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Rank: I'm new around here
Joined: 9/8/2009
Posts: 5
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Hi,
I have an old PC (specs below) which was not in use collecting dust till recent but now I wish to service and upgrade a few parts since the old laptop I have been using is giving a lot of problems. I got this gaming PC assembled in early 2004 and have played games such as Counter Strike, C&C Generals, and America's Army with no problems but later on kept giving me alot of problems mainly overheating and shutting down.
I don't want to go overboard with the upgrade since I'm not a big gamer no longer but would like to play games such as World of Warcraft and some older games on it.
I'm not willing to spend anything over $200 for the upgrade as I will probably be buying a gaming pc in the near future (probably in 1 to 1+ years). Any help with compatible hardware parts would be appreciated.
* GIGABYTE P4 TITAN SERIES 875P GA-8IK1100 (Rev 2.x)
- Not looking at upgrading the motherboard.
* INTEL P4 2.80CGHZ 1.525V max, 800-MHz System Bus, 512kb L2 Advanced Transfer Cache
- Not looking at upgrading the processor
* ATI RADEON 9800 Pro 128m
- Not looking at upgrading the graphic card
* KING MAX 256MB DDR400 X2 (512mb) RAM
- Will be upgrading the RAM to 2GB(1gb+1gb). I found the motherboard supports 'Dual Channel DDR 400 / 333 / 266 ECC'. Is there a specific brand I should go for which is not too expensive??
* ATX SM400 (12V=15A, 5V=25A, 3.3V=20A)
- Power supply definitely needs to be upgraded. I am sure this must not have been powerful enough to support my hardware, hence the constant hang ups especially during summer months. What would be a good (not too expensive) power supply to support my hardware? I will also need to fix a third fan to the side of the pc casing where there is a slot. I’m assuming it will also need to be a 24 pin power supply? Fan size: 80mm (8cm).
* H: 17inches W: 18inches Case, 8 USB drives (2 infront, 6 rear), 5 slots for hard drives, 4 slots for other drives
- I am assuming I have a Mid-Tower casing. Not looking at changing the case.
Other (not looking at changing these):
* Hard Drive 160GB + 120 GB (280GB) SEAGATE BARACUDA
* DVDR - Pioneer DVD16x, CD 32x
* CDR – ASUS 52x24x52
So basically I’m looking at upgrading just the power supply to support all of the above, as well as the RAM. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
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Rank: Elite
Moderator
Joined: 7/11/2008
Posts: 1,162
Location: Mackay North QLD
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hi Laz, this may seem like a basic question but what the hell, are the fins and fan blades on the CPU and graphics card heat sinks clean?
As in, if they're blocked up with crap I normally blow them and the power supply out with CO2 (carefully).
For most people a can of compressed air from DSE would be easier to get hold of and a lot safer.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Ask questions. There's no such thing as a stupid one, just stupid answers. (mostly)
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Rank: I'm new around here
Joined: 9/8/2009
Posts: 5
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Slatts wrote:hi Laz, this may seem like a basic question but what the hell, are the fins and fan blades on the CPU and graphics card heat sinks clean?
As in, if they're blocked up with crap I normally blow them and the power supply out with CO2 (carefully).
For most people a can of compressed air from DSE would be easier to get hold of and a lot safer. Thanks for the speedy reply Slatts! And no the fins and the fan blades are not clean especially since the PC was unused and was collecting dust for ages since its last hang up. Even at the time I was using the PC regularly I had never serviced it from the time I bought it. Atleast now I know better! Yes I will need to buy compressed air and clean the system soon. I also need to fix all my hard drives/dvdr/cdr back since I dismantled them when the PC stopped working. As well as to re-install the OS, drivers, etc. I am planning on upgrading my DDR RAM to 1gb+1gb sticks. Any recommendations with the specs mentioned? I also don't think my PSU is capable of handling my Graphic Card, MB, and some extra fans im planning on installing at the front facing the harddrives. A 400W PSU might be enough but the 12V is only 15A, i think atleast a 30A as a minimum would be better. Any recommendations? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Rank: Moderator
Joined: 3/30/2008
Posts: 800
Location: Sydney, Australia
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If you're running XP, 1GB of RAM is enough. Just chuck in another 512MB kit. Clean out the dust and see how it goes. If it still crashes, let us know.
Vito Cassisi: Tech Blog
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Rank: Elite
Moderator
Joined: 7/11/2008
Posts: 1,162
Location: Mackay North QLD
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what cyb3r said. except I'd retire the 256 meg sticks and put in 1 1Gig stick as it's pretty cheap.
If you're going for a clean reinstall, you might want to give the release candidate of win 7 a try. I've seen it on the cover disk of a certain PC mag.
I'm running it on a machine with older components than yours but with 1.5 Gig of ram and it runs quite well.
