upgrade new Gateway GM5072 4200...

Mike1967

Distinguished
May 28, 2006
2
0
18,510
Hi,

Thanks in advance for any help.

Yesterday I purchased a Gateway AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 dual-core processor 4200+ system.

http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1008848/1008848sp2.shtml

It was a little under a $1,000 at Best Buy without a monitor and I thought it was my best chance for a 4200 dual-core system. I knew I had to upgrade the onboard video card. I was planning on using my ATI 9600XT AGP card for the time being.

This will be a gaming PC. I am finally moving up from an AMD 2100 XP system that has a bad motherboard or processor. This is a system that I pieced together from Newegg. I am looking to keep that system intact to be fixed for a second PC later.

Well I found out at home that it didn't have the AGP slot needed for my video card. So I was now determined to go ahead and purchase a PCI Express x16 card.

Now I find out that it only has a 300 watt power supply. So with the $300 card I was planning to purchase, I need to add another $80 to $100 for a power supply.

So my question to everyone is should I stick with this system and upgrade or start from scratch. I have no problems with building up a system and have done it several times in the past. I guess I was just hoping that a ready built system would be up and running in no time.

Again I appreciate any help and comments. Thanks, Mike.
 
The gateway support page - component list gave us three different PSU part#'s:

100889 - 300-Watt Power Supply
100929 - 300 Watt Bestec Power Supply
103563 - 300-Watt Power Supply

and was able to locate a suitable replacement part bestec atx-300w which shows "DIMENSION: 5.9" (W) x 3.4" (H) x 5.5" (D)" which is standard ATX size. The mobo seems to have a standard 24-pin ATX (since it says so), but it would be nice if the manufacturer link provided some more details like pinout diagrams...

Your best bet is to measure the width if it is close to 6" then you are probably good to go with a plain old ATX unit, you can look at the 24-pin ATX connector and compare to the standard pinouts to see if they match up to be 100% positive.

If so, you are good to go with a new PSU like one of these Antec TP-II series - good quality for the dollar.

Antec TP-II 480W $72 shipped @ provantage
Antec TP-II 550W $80 shipped @ chiefvalue
 

Mike1967

Distinguished
May 28, 2006
2
0
18,510
Thanks for the reply on selecting a power supply if I go that route.

Any opinions between choosing to upgrade this Gateway unit with a power supply and video card versus just taking this unit back and building a unit from scratch from Newegg.

I thought I was getting it for a good price at $1,000 and thought I could begin gaming with my old ATI card.

If I go ahead and purchase the video card and psu, will this be a good gaming system good system for the money? I was looking at the X1800XT.

Or will I be happier in the long run if I took it back to Best Buy and pieced a new unit together? As far as performance for price?

Thanks again.
 

DrozD

Distinguished
Apr 28, 2006
29
0
18,530
I vote for take it back if you can. You will run into other issues along the way. Other components where you got short changed, a crippled bios, etc. Should be able to put together a pretty good build for $1000. Also prices are dropping fast on prebuilts. Dell is about giving systems away and they have 2 more price reductions coming in the next 6-8 weeks (so I was told), because of the new stuff coming out. Conroe etc. Even their so-called gaming systems are about in your price range. Lot's of current generation deals are about here.
Also Gateway doesn't have a real good satisifaction rating -(PCMAG & Consumer reports) so I would pass on them anyway.
 
hmm yea, returning the gateway is looking good:

Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW $57 shipped @ chiefvalue
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 $80 shipped @ chiefvalue
AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 4200 Retail Box $350 shipped @ etoys
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 cl2.5 $163 shipped
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 $75 shipped
Western Digital Caviar WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - OEM $96 shipped ***w/ $10 MIR***
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R / 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R... OEM $36 shipped

$857 total

Then you can use your current card for now - then upgrade to PCIE whenever, and still have $ to spare.