Received a computer, wondering how to identify/upgrade

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Tubbypenguin

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Dec 9, 2012
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Hello everyone. Today I received an old computer from my dad's work today, and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on identifying parts and stuff (mother board, ram, gpu slots, processor, etc). If it all possible, I'd like to buy some parts to upgrade this into a lower end old pc, since I'd save some money on most of the parts.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
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Tubbypenguin

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Dec 9, 2012
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10,510


I wasn't sure if I could post pictures and/or links since I don't have many posts, but I'll try to get some up tomorrow. And about it not being worth it to put parts into it, I figure even a low end graphics card and some new ram would make an old pc better than my old laptop. I could be wrong though, but that's what I'm thinking right now

 
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

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Nov 19, 2010
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Honestly, don't know yet - sitting from here, you could have practically anything! Only thing that's going to yield information is to crack that baby open and look what's inside.


 
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Tubbypenguin

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Dec 9, 2012
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Once I pick up a cord tomorrow I'll certainly do that, however I don't know which parts of it are relevant (since I usually post dxdiag's for more knowledgeable people to look at)

 
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Tubbypenguin

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Dec 9, 2012
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[/quotemsg] Honestly, don't know yet - sitting from here, you could have practically anything! Only thing that's going to yield information is to crack that baby open and look what's inside.[/quotemsg]

Well I did that when I first got it, and couldn't tell much from it since I'm not super tech savvy. What I've gathered so far (which isn't anything really):

Processor: Intel pentium 4. I couldn't tell much from looking at the actual processor since it's hard to read, but this is what the sticker on the front says.
RAM: It has 4 skinny slots, and 2 512mb sticks inside. But again, I'm not tech savvy enough to know what kind of new RAM would fit into the slots :(
Motherboard: No idea
 
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computerfanatic

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May 2, 2013
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10,510
its been a while since ive worked with anything but xp, but if thats what you happen to have, theres a few things you can find out by looking at system information, if you have xp go to start, on the programs menu go to accessories, go to system tools and click on system information and there you will find out more info about your computer such as motherboard and model, processor, how much memory is installed, and if you go to hardware resources and look at the i/o tab you can see if you have a color card installed, you would be looking for something saying radeon or nforce with a model number behind it, you would also be able to tell if theres a sound card installed by looking there, to find out more specifically about your color card such as memory on it you would look under components and look at display, if you click on storage and then drives you will be able to see what drive(s) you have and what the capacity is...if thats the case, look all that up write it down, you can always use word to write it down and then copy it here...get back with those details and that will help us help u....
 
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DSzymborski

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
Nov 19, 2010
20,889
5,115
106,640
Honestly, don't know yet - sitting from here, you could have practically anything! Only thing that's going to yield information is to crack that baby open and look what's inside.[/quotemsg]

Well I did that when I first got it, and couldn't tell much from it since I'm not super tech savvy. What I've gathered so far (which isn't anything really):

Processor: Intel pentium 4. I couldn't tell much from looking at the actual processor since it's hard to read, but this is what the sticker on the front says.
RAM: It has 4 skinny slots, and 2 512mb sticks inside. But again, I'm not tech savvy enough to know what kind of new RAM would fit into the slots :(
Motherboard: No idea[/quotemsg]

Is there a make and model on the front? May help narrow it down a little.

First the good news: with a GB of RAM, you probably have a later Pentium 4, with an LGA 775 socket.

The bad news: even though it's also LGA 775, it's very likely that the chipset on that motherboard will not allow you to get to the top of the Core 2 Quad food chain. You're probably only going to be able to upgrade to the lower half of the Core 2 Duos with the motherboard (though I can't say for sure as I don't know exactly what your motherboard is - making educated guesses). Your best hope here is that it's a newer (relatively speaking) LGA 775 motherboard slumming it with a P4.

Your motherboard almost certainly supports DDR2 RAM, but the RAM will be more expensive than modern DDR3 RAM (which you will not be able to use) since nobody uses it anymore and it's only for older computers.

The age of the motherboard will also possibly limit your ability to add a GPU. The Pentium 4s were coming out at a time in which we were seeing AGP transition to PCI-E.

I'll cross my fingers! If your motherboard is a little newer than I fear, you could possibly have some upgrade path on the cheap, though not to something somebody would build new today.
 
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antoinefinch1959

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May 7, 2013
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10,510
Here is a program PC Wizard that will tell you everything about your PC from CNET Downloads. also you can get ddr2 ram for about or around 20.00 from Ebay, once you find out what type from PC Wizard. Post results and lets make a list?
http://PC Wizard
 
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