I have an Intel board with an agp4x and im thinking i should upgrade to a pci-e, however, im not to certain how much it will cost, and if i can put my old 2.6p4 processor in it, or buy a new processor, the budget might be around 150-200 american bucks. How hard would it be to replace my motherboard? and any other suggestions?
$150-200 is more than enough for a good motherboard. I am too buying a new motherboard to replave my AGP4X MSI motherboard, and for only $40, this baby has great integrated graphics, and an 8X AGP slothttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813139147. But, you need to know some things before you buy a motherboard. 1)CPU Socket 2)Motherboard Form Factor 3)And what slots you want (PCI, AGP, PCI-express) Id recommend you go here(http://www.snapfiles.com/get/everest.html) and download the utility, it will tell you your cpu socket and much more. As for the form factor, open your case and look at your power supply, it should say something like ATX(its probably ATX if its not a very old computer)then go to newegg.com and do the advanced search on motherboards, and you should get results and see what motherboards are right for you.
Yes it is ATX, and I would like a couple PCI, and maybe a dual PCI-E, as for the cpu socket, thank you very much for the link, i have been look for some kind of socket description tool.
Dual PCI-e is called SLI. Its interesting technology nut you really don't need it unless you're installing or planning to purchase 2 Nvidia Graphics Cards(each is about 280). I am planing on buyin a PCI-e SLI MSI mobo for 174 dollars, or somewhere aound there...
Thanks skid me, but would i be able to just use one card right now? and wait until i get more money to install the second?? and its a 478 socket, and right now i am running it with a 2.6 intel p4. Should i upgrade my processor to?
Liez4Love , It sounds like you are opening a can of worms. If I remember correctly, the socket 478 chip used rambus type ram/memory.That is a 400mhz chip that is fairly large compared to the postage stamp size cpu`s that are currently made. The pin/ cpu configuration is NOT current. You can not put that chip or memory on a new MB. So by the time you buy a new chip/cpu, memory and a new MB, and then maybe the power supply is a little old and weak, a new tower. You might as well buy a whole new computer. So be careful before you get started.....
72morgan, socket 478 uses either rambus, sdram or ddr as i'm running a p4 2.5 celeron d with 2-256meg pc3200 ram in my system. rambus was on the 1st generation boards that were modified p3 cpu on a socket 423 or on propriatory systems. Liez4Love has more likely has ddr ram. Liez4Love, can't use your cpu on a board with pci/e as it uses a socket 775 not 478 but might be able to use your ram depending if a ddr & the speed of it.
Liez4Love, post your systems specs. ddp, the point is , as an older system, by the time you upgrade the MB ,ram, cpu and power supply, burner, etc... he might as well buy or build a new machine and keep this one as a backup. It would be faster, cheaper and easier.
72morgan, right now he is asking about motherboard, videocard & cpu not about ram, psu or burner but you are right as he should post his current specs so we would know somewhat he has to change or not to change
400Watt PSU - not sure of brand Liteon JLMS XJ-HD1665 16x DVD drive Liteon LTR-24102B 24x CD Drive 512mb DDR SDRAM PC3200 (200mhz) Creative SB040 Audigy 2 Sound Card - PCI WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface modem - PCI Intel Rexburg D845GRG motherboard Intel Pentium 4, NorthWood, 2.6 gigahertz Why would i want to replace my psu, and sound card, and ram?? or my dvd and cd drives? and sorry didnt reply for awhile, i was away.
as we didn't know what you have we could only guess & sometimes wrong. ok, keep the everything except the motherboard & cpu as the cpu won't fit a socket 775 as that is a socket 478. so you will have to get a new motherboard with pci/e on it, a cpu that fits that board & a pci/e videocard. depending on the power requirements of the videocard might look at a bigger psu down the road but not certain. what is your budget for these 3 items not including psu??
Liez4Love, Computers are sort of like time capsules. A snapshot of technology at that time period. Your computer is a matched set for the year 2002. Your mb supports an AGP slot and video cards that run at 2X or 4X. Since then they have gone to 8X AGP, and now with the 16X PCI-E. Your CPU has a front side bus of 400 MHZ, current boards run at 800 mhz. If you could find a mb that supports your 200 mhz ram , it would act as a bottleneck and slow down your computer. Current ram is DDR2. You do not mention your hard drive. Your MB supports ATA/IDE 66 and 100 hard drives. Think of an ATA66 drive in terms of speed. It transfers data at 66 mb`s per second. Another speed indication is how fast it is in RPM`s. Is it a 5400rpm or 7200 rpm drive. Your new cpu with Hyper threading technology with a FSB of 800 mhz with matching MB and ram is sending data to a ATA66 5400 rpm HD. The most current IDE/ATA HD`s run at ATA133 or 133 mb`s per second and 7200 rpm`s. But the most current technology that matches up well with your new CPU, MB and RAM is a Serial Hard Drive or SATA150 drive running at 7200 rpm`s, it transfers data at 150 mb`s per second. And that does not take into consideration a Raid setup that is becoming more popular because of the increase in speed that gives. You do not necessarily have to buy a new power supply or tower but after buying a new CPU, MB Ram and hard drives , Do you want to trust your stuff with a 3-4 yr old PS ??? Your Liteon drives are ok and the sound card too. But after everything else, the cost of another DVD burner and sound card is minor. That is why I said it made more sense to just buy or build yourself a new machine.
