Hi guys im a 15 year old student, i have quite an old computer and would love to update to a very good one my specifacations are : -

Intel Pentium 4 CPU1300Mhz
1.30Ghz
512 rd-ram

i have about £150 pounds to spend, i would like to be able to have: -
-A Good processor
-New CPU - (if needed)
-good motherboard
-1GB of RAM

Maybe if you could get me some links/web addresses for the best thing i could possible get for my PC within my price range then i could order each one of the internet, and then fit them all...

Thanks anyone for help, i am not very good at computers, but would like a serious upgrade, so i am able to do a much wider range of things expecially gaming .Remeber i am very intersted in computers but when it comes to hardware - i no about as much as my grandma

Otherthings in my computer are decent, so when i get the new stuff i can just add it all back into my computer yeah - considering most of the things r newish - ( gfx card, sound card,ect) ? ? ?


Cheerz for any help i recive! - Sam

P.s - if you want to add me to MSN and talk quicker you can do so at - s _ Spink@hotmail.com

Sam,

The processor and the CPU are the same thing CPU is short for Central Processing Unit (I think). Changing the motherboard is the most major thing you can do to a PC but it doesn't always give you huge benefits. If you've got a 1.3GHz P4 system with 512Mb of RDRAM, then I'm guessing your motherboard must be pretty modern and fast and already have all the modern connectors and ports so, unless you have a particular requirement in mind, it might not be worth changing the motherboard. Incidentally, one of the reasons why replacing the motherboard is such a major job is that you usually have to wipe your hard disk and re-install Windows and all your programs and data after a motherboard swap. So I'd always advise someone to steer clear of it if it's not really necessary.

On the processor front, the choices available to you would depend on exactly what motherboard you have inside your PC at the moment. You can click the link in my signature to run the D-A-L.com Online Hardware Scan and that will try to work out your motherboard's manufacturer and model number. If you can let us know what it says, we can look it up.

Regarding the memory, 512Mb is already a lot but most systems are capable of getting up to 1Gb RAM inside them. Be sure that you need it though - it will be expensive for your system as you've got Rambus memory (or "RDRAM"). This isn't very common and was only made in small quantities. It was the successor to the older SDRAM standard but only a few manufacturers adopted it because DDR RAM came out at about the same time and most people decided to go with that instead. I would encourage you to check how much memory your system is actually using - you might be surprised. Most people think that their system will be much faster with more memory and, in many cases, they're right ..... but, in many other cases, it would make no difference. Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete] and select Task Manager. Click on the Performance tab and you'll see a graph of processor and memory usage and some very useful statistics about the current amount of RAM you're using and the peak amount that it has used since Windows booted up. Do this check as soon as you've started Windows and also when you've got lots of things open or a hefty game etc so you can see the difference.

I've just looked up a couple of prices and 256Mb of Rambus memory is coming up at about £90 and a 512Mb module is nearly £200 !! So you can see why I'm trying to talk you out of it! Of course, if you did decide to change the motherboard, it would be able to support DDR RAM, which is common and MUCH cheaper - for 512Mb, you're looking at £37 to £69 on the Crucial web site, depending on exactly what type you choose: http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/list...ackage&cat=RAM

Anyway, I think that's quite a bit of information to take in in one go! Run the Online Hardware Scan to find out your motherboard model and we'll see what processor can go in it.

If it turns out to be a waste of time upgrading your system, you might be interested to know that I've just got myself a new laptop and I'll be selling off my old system next week. It might not be exactly what you want but it would be a good start as it's already a Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 512Mb RAM (and a 64Mb GeForce graphics card) and the motherboard supports DDR RAM and I think it'll handle 2.8-3.0GHz processors. I could even sell it to you as a "bare bones" system so that you could put in your old hard disk and install Windows yourself to keep the cost down. That's always easier when you know for absolute definite that the hardware works! Trust me, I've built/upgraded lots of systems in my time and I always prefer to refurbish an existing system that I've already seen running for an hour or so! Anyway, just a thought.

Hope some of that helps