Need upgrading help with an Intel Inside Pentium 4 computer tower

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Kyle_13

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Hello all I need some help

I have recently picked up a Intel Inside Pentium 4 computer tower and I would like to know if I can upgrade it to a gaming pc.
-I know the basics like I will need to upgrade my memory (currently I have 256mb which I will need 2GB or higher if possible) Im not sure what the max is?
-And I have a MX 440 8x (47c) (DDR 64m) tv graphics card. Im not sure if thats any good or not. Could it play something like for ex: World of Warcraft on a highend? If not what card do you recommend for the computer?
-It has 2.80GHz/512/533 speed.
-It has a 80GB harddrive which I would like higher maybe 300-500GB

But I don't know what else I could do or if I can even do anything at all to the computer. Im not a big computer wizz so speak in my terms please lol.

If anyone knows anything about Intel Inside Pentium 4 computers then it would be a great help to me in deciding what I need or if it is even worth upgrading.

Thanks so much
 
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idejason

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http://www.fryssupport.net/648fx-a.cfm,
This your motherboard?

Okay, AGP Is really old but companies still do supply AGP cards but there about 80 bucks for a good one (in my area)
DDR 400 Is quite cheap, Its not that bad to buy. You can support up to 3GB on that Motherboard.
Your motherboard only supports IDE, Sata/Sata2 is the new generation of hard disk. But you are still able to buy them in up to 500GB.

What site do you want to use for the upgrade?

 
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Kyle_13

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That is my motherboard
Do you have a site for this motherboard that you recommend? So by updating my motherboard I can do anything or am I limited? Im sorry I don't know what a IDE, Sata/Sata2 is and what do you mean 500GB? It dosn't matter what site I just want to know what I can use for the computer that will make it better for gaming
 
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Kyle_13

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This is off topic but what do you think of this computer
AMD Athlon 64 processor 2.20ghz 1GB of memory and 232 GB Harddrive....
Is it better or worse?
Because I was going to buy that one until I got this computer for free. Does the AMD have better upgrade possiblitys?
 
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deadlockedworld

deadlockedworld

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You cant really upgrade it to a gaming PC for any games newer than 2005-6ish. If you want to play older games like warcraft III, or some of the simpler online games it could do that after upgrades.

I wouldnt spend more than $60 total on upgrading this PC.

The ram should be about $15 per 512mb chip new. You would just want to replace the chip you have in there with the 2 512 chips.

In addition to that you should get an AGP graphics card. A nvidia 7-8 series, or ATI 3-4-series would be good.

However, both of these items would be best purchased used on ebay or craigslist, or from a used parts vendor-- you will get them cheaper and you dont want to spend too much on this old machine.
 
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idejason

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With those two computers its not really worth upgrading, But i would definitely go with the AMD Athlon 64 Build over the Pentium 4 Build.

IDE, Sata I and Sata II are the generations of the Hard Drives, You have one of the oldest generation support with that motherboard (IDE) and you can get a Hard Disk of 500 Gigabytes from any good supplier.

But i agree with boonality, You shouldn't really put money into this pc and if you do not too much.
 
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bgd73

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oh. nevermind...

3 dimms is a weird one. they must be thinking of the oldest of 478s, non 4gb addressable.

I wouldn't go too far with it. no dynamic paging, no real ht, and no dual channel...?

go get an 875p, or 865pe...
 
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jitpublisher

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No matter what you do with the Intel machine, or how much you spend, you still are going to have an old, slow, outdated computer. Period. Forget about it. That is why you got it for free. It's not worth anything.

The AMD build is a far better start, but as stated, we will need to know all the particulars about it. Now mind you it is still not a "great" start, but it is better than the Pentium build. Before you buy it, get us more detail, and how much money they want for it.
 
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Kyle_13

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Well he just emailed me back and said his room mate dropped it down the stairs and it broke lol so im not taking it now. So there is no way to change the whole computer around for ex: Keep the tower box itself but change everthing inside like the power, motherboard, graphics card, etc kinda like building the whole computer again, or is there something that will stop me from doing it to the pentuim 4.
 
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deadlockedworld

deadlockedworld

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If you want to put an entirely new system in the case that is possible, although low end cases only cost about $20-$50. I wouldn't recommend this for someone at your technical knowledge however... Maybe in a few years.

Give us a price range and we can find the best computer available for that price. I think the lowest I could reasonably go in finding a computer capable of gaming is in the $400s.. is that something you could afford?
 
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Kyle_13

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No I was looking for something cheaper. Im not really desprete to find one just yet im looking on kijiji for something used not new. Now a days there is youtube that could walk me through it. But I don't know
 
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deadlockedworld

deadlockedworld

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Its just not worth it to go to low--because then you are really just paying for the shipping lol.

This would be a very good deal for $349 that would not seem old at all. Enthusiasts here on Tom's are still using Q6600 processors.
(you would want to add a $40-50 graphic card)

Acer Aspire M5641-U5630A Refurbished Desktop PC - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz. 4GB DDR2, 320GB, DVDRW/RAM LabelFlash, Gigabit, Vista Home Premium 64-bit
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4356033&CatId=2628

Search craigslist in your area-- you might be able to find a good deal used. We can tell you if its a good buy. My advice is to get the cheapest core 2 duo you can--dont get a Pentium 4.
 
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