Suggestions for upgrade....

I am currently looking to upgrade my 1.5 year old dektop. Unfortunatley the only way I can upgrade it further is with the purchase of a new motherboard and processsor. Currently I own a dell 2400 dektop. The motherboard sucks because it has been stripped down to where it only has 3 pci slots and the agp slot is missing. The case (tower) is a mid size case I believe. Would it be possible for me to replace the motherboard in this case (tower) or should I buy a new one? I am a college student so I really dont have the cash for a new system. I plan to upgrade the rest of the computer later on.
Anyways I am looking to spend no more than 400 dollars on the motherboard and processor. I would prefer an amd processor. Any suggestions to what I should purchase would also be helpful. The system is mainly used as a gaming machine and upgrades should reflect this.

Here are my full system specs:
Pentium 4 2.2 ghz with 400 mhz frontside bus
1 gig ram @ 266 mhz
radeon 9250 with 256 video memory
soundblaster live 24 bit
The motherboard is whatever came stock with the system.

If I recall correctly that is a MicroATX format case so your choice of motherboards will be somewhat limited by comparison to full ATX.

I would get a new case and power supply, particularly if you are going AMD. Firstly you will need a compatible MoBo, but the larger form factor case will make it easier to keep cool.

My personal advice would be to save up for a new system. My argument being that what you have cannot really be improved significantly (no AGP slot :( ) without major expenditure, that would be almost equivalent to buying new anyway?

I have no idea what you could sell your current box for, but I would point out that if you upgrade you will be stuck with a PCI graphics card that will have very little resale value? you might get a better return by selling the whole thing as a "going concern"

Try Google for "Dell 2400" and you will see that you are not the only one..............here is a link I found:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/46012/

Good luck

I thought it was going be something like that. Well I guess I might as well go with the entire new system.
Maybe I can find something on ebay!

Be careful what you get off eBay, I have seen many people buy systems off eBay, the hardware is usually OK... but alot of the machines they sell on eBay have a "dodgy" XP, which will no doubt cause you problems in the future with updates/service packs

Anyone know of any good places to find some cheap gaming rigs? I can always trade in my comp for some extra cash...

Quote:

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Originally posted here by tacosareveryyum
Anyone know of any good places to find some cheap gaming rigs? I can always trade in my comp for some extra cash...

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As far as "Cheap" gaming rigs, I would think that unless you are playing outdated games, any "New" rig that can handle the latest graphics will cost you an arm and a leg depending on your need for running them at high performance levels.

I assume you are serious gamer and your reason for updating your current box is to improve speed and graphics performance. I suggest you buy a current issue of PC Gamer and check out the page where they list components (according to them the best ones) in decending order, from basic to dream machines. This page includes prices which can be quite helpful.

As far as building it, you can easily find someone to assemble it if you feel that you are not capable.

Good luck and happy gaming. :p


-Gal

BTW- Welcome to AO!

Edit-

Advice- Use paragraphs I am already half blind! hehe But on a positive note I think Tacos are awesome too!

You should follow nihils advice... If you had an agp slot, I'd say get a new vid card and PSU, but you don't :(. It's probably best if you sell the one you got and save a little more money. Try saving to at least a grand for a gaming rig. If you already have monitor keyboard and speakers you could get something similar to my gaming rig which was only $820 if you assemble it yourself...

My specs:

P4 3.0 HT (800 fsb)

1 gig dual channel ram pc3200

nvidia 6600gt

400 watt PSU

CD-RW/DVD-R

120 gig HD 100 ata

MSI mobo (chipset is some intel neo somthing-or-another... I think :P)

This only cost me $820 and it kicks ass... Remember though, if you have to buy a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers it will cost you well over a grand...

Thats what I was planning on. I figure I can get at least 200 dollars from my pc now if I keep my flat screen and speakers. All I need to do is pick up a few hours @ work and I should be ready to go.

Also I have been running brand new games on my current setup just fine. Actually I was playing half-life 2 on medium setting without any lag. As a gamer I should have just skipped the dell and built my own system. Unfortunatley Dell is more for the computer illiterate.

Anywho thanks for the feedback!

If you computer literate you should have known to NOT buy dell lol. Dell doesn't want you messing around in the computer, they want you to bring it to them so they can make more money off you... That's why they have stuff like their own specialized ram, etc. Personally I hate dell with a passion. With a setup like that, no agp slot, microATX, specialized ram, how do they expect you to upgrade at all??

I'm surprised it runs HL2, does it run doom3? If it runs current games just fine, why the sudden need to update?? Especially at a time when you need the money...

The computer was a gift. I didnt really have a choice. Yes it runs doom 3 and halflife 2 and all the major titles out right now. I mainly want the experience of building the system and overclocking. Sooner or later something will come out that my current system cannot run. Considering the fact that I cannont upgrade this computer any further I would like to get a new one. The reason why I posted this was because this will be the first system I havew actually built from the ground up and I had some questions.

Oh, well hell, you can't beat a free computer :D. I'll give you some pointers when building...

1. Always ground yourself before touching any circuitry. This can be done by simply touching the metal on your case. Static electricity will be one of your main enemies.

2. Don't cut costs on the power supply, buy a good, name brand PSU.

3. Don't get a small case, this will cause 2 hassles. A small case will frustrate you when building the computer, you need room to work. And the second problem with a small case is lack of air flow. Heat will be your other main enemy. Lack of air flow causes heat to be trapped inside... Also be sure to get a couple fans to add on.

4. And as I have learned, if you get a P4 for a cpu, it will come with a thermal pad. Take it off right away, don't put that in your computer, get thermal paste instead! I let the thermal pad stay and I ended up having to scrape it off the CPU in order to put the paste on, because paste works better...

Hope this helps any, and good luck on your first build!