support a further up-grade to a Pentinum D Dual-Core Processor. Where would I find this advice on the internet?

The description of that motherboard is very vague. It doesn't tell you the model number, just how many pins the CPU has(Socket 775). I would call up that local computer store and ask that information. I love building my own computer. You learn a lot more doing it yourself than if you have someone else do it for you. I am not sure how things work in N.Z.., but my guess is that it wont cost you as much if you build it yourself. It will take a bit of research on your behalf. I would go to a website like this one and just build it on paper first. Just make sure everything matches up. The description of the motherboard basically tells you what you can put in it. Like this one:

ASUS P5GZ-MX (Core2Duo/Conroe Supported) MicroATX (WinVista 32 & 64bit WHQL Logo'ed) LGA775 INTEL Pentium 4/Celeron/Pentium D/65nm dual-core/Core2Duo Intel 945GZ/ICH7 1066(O.C.)/800/533 FSB 2*DDR2-533/400(Dual Channel) Max. 2GB Onboard VGA with 224 shared memory PCIeX16 at 4X Speed ATA100*1 SATA2*4 6-CH(HD) ALC883 Gb Marvell LAN PCIeX1*1 PCI*2 USB2.0*8 Parallel Port*1 on back I/O COM Port*1 on back I/O.

I got this information from this N.Z. computer store: http://www.c-l.co.nz/

And just to be safe, before you start to buy all this stuff, ask the computer store, or a computer person, if your combination will work.

Don't forget that Google can be your friend with something like this.

Hey Everybody,

I've been shopping here is what I've got from A computer store in new plymouth,new zealand

Case Black/Silver Mid Tower 350watt (No FDD)
Motherboard ASUS M2N-MX Skt AM2
Processor AMD X2 Dual Core 4000
Hard Drive Seagate 160Gb Serial ATA
Ram 1.0Gb DDR 2 Ram 1
1.44 FDD Not required
Modem Dynalink 56K Internal
Sound Card Onboard
Video Card Gigabyte 128Mb 7100GS PCI Express
CD Rom Not required
CD Writer Not required
DVD LiteOn Dual Layer DVD Writer
Back Up Device Not Required
Network Card Onboard
Speakers Not required
Monitor Not required
Keyboard Not required
Mouse Not required

Or From a Retail Store called @@@@-Smith Electronics

Processor: AMD Athlon 64X2 processor 3800+(2.0Ghz, 2 x 512kb L2 Cache)
Memory: 1024MB DDR2 ( 2 x 512mb)
Hard Drive: 250GB Hard Drive, 7200rpm SATA
Optical Drive: DVD Writer, dual layer 16x
Video: Geforce 7500LE Graphics
Operating System: Vista Home Premium
Warranty: I year NZ onsite parts and labour warranty

1st option being 1497NZD
2nd option being 1198NZD

Any comments or suggestions about buying either system which one would be best value for money performance wise.

Thanks
ballgirlnz

What will you be doing with this system? Does the first one come with an OS?

Dear Dolemite

yes the first one comes with Windows XP Home edition, I would be using either one firstly for studying purpose secondly for gaming and emulation. Any advice would be greatly appriacated.