The only hassle I have with it is it won't talk to my old PCI digital TV card but I haven't given up on it yet.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Ask questions. There's no such thing as a stupid one, just stupid answers. (mostly)
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Rank: Troubleshooter
Joined: 4/16/2008
Posts: 39
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Pack the frustration of not getting things to work straight away in the bottom drawer and look to this exercise as a learning experience. Start out by getting a can of Co2 and blow it out. Plug just enough of the contents together to get things working, like the MB, CPU, RAM, video card/monitor and PS. (No HDD or optical drives), will it boot, if not, borrow a PS and try again.
Replace only what you need to at this stage. Then plug in the system HDD, will it boot, if not plug in a DVD or CD drive and see if XP CD will boot. Keep doing this until you get the machine functioning. Then with any money left over I'd second the 1Gb stick of ram, buy a second one if you need/want to.
Start by fixing the easy/cheap things one at a time. Try ditching the CDR as well to conserve power consumption. When its working you can take pride in knowing you fixed it for bugger all money. The down side is that you will not want to part with it when ultimately the time comes.
If you cannot borrow, then look to second hand, even buying a second hand box that is similar to yours so you can swap parts as need be. If you don't know what you are really doing/looking for, Google is you friend, (as we are) after all this is a educational experience as much as a "get the box to work".
Try installing Win7 from the mag disk, you can also get 90 days legit trial of the RTM if you Google for an answer. Remember when it gets frustrating to walk away from it for a while, think it over and then come back.
Welcome to the world of the tinkerer.
Cheers
Robert
"To Question is to Educate"
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Rank: I'm new around here
Joined: 9/8/2009
Posts: 5
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Slatts wrote:what cyb3r said. except I'd retire the 256 meg sticks and put in 1 1Gig stick as it's pretty cheap.
If you're going for a clean reinstall, you might want to give the release candidate of win 7 a try. I've seen it on the cover disk of a certain PC mag. I managed to find a DDR 400 1gb Kingston stick at MSY for $49. There is also a Yeahdone(Hynix) 1gb stick for $41. Any idea which would be better? This the cheapest Ive found around considering I would not have to pay for P&H since I can go get it picked from the nearest store. I'm also thinking of going for 2gb of memory (1+1 sticks) as my partner would be playing WOW and I wouldn't mind playing the occasional America's Army or CS. Do you think 1gb of RAM will be able to handle all this or would having 2gb of RAM just be safer considering I will also be watching a lot of online streams plus the usual? I had a look at the Win 7 trial version and I don't think I will be comfy having a trial version for 3 months and having to pay for it once the trial runs out considering this is an old machine i'm trying to get fixed to run for probably another year + before I buy myself a good gaming PC (if i manage to re-assemble this PC im trying to work on now, who knows I may just buy the parts and try n assemble the new one from scratch in the future!  So i may just stick to XP 32 bit for the time being.
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Rank: I'm new around here
Joined: 9/8/2009
Posts: 5
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Dinks-c wrote:Start out by getting a can of Co2 and blow it out. Plug just enough of the contents together to get things working, like the MB, CPU, RAM, video card/monitor and PS. (No HDD or optical drives), will it boot, if not, borrow a PS and try again. Thanks for the advice Dinks-c and the rest!. Where can I get my hands on a Co2? is it the same as ' Officeworks Pressurised Air Duster'? Also having to give the CPU a good clean, im guessing I will also need to purchase the static wrist wrap, methelated spirits to clean the heat sink, and thermal paste. I will do a bit more of research on that as I will not be getting to the cleaning till I get my hands on atleast the RAM which will be mid next week. I am still doing research on a good power supply for my system. I'm guessing it should be a minimum of 400W and the V12 atleast a 30A, plus I definitely don't want to buy another generic brand PSU as that's what I currently have and did not seem to do a good job(check specs). I dont want to spend anything over a $100 on a new PSU. I also want to fix 2 fans(which I have got lying around) to the front of the casing as none were fixed earlier. Got 1 fan fixed to the rear and one built in the PSU. Should I be looking at getting a dual fan PSU? Still confused but learning! Thanks so much for all your help!
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Rank: Elite
Moderator
Joined: 7/11/2008
Posts: 1,162
Location: Mackay North QLD
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I'd probably go for the Kingston stick as I'm not familiar with the other one.
I'd also just buy the 1 to start with in case the whole deal goes pair shape.
you seem keen on getting a new PSU. What makes you so sure the old one is crook?
You said the original problem was over heating. I'd clean all the heat sink fins, replace the heat sink paste if you want, bolt it back together and kick it in the guts and see what happens. if the hard drives are as they were when you stopped using it it ought to still boot from the OS on them. if that all works, then I'd suggest buying RAM etc.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Ask questions. There's no such thing as a stupid one, just stupid answers. (mostly)
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Rank: Moderator
Joined: 3/30/2008
Posts: 800
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Yup, don't diagnose a problem you haven't got. A new PSU would cost you at least $100, and if the one one was fine, you'd see no difference in performance. Again, 1GB of RAM is fine. You don't need more than that.
Vito Cassisi: Tech Blog
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