[pedrossi]

Hi there.

I currently have an HP Pavilion Desktop (circa 2004). It's running a 2.60 GHz Pentium IV, with 768 MB of ram. The Hard Drive is only about 30GB.
It has a CD/DVD drive and some USB ports. I'm using the built-in sound driver rather than a sound card, and for graphics I'm using an ATI Radeon 9250 256MB (PCI) GPU. Already have a decent hp v72 monitor, very nice 5.1 speaker system hooked up, decent mouse and keyboard.

That's all the info I could find out about it on my own, hopefully you guys can help me find out anything else I need to know

I feel that my PC is getting outdated, however, and my upgrading options are no longer there. I'm already using up my 2 RAM slots (with a 256 and a 512), and my motherboard only has PCI slots, which forced me to get the Radeon.

I would like to use as many parts from this current PC (such as maybe the RAM, mouse/keyboard, monitor, speakers, processor, CD/DVD drive, etc...) and buy some extra parts as needed (like a motherboard) so that I can juice up my PC for running heavy applications (like Photoshop CS3) and high-end games (like Half-Life 2) with some pretty decent graphics. I'm tired of the PCI slots, and I'm looking to get an AGP or PCI-E, but have no idea which one is better.

I'm computer literate when it comes to software, but I'm just getting my feet wet with all the hardware, and I've been reading some guides here and there but I'm having a real problem figuring out if I can do this with what I've got.

I'd really appreciate it if one of you guys could help me out. Thanks

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Well where do we start????????????

#1 :: Monitor, Speakers, CD/DVD drive, Mouse/Keyboard (Will not need to upgrade these because the ports used are still available in mainstream...meaning there has been no huge improvement on these types of hardware.
#2 :: PCI-E is much better than AGP because AGP is becoming a lost breed...and PCI-E is faster!
#3 :: Now as far as the processor, motherboard, ram, and video card, I would upgrade it all and be happy with it.

All of this as usual just depends on the amount of money willing to spend....Hope that helps answer a few questions

[Bobbydoo8]

Well where do we start????????????

#1 :: Monitor, Speakers, CD/DVD drive, Mouse/Keyboard (Will not need to upgrade these because the ports used are still available in mainstream...meaning there has been no huge improvement on these types of hardware.
#2 :: PCI-E is much better than AGP because AGP is becoming a lost breed...and PCI-E is faster!
#3 :: Now as far as the processor, motherboard, ram, and video card, I would upgrade it all and be happy with it.

All of this as usual just depends on the amount of money willing to spend....Hope that helps answer a few questions

[pedrossi]

Yep, it did answer a few, thanks

How do I make sure all the new components I buy are compatible with the motherboard I buy and with each other?

[Bobbydoo8]

Well that's a big question, so I have a rule of thumb....

Find the motherboard and processor that fit your budget and you are happy with. And are compatible with each other. ie. same socket numbers(such as Socket 478 or Socket 754) and mobo(motherboard) supports the type of chip..(Intel Pentium 4 HT) and chip speed (3.2ghz)....Your best bet would be a motherboard/cpu compo pack for your first build, but if ya do your research you can successfully find a Processor and Motherboard that are compatible with each other.

Compatible Motherboards and Processors--
Processor
&
Motherboard


I chose this motherboard and processor to show ya how they match up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor(Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz / 4MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Conroe / Dual-Core / OEM / Socket 775) ..............
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Motherboard(Asus P5N-E SLI NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / PCI Express

Processor Interface: Socket 775

Processors Supported:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA775
Intel 05A
Intel 05B
Intel Celeron D
Intel Pentium D
Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel 06, Intel Core 2 Quad

Front Side Bus:
533MHz
800MHz
1066MHz
1333MHz
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If ya look at the bold you can see where they match up...showing compatibility. Also if ya notice I chose an OEM Processor meaning the Heatsink does not come with it...What's the heatsink you ask its the little fan and aluminum fins that keep the processor cool. When buying Pentium chips I like to purchase my own aftermarket heatsinks because they cool much better. (Recommend Thermaltake heatsink)

Video Card
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This mobo has the pci-express slot you would need so you could upgrade to a pci-e card..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ram/Memory
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would get the fastest 1gb stick first....the mobo shows 800MHz DDR2 so ya just match'er up with the stick ya would need.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope that helps some....I know it's confusing, but I supplied ya with some great knowledge search around a bit and you'll find what ya need!

Edited by Bobbydoo8, 09 July 2007 - 05:24 PM.

[pedrossi]

Thanks a lot! I guess I got some research to do