someone gave me an old intel pentium 3 pc, not much in terms of specs, 20gig hd 1ghz intel pent3 32mb grahpics 256ram, anyone got any useful ideas i could do to make these specs better without breaking the bank?
cheers

hi,

download everest - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
then run everest and post your specs, its will give us an idea where to start.

cheers...xxx1

Don't bother trying any upgrades. I doubt you will be able to find a motherboard that even supports the P3 unless it is "old stock". You cannot upgrade to PCI-E, and the prices are the same as newer hardware. The computer would make a good stripped down internet runner that you don't have to worry about Anti-virus, exploits or anything. Just run it and Have a slipstreamed version of a recovery CD handy if you have any problems. Slick and quick to do what you want.

I give these computers away to a local church and a school when i get people that want to trade them in for a new computer. Theyre only worth $50 or so.

SRX660

Im not too intent of giving it away as its a pretty good little machine, surely i can upgrade to 128graphics card i do know that 256ram is the maximum wich isnt bad for an old machine, another thing id like to do is add some USB 2.0 ports to the PCI do you think the motherboard would handle it?(motherboard sorry)

This post has been edited by Mike_Rotch: Jan 8 2007, 06:42 PM

whats the other board ?.

cheers...xxx1

For sure you can find a card on the market for this computer. But your throwing your money by investing in one. Are you even sure there is a PCI port on a computer that old? Again, that computer really isn't worth putting any money into it if it running.
James

guys were talkin 1999 here its not "that" old and yes it has several PCI slots and currently running on XP pro.

What are you planning on using it, to need a new graphics card?
James

i tend to play alot of classic games so it would be poitnless on me spending hundreds of £'s on the latests hi-tech nvidia geforce pc, i just wanted some ideas on what could be done to improve the performance

Your system couldn't handle any new GPU's.
What games exactly are you planning on playing when you say classic?
James

games such as fifa 2000-2003 Sims, cricket 02, 05 half life that sorts, i dont really have any new games.

and current card struggles especially with sims and fifa

Just my 2 cents but upgrading is pointless, Sims you'll just barely get buy, Half-life 2005, isn't even possible, you'll need to upgrade you CPU, i'm pretty sure P4 is a different socket then P3, so you'll need to upgrade you mobo. Lets put it this way, anything that came out 2004 and afterwards, won't be possible to play.
But if you still want to upgrade, which i find is pointless in your situation, do you know what speed your AGP slot is? is it x1, x2, x4 or x8?
James

This post has been edited by james_8970: Jan 8 2007, 07:35 PM

ill leave it there, ill get pro active advice elsewere, thanks for your help

Sorry, it would improve your performance for the sims and the older games, but anything released after 2004-2005 will be unplayable, your ram and CPU can't handle it.
James