[KND621]

What's up everybody? I'm the new guy here and I have some questions. I seem to have collected some computers and I don't know what to do with them. I want to try and upgrade them, but I'm not sure if it'll be worth the trouble. Here's what I have so far:

Packard Bell
Model #955
AMD-K6 3D Processor
Windows 98
64 MB RAM

The other computer is:

Compaq Deskpro 2000
Pentium® processor
16.0 RAM
Windows 95

I'd like to do basic stuff, like surf the net, play some games, listen to music, and I also have some classes online. I hope I'm not wasting your time, but I'd just like to know what I need to do.

Thanks in advance,

Kris Lasker

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The models you mention are dated, but should, with a little tlc, offer you internet access, at the least. Memory you inicate wouldn't allow op sys upgrade, forget about any new games.

Memory upgrades are problematic - you may find some older simms, but unless surplus, be prepared to pay.

Upgrading these machines, beyond basic internet, word processing and s/s tasks is probably not in the cards.

Let's see what the others say.

[vnesheim]

The models you mention are dated, but should, with a little tlc, offer you internet access, at the least. Memory you inicate wouldn't allow op sys upgrade, forget about any new games.

Memory upgrades are problematic - you may find some older simms, but unless surplus, be prepared to pay.

Upgrading these machines, beyond basic internet, word processing and s/s tasks is probably not in the cards.

Let's see what the others say.

[jacobusmatthew]

I'm probably not a big enough geek to help you out alot but a few important tips to upgrading or w/e you plan to do is have a budget. If you could tell me maybe what games you would be playing, that would also help.

The mobo (motherboard) you have now may be sufficient enough to play the games you want, but if you want to play any 3D games you will have to invest in a new video card, high end video cards can be cashy, and more often than not you can't even utilize all the power you are getting because (yet again coming back to the mobo) your mobo might not communicate well with your video card, if it does at all.

Judging by what you have listed thoses comps prolly cant handle any high end anything (no offenses intended). Sorry to say your out of luck as far as the amd comp goes i really dont know alot about amd (i am an intel kinda guy). Someone else will prolly have to help you with that.

Im assuming since you want to upgrade these you know something about how to put computers together, and what (if any) setting you have to configure for new components to work.

I honestly think that your best bet (for the intel one that is) is to try to find the exact make and model of its mobo. Once you have this info, you can determine what your upgrade options are, as far as proccesor, RAM, Vid Card, etc.

Another problem you may run into is the fact that your comps are not powerful enough to run Windows XP well. I'm not sayin you can't. Well, Actually I am 16mb of RAM is simply not enough.

My biggest problem will have to be your RAM you really can't run much with 16 and the Celeron kinda hurts, but like you said you want to upgrade. Get back to me on the exact specs of the Intel Machine and I'll try to help you out

Sorry in advance if you already knew all this and I just completely wasted your time. Your post made it sound like you didn't alot about this so, like i said, sorry if i offended you.

Hope this helps
Matt

[KND621]

Thanks Matt,

You didn't waste my time and I was not offended at all. Where would I get the specs from? I know a fair amount about computers, but not everything. Again, thanks for the help.

Kris

[Doby]

Hi,

I also have some old pc's laying around and did not know what to do with them, then I found thisPlease give it a shot

In your case Kris the compaq ain't worth the effort but the packert bell maybe able to help the Geeks to Go Team out, please consider it , its a very good cause.

I use my main rig to help the Geeks to Go Team fight cancer also but I have two old rigs very similar to yours that I use and they keep chugging along perfectly, yea there a little slow but every little bit helps.

Any questions let me know

Rick

[jacobusmatthew]

I would google your computer's model #. Visit compaq (or HP now i guess), or Packard Bell's website it may have info on older models. See if there are forums on their website, i know dell has them. Search the forums for a guy tryin to do what you are doing. It is very unlikely that someone would be posting anything about old models, so you may not want to do that (more like a last resort). You could try e-mailing the support team at both of these companies include all the info that you know and they might reply (support at alot of sites kinda sux), make sure you ask what kind of mobo you have, this is important!!.

Like I said in the last post you need a budget. What is yours? That is important, you may be able to just make a new system, and maybe keep the old cd-drive (although these dont cost very much). What games are you planning to play high-end(Half-life , Doom 3) or like asteroids and solitaire. I assume the latter because you didn't really emphasize on gaming in your description.

with about $200-$500 (the $200 may be hard to pull off, but if get a low end everything it may be possible) you could do a complete system rebuild, if you don't plan to spend at least $200, then it wouldn't really be possible to upgrade anything. I mean you could prolly upgrade all of your current parts, but you would see little to no performance increase. Alot of the times it all comes down to the mobo. You could have a rock solid CPU on a crappy mobo and get bad performance. So if the current mobo is worthless (and i'm certain it is) then there are very few things that can be done.

My adivice (because i have done this), unless you have moral issues. Sell these PC's to someone who knows nothing about computers. Fix it up so it can run Word and IE (these are the only things they would prolly use anyway). You could take it to your local computer store and see if they would display it on their shelf and sell it for you. I know the guy who runs our towns store, so this may be harder for you. I sold my pentium II 300mhz processor 16mb RAM 2Gb HD for $300!!!!! If you know anyone like this, try it this may get you the extra cash you need for a new PC.

You can buy a low end Dell for like $400. It should outperform anything you could possibly do to upgrade these other machines.

Hope this helps,
Matt