Hello! My Dell Dimension 4600 Desktop is now over 5 years old (purchased October 2003). At times it can be really slow and takes about 15 minutes to boot up, but overall it is reliable and I don't do much gaming...so to save some money I thought I would upgrade instead of replace it. I need some help on how exactly to do this since I have never done anything before.
Here are the basic specs:
2.4 GHZ Pentium 4, 533
256 MB RAM, 333 MHZ, NON-ECC, Dual In-Line Memory
64 MB Video Card, NiVidia 18, Dimension
CDRW, DVD-ROM Drives
2 Internal HDs: 40GB, 120GB
So the first obvious thing I thought to do is add some RAM. From what I read it seems like I will want to buy 2 separate identical modules. I was thinking of purchasing these: amazon.com/Kingston-333MHz-Non-ECC-KVR333-512R/dp/B000092TR5/
Does anyone see a problem with these working in my machine? Will I want to leave the old RAM in as well or remove it completely? 1.0 GB RAM vs. 1.3 GB of RAM. I have also been looking at some RAM on EBay, but I have read about people having trouble with Lo vs. Hi Density RAM. How do you know which you can use with your PC?
The next thing I was considering upgrading was the video card, but as I said I don't do a lot of gaming. The biggest thing I would hope to gain by updating the video card is increased video streaming ability, such as watching TV shows on Hulu, ABC.com, etc.
Will a better video card (64 MB vs. 256 MB) allow for better streaming video watching?
If so, I was looking at upgrading to this: amazon.com/EVGA-256-A8-N341-LX-e-GeForce-256MB-Graphics/dp/B0009H33YE/
This card here is a DDR. They also have similar cards that are DDR2 for about $6 more, but I'm not sure of the difference or if my system would be compatable.
For right now I'll stop my questions here. I greatly appreciate any advice you can give me! :grinthumb
Here are the basic specs:
2.4 GHZ Pentium 4, 533
256 MB RAM, 333 MHZ, NON-ECC, Dual In-Line Memory
64 MB Video Card, NiVidia 18, Dimension
CDRW, DVD-ROM Drives
2 Internal HDs: 40GB, 120GB
So the first obvious thing I thought to do is add some RAM. From what I read it seems like I will want to buy 2 separate identical modules. I was thinking of purchasing these: amazon.com/Kingston-333MHz-Non-ECC-KVR333-512R/dp/B000092TR5/
Does anyone see a problem with these working in my machine? Will I want to leave the old RAM in as well or remove it completely? 1.0 GB RAM vs. 1.3 GB of RAM. I have also been looking at some RAM on EBay, but I have read about people having trouble with Lo vs. Hi Density RAM. How do you know which you can use with your PC?
The next thing I was considering upgrading was the video card, but as I said I don't do a lot of gaming. The biggest thing I would hope to gain by updating the video card is increased video streaming ability, such as watching TV shows on Hulu, ABC.com, etc.
Will a better video card (64 MB vs. 256 MB) allow for better streaming video watching?
If so, I was looking at upgrading to this: amazon.com/EVGA-256-A8-N341-LX-e-GeForce-256MB-Graphics/dp/B0009H33YE/
This card here is a DDR. They also have similar cards that are DDR2 for about $6 more, but I'm not sure of the difference or if my system would be compatable.
For right now I'll stop my questions here. I greatly appreciate any advice you can give me! :grinthumb