Need urgent help on overhaul upgrade

Status
Not open for further replies.

Skutty

Posts: 46   +0
After months of saving I am going for a low budget upgrade for a terribly old computer, which is currently as follows:

666Mhz Pentium 3
768MB SDRAM
20GB HDD
32MB nVidia TNT2

I have found the following products and prices on www.jantechcomputers.com.au (Yes the site is Australian because I am Australian) and what I need to know is confirmation that these products will work together and if these are good prices:

ABIT SG-80 Motherboard SIS661FX - For $84.50
Jantech Computers page
Abit.com.au page

Intel Celeron D 331 2.66 GHz LGA775 - For $123.10
Jantech Computers page

I am not a total newbie with hardware, I just haven't had much experiance with Motherboards and Processors.
Remember these are AUSTRALIAN prices, sorry I couldn't convert them to US, and I do have a max budget of $200.
Also on top of that, this Motherboard will be compatible with a GeForce FX 5200 128MB AGP 8x won't it?

Thank you very very much whoever replies! The sooner I can resolve this and make the purchase the better! Thanks again.
 
Yes that equipment is compatible. However I cannot tell from the link if that CPU is retail or OEM, if its OEM then you'll need to get a heatsink and thermal grease too.

Also note that your older systems power supply may not be up to snuff. Check that it has the proper P4 connectors and power output requirements

As for the prices, i'm not sure, check PriceWatch. (prices listed are USD)
 
What's OEM stand for? The site does say it comes in a box, so I'm guessing it's retail.
Yeah I was thinking I might need to upgrade my power supply.
 
OEM stands for Original Equipment by Manufactuer. In other words, the manufactuer only recommends the use of this item and sells it. It is not an aftermarket item.
 
Ok, I have a REALLY important question:

Does it matter if I put a microATX board into a standard case? Will it still fit and work properly??

I really need an answer, thanks.
 
that depends on the case. Provided the case can accomodate both, it should work, but not necessarily.
 
Well the case says CyberDream on it but apart from that there's not any other kind of identification I can see. What's the easiest way to tell if it will use a microATX? (If any) Because all of the boards I can find within my price range are micro.
 
micro ATX motherboards are a lot smaller than ATX.

There really isn't that much of a price difference between micro and regular ATX motherboards.
If you're really on that tight of a budget, you may want to wait on building a computer. You get what you pay for. Take the time and the money to buy decent stuff, or at least good used stuff.
about half of my last build was recycled or bought used.
With $200, buy an Athlon XP series processor and motherboard.
The Athlon 64s aren't that much faster (except at the high end) and 64 bit technology really hasn't been exploited all that much.
 
The cheapest Athlon XP I've seen on the net so far was more than $300, but I'll take your word for it and have another look around. This is not my primary computer, but just a secondary so I'm not looking at a full fledge state-of-art upgrade, I'll do that for my primary computer! I'm just trying to get this one up to a basic standard so it can play some better games and run a bit faster.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back