Upgrading the following PC components any advice?

N
Posted By
nick/slickrenderer
Dec 15, 2003
Views
303
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Ok! I have a PC (wow! really 🙂

No seriously it’s an-
AMD Athlon 2000XP
windows 2000
1.3GB of DDR RAM
40GB IBM C: Drive
40GB Maxtor D: Drive
CDxDVD ROM Drive
CD burner 12X
Network card
Geforce Ti 4600 128Mb Video Card.
Power supply is 230-250 watts I think (Will have to check when I get home)

Now recently the C drive has started playing up. I get errors all the time and strange noises.

SO i am planing to

A- Throw the IBM C: drive replace it with the Maxtor 40GB drive for the system. And buy a new 160GB drive D: for storage.

B- I am also thinking of installing a firewire card.
C- New CPU fan as the older one is going crazy.
D- Buy an external DVD burner. ( To hook up with my new dell Precision M60 laptop)

Now my question-

1- An AMD 2000 XP system is still ok isn’t it for investing the above mentioned upgrades? It’s not like throwing money on a dead horse?

2- Will the power supply meet the demands of all the above mentioned upgrades?

Any suggestion???? Thanks again

P.S- I do graphic and 3d work.
P.S.S – I have noticed that I always get PC proplems exactly around christmas time hmmm!!!
Related Tags
advice component pc upgrade

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

GH
Gary_Hummell
Dec 15, 2003
If you actually have a 230-250 watt power supply, that would top the list of things to fix. Get an AMD approved supply of at least 350-400 watts. Being underpowered or having a poor quality power supply can unleash a whole pack of problems.

More speed is always good but your AMD 2000 is hardly obsolete.

Gary
PC
Pierre_Courtejoie
Dec 15, 2003
For the hard drives, the 250GXP series from Hitachi (formerly IBM) are recognized as the fastest, while the seagate ones are the less noisy ones… more info at <http://www.storagereview.com>

For the fan and the PSU, <http://www.silentpcreview.com/index.php> is a good source of info. If you work with PS all day long, having a silent pc is a must!!!

The athlon is still ok, as I still work with dual 600’s… (but strongly intend to upgrade)
D
DV8R
Dec 15, 2003
YOU NEED A POWER SUPPLY REAL REAL BAD !!!! and heres some tips when buying one….

If you purchase it in person…… the heavier the better. Price is a factor when it comes to power supplies. Most people dont put much thought into the power supplies they have they feel its just a plug or somethign but man are they wrong. A good heavy power supply can change everything about your systems perormance… seriously. You are going to need a 550 watt big 2 fan heavy pig. Seriously pay way more than you wanted to pay and youll be good to go. For a 550 watt Id pay atleast $150.00 no less for real man dont go cheap on the power supply.

The hard drive—-
I would go with the Seagate Barracuda if I were you. Big 8mb. Cache makes a huge difference when working with large image files. And the price is very resonable as well. Ive had a couple Maxtor drives and had to replace every one of them. IBM and Hitachi are great drives…. same drives whatever.

Or why dont you just go with some 10,000 rpm SCSI drives if you have the Bank to burn….lol

Ok AMD is very well known fo running hot. So the best alternative for you would be an affordable Liquid Cooled Case check this out all you fan cooling weirdos……

http:www.koolance.com/

You can get the case at Tigerdirect too so you can check the prices there. I would definetly go with a Liquid cooled case like the koolance one. Big difference in performance when those AMD’s are running cold.
BB
brent_bertram
Dec 15, 2003
Nick,
I’d go with a better power supply( 400-450 watts, twin fan ), and look into an ATA Raid controller with a pair of 7200 rpm drives. Striped for speed, those drives would give you some decent performance for not many $$$. While your XP2000 is still okay, you might check out your motherboard specs. I just upgraded my wife’s XP1800+ to a 2800+ with just a cpu replacement ( fairly inexpensive, at that ). For future reference it might be handy to know how far you can upgrade with cpu replacement.

🙂

Brent
H
Ho
Dec 16, 2003
< http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/power_supplies/ind ex.htm>

The best power supplies in the free world.
N
nick/slickrenderer
Dec 16, 2003
1—–I checked and my power supply is 300watt.
I will change it to – Enemarax Alimentation 550W (double ventilation) Is that ok?

2—-My local shop has these 2 fans-

Thermaltake Volcano 9
Arctic Super Silent 2500
They are both very cheap. Does that mean that they are trash????

3—-"I would go with the Seagate Barracuda if I were you. Big 8mb." But the Maxtor and IBM have a 8mb cache as well.
My local shop has IBM, MAxtor and Western Digital HD’s. I will go with IBM. OK????

4- My mobo is MSI k7t ultra. It maxes out at 2000xp CPU 🙁 Question- If I put in a firewire card in the PCI slot on this mobo. It will work right?

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections