Upgrading an older sony desktop

[sammeee]

Hi,

I have a vaio minitower computer. It was a 466 celeron integrated graphics and sound. I want to know if it is easy to exchange a new motherboard processor and ram in a situation like this.

Aey suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sammeee

[Darthgary]

Exchanging anything in a mini tower is a pain.

What kindof set up are you wanting to buy?

[sammeee]

Hey Darthgary,

Thanks for your insights. The would like to come up with a fairly fast newer genration Athlon. Not top of the line but maybe a Athlon 2000.

Any suggestion. Presently I am confused as top what size board would actually fit into this tower. How can I tell if this a baby ATX or what?

I have done a web search for clues to this model of vaio. Sony is worthless when it comes to help like this.

I would like to have a dvd writer and a larger hardrive connected to this board. If possible.

sammeee

[Darthgary]

This is a decent micro ATX board from Asus, it only supports a 266 Mhz FSB which is fine for a Athlon XP 2000+

http://www.partspc.com/store/product2364.html

For a good CPU - Remember has to be 266 FSB.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...tby=14&order=1

[beppodmime]

One way to figure out what would and wouldn't fit, would be to grab yourself a tape measure and measure the physical dimensions of the board, or grab yourself a copy of Belarc advisor, check out the part number of the board, and do a google search for it and see what comes up. You may find the manufacturers specs for the board, and then you know what will definately fit.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that this is an OEM computer, and I'm not experienced with Sony's components, and whether they follow all standardized form-factors. If they don't you could have some issues re-using your old tower and Power Supply. If you're going to want to make sure your current Power Supply has what it takes to support the newer hardware. If it doesn't, you're going to have all sorts of fun problems.

[sammeee]

Thank you thank you for the belarc lead. This gave me all the info to find out allthe specifics about the present board. It is an

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. MEW REV 1.06
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ACPI BIOS Revision 1001 08/19/1999

Says the board is 7.6" x 12" ATX Form Factor

Now that I have this info can another suggestion of a good board be made for athlon 2000 processor. Thanks much.

How can I find out if my power supply will work with the new board?

Grateful for the input,

Sammeee

[sammeee]

One more thing

Any reccomendation on inexpensive RAM, what kind, where to buy, I would like to get 512... Thanks mates

Sammeee

[beppodmime]

If you're looking for reasonable prices, good quality, and good service, I'd recommend checking Newegg.com out. That's where I buy most of the stuff I need. As far as a brand of memory, There's Kingston, or Crucial. Both brands have never given me a problem. 512MB of either brand PC2700 should run you less than 100 bucks from Newegg, shipped.

Oh, and having a standard ATX form factor board will make upgrading just that more possible. Good luck with that, but keep a new case and PSU in the back of your mind, just in case!

[sammeee]

Thanks for giving your time.

I got into the machine to double check the board numbers that Belarc gave me. Glad I did because this is indeed a micro ATX!!
Now for some specific questions.

1) What makes working with a microatx so tricky? It seems to me it should be pretty simple. Obviously I am overlooking something.

2) What do I have to look out for in regards to the PSU? How can I know if the one I have is sufficient or if I need to upgrade it?

Thanks,

Sammeee

[nurdonsite2]

micros atx motherboards are much small then standard atx boards, that being said....most of the new boards that have the most popular chipsets (ie: nforce 2 chipset) are rarely in micro atx format. and if there is one, it will be expensive. then there is the power supply issue. most likely, the PS u have right now will be under 150 Watts (way too low for todays components) so u will probebly need to get another micro atx power supply which is atleast 300w. it will be expensive and u can just buy a new ATX case and PS for the same price. therefore, just buy a new ATX case then upgreade the mobo, processor ram and video card. u would still be able to use ur harddrive/floppy/cdrom drives. OR u could just build urself a new comp from scratch and sell the old one, which is what i would do.

hope that helps.