Help On Upgrading

[Dahotsauze]

I had my PC for more than 3 years and I've been told that it's old...that i need to upgrade it. The Problem is that have never upgrade a PC and i need help doing it. I don't know where to begin.

Below is a list of what i have now. Would you please tell me what parts need upgrading and which ones are still good.

Thanx in Advance!!!
[list=1][*]Motherboard----Super Socket 7 M599LMR, V1.4C[*]CPU---AMD-K6 (TM) 3D processor 56.0MB RAM[*]DISPLAY ADAPTOR--- SiS 530 [*]Chip Type...SiS 530 Rev A3[*]Operating System...Windows Me[/list=1]

Please Let me know if i'm missing something that can be upgraded or something that i put on the list that doesn't need upgrading...

Thank you very much.....

well depends on what you will be doing with the system?

gaming, surfing the web, encoding your own movies, word processing, graphic arts....

how much money are you willing to spend on an upgrade?

[stroyal]

looks like that is a pc chips MB (google search) 450 mhz max cpu
If you just surf and do office stuf that is fine.
If you want to play the lattest games the case is the only thing you have, and that might not be big enough

[Redwolf]

I'd upgrade to Windows XP or Windows 2000. That wil help a lot. If you use 3d graphics (games or otherwise, aka modeling), get a new graphics card. If you do games, get an nVidia or an ATI card. For modelling, etc, get a Workstation card (expensive, but GREAT image quality) like the Quatro or a 3dlabs card.

The RAM is your biggest bottleneck now however. If you don't want to uopgrade your mobo and proc, at least get some more RAM (at least 128 worth, it's not too expensive so go for 192 or 256).

[stroyal]

If you are going to keep runing the old comp 256mb of ram will speed it up a good amount and 512 even more

[JPMiller]

If your talking an upgrade then These are the specs and limits of your board as is...
unless you are talking about replacing the motherboard then my recommendations for that motherboard are...
at least 128Mgs up to 256Mgws PC100( I believe that is what it can handle)more memory.
You can use up to a 533MHz AMD K6/3 I believe
I would purchase a midrange PCI video card ...or maybe this one because the onboard is lowend and uses some of your system memory as well.
And I would definitely use win 2000 or even 98SE (XP will use too much system resources and slow you down unless you REALLY up the Memory amount...) instead of Win ME...that in itself would be an upgrade...

Here is a thread on flashing the Bios which you may have to do to get it to recognize a newer CPU.
---------------
If you mean upgrading more than that then we are talking a newer Mobo, Ram and CPU...
One inexpensive option would be...an integrated board like this and Memory from here ..(2 128Mg sticks of memory for under $34 shipped) ...
For that matter the K7S5A and the Duron for $60 +shipping isn't bad either...All you'd need is a video card.
----------------
You could sell the old computer for $100+ to someone who just wants to surf and use Word.... and put it toward the $90 you were going to upgrade with for a pretty decent system...(in comparison to your upgraded system that is...)

[Dahotsauze]

Thank you to everyone for their advice and their time i really apprecitate this...you guys are alot of help...


By the way....wHere can i find the video card...is it on the motherboard?...and where does it tell me what kind of card i have?....

thanx

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Dahotsauze
Thank you to everyone for their advice and their time i really apprecitate this...you guys are alot of help...


By the way....wHere can i find the video card...is it on the motherboard?...and where does it tell me what kind of card i have?....

thanx

"3. DISPLAY ADAPTOR--- SiS 530" is your video "card"... it is actually a video chip integrated onto your motherboard. Just look around and you will find it. Make sure you research your mobo manual to make certain you can disable the onboard video and then install a PCI video card. It may even auto-detect the installed PCI adapter and auto-disable the Sis 530 video chip.

[MitaDC]

Ok first u need to know if u have a PCI or AGP graphics card...here is what each looks like.
AGP:
www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/ article/991008/agp.jpg
PCI:
www.lancs.ac.uk/users/iss/network/ instructions/win2k.html
www.urban.ne.jp/home/mint/hardware/ sgi320/wellworks.html
Well good luck.


MitaDC

[jmichna]

MitaDC,
His board has two pci slots and one ISA slot. THere is no AGP slot, and his video is integrated onto the motherboard.

Dahotsauze,
Here's a link to your PCChips motherboard:
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M599LMR.html