Upgrading old ASUS barebones

[Eternallynewb]

Bought Asus P1-P5945G barebone. First pc im tearing into, major noob. Wanting to know what parts I can replace/upgrade to make this a good PC by today's standards. How do I know which parts are compatible or not? How do I go about new software & will it work with this PC? Wanting to tear it down & put it back together to get an idea of how it works.
Known parts so far:
CPU Intel i2 duo(supposedly LGA775/T socket?)
PSU 200W Asus p/n: 04g185003006 (works)
MB: p5L8L/p-p5945g/dp_mb
2X: DDR2 1GB
So far I don't see the GPU or HDD I believe the HDD is under the optical drive, hopefully. Bought thermal paste & tool kit, anything else I should have?
Remember this is my first project, please help a girl out with any advice or tips?

 

[Route44]

My best first advice to you is to find someone who builds PCs to show you what to look for and how to build/repair a system. That is how I as well as many others have learned.

Second, that is a very old system. The last Operating System it was designed for was Windows Vista. As per the specs here: https://www.asus.com/us/Mini-PCs/P1P5945GC/specifications/ the required memory is the much older and slower DDR2 which debuted in 2003 and the DDR3 debuted in 2007, the power supply can put out only up to 200 watts and because it is old I doubt it can now reach its peak power output. Personally I would never trust it. Think of the power supply as the backbone of a system. If it is poor or weak a system will have problems regardless of the quality of other parts. Today's GPUs require a lot of power. Honestly other than running something like a home theater or games from the 1990s (maybe) you could never get this up to today's standards.

So my suggestion is don't spend any money on this; just tinker and learn from another person with experience. I could not in good conscious tell you to spend any money on it.

 

[MaikuTech]

I agree with route44 on this also what is really sad about this is the case is a atx flex motherboard.

So asus back in the day when it was making this barebones had the intention of the user not fully upgrading all the hardware,
That barebones has onboard video only so no dedicated agp or pci card to do anything better with it.
I know you mention this a project of yours if you want to put in money into it we'll do that.
However its gonna cost you some and probably your legs and arms.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820250087
This would be a major speed up for any future os you decide to move on to.
Check the mobo and see if it has sata connectors to be sure you can use this.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...5G29132&cm_re=ddr2_800-_-20-134-582-_-Product
Yes your mobo can go up 4gb asus boards like kingston ram as much MSI mobos do.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1788138/asus-p5945gc-maximum-memory.html
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...5G29132&cm_re=ddr2_800-_-20-134-582-_-Product