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"Beefing up the PC"

Right, as many of you may have seen I know pretty much nothing about computers.

A year and a half ago my parents got me a Dell Dimension 2400, mainly as it was quite good value for what I wanted it for. (Internet, writing essays and storing music/pictures).

However, I kind of want to play new games on it now but this system isn't that great for it... so I'm going to upgrade it as best I can. I probably should just use the money to buy a mac or something but my parents would go mental, probably.

Here it is here [URL]http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Dell_Dimension_2400_Cel_2_20GHz_128MB_40GB[/URL]

I have only have one slot for memory, so I'm thinking of getting a stick of 512 RAM, plus I need a really good graphics card.

Erm, so please help tell me what I need and any suggestions. Plus, do I need a new motherboard?

Oh, and your Intel chip makes me want to run away.

Front Side Bus (FSB) is the speed in Mhz that information can travel between processor and RAM (not sure, dont go too deep into the mechanics), it is combined with the multiplier to give the overall speed of the chip E.g. an FSB of 200Mhz and a multiplier of 11 gives an overall processor speed of 2.2Ghz.

SHEEPY wrote:
> what the hell is a front bus?

In terms of its position in traffic flow, non-existant.

Ba-dum.
Tisch.

Help me cookie!

Plus, what the hell is a front bus? From failing Computer I remember buses transport stuff about... like real buses!!!!

secret_squirrel™ wrote:
> Processor wise, I don't think that that needs improving at all...i
> can run every game that I have on a AMD Athlon XP 3000+ and im only
> running that at 2.16GHz.

Yes but remember the XP3000+ is equivalent to a 3Ghz pentium.

I was thinking thinking of improving my hard drive, I'm about 2/3 filled what with music and pictures mostly.

Heh, cool. I thought the processor speed was alright.

Would there be any problems taking my old 256mb out and putting two new ones in? I'm not reliable or experienced so I'll try nothing fancy. Thanks.

SHEEPY wrote:

> Basically I want to put a new PC in the shell of my old one...

Well if that is the case and you do want a new motherboard, make sure that you buy a motherboard with I believe its a 478 socket. Check before you purchase a new motherboard otherwise your CPU won't fit it...


Now just noticing, you may want to upgrade the hard drive to something a little bigger, maybe an 80GB or a 100GB, i use 120GB of a 200GB so think about it, it depends whether you store a lot....obviously!

No you won't need a new motherboard. I see that the current motherboard supports up to 1 gig of memory so just shove in two 512MB sticks as you only have 2 slots. That should set you back about £85 but its worth it...I have one PC with half a gig and one with a gig and the difference is trememdous. Its better to have 400MB spare than to have 100MB required.

Processor wise, I don't think that that needs improving at all...i can run every game that I have on a AMD Athlon XP 3000+ and im only running that at 2.16GHz. Perhaps if you want to squeeze a little more out of the pentium you could overclock it a bit...make sure you have sufficient cooling though. DO NOT OVERCLOCK WITHOUT EITHER EXPERIENCE OR reliable ADVICE...

Right, as for the graphics card...I wouldn't suggest going for one of these cheap modded cards. They are not very good and unreliable according to various sources. I personally favour the ATI Radeon series of cards and I have a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. Good card but I think there are better ones out there now...I'm sure some of the guys won't mind filling you in on some good cards maybe in that range, or if not, some others.

I thought it helped show my ignorance for computery stuff.

Basically I want to put a new PC in the shell of my old one so my dad doesn't go preacher on me.