I want to upgrade/build a PC!

[Knight-Dragon]

Used to be an upgrade freak in my uni days, but that part of my life is now history. Hadn't touched the innards of my present PC for close to 2 years (which is how old it is). Recently been thinking of dumping in better parts and also rolling out a new PC for my 2nd home in M'sia. Need to ask for some advice.

Questions on upgrading : -

1) My MB has the AMD761 chipset. Can it uses the Athlon XP chips?

2) Can I use the newer hardisks with my MB? Those with ATA133? I think they shld be backwards compatible with my ATA100 MB, but need to confirm.

3) I am thinking of getting a CDRW drive too, but I'll probably be W less and playing CDs more. Will it be bad if I use the CDRW to play CDs (VCDs, games, music CDs etc) all the time?

4) My DVD drive is getting cranking. In ref to 3), shld I get a CD-ROM, and then also a separate CDRW, to you-know lengthen the life of my CDRW?

5) My CPU fan (CAK-38) is very noisy; thinking of changing it. Any recommendations for a 'quiet' fan? My CPU is only a measly 1GHz Athlon; don't know why I gotten such a powerful (but noisy) fan for it...

6) How do I stick a fan onto an AMD chip? With some special kind of glue? Where can I get it?

Questions on building a new PC : -

1) How do I install a new OS on a new hardisk? Kind of forgotten that already, or maybe there's a new method nowadays...

2) What OS is best for playing games, like Morrowind e.g.?

3) Can anyone give me a simple lowdown on the latest specs for the current crop of MBs? I've seen the funny terms like 8x, KT400 etc, but don't quite understand...

More questions will probably follow when I actually get down to going it. Thanks in advance for any advice; I appreciate it.

PS : - My office PC is a "x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7". Anyone knows what Pentium it is?

 

[funxus]

Sorry, I can't help you very much, but two questions I'll try to answer.
3) I'm not 100%, but assume that the CDRW drive will break easier the more you use it, like with everything else, but don't think there's any particular extra damage in a CDRW compared to a CD-ROM when you play CDs.

How to install an OS depends on what OS it is.
On Microsoft's OS's (at least 98 and before) first make sure you can get contact with CD-drive from DOS (either automatically or with start-disk), then format HD from DOS and then run the CD's with the OS installfile.

Linux I've done before, but only remember that it was harder to get it in because I had to format the drive to one Linux understood.

XP and ME - I only have restore-cd's with them, but assume it's possible to do something similar to what you do when you install 98.

I run XP on our best computer and think it works fine, but I don't play much demanding games, so I'm not sure how that would work.

EDIT: How come so many have changed their names?

 

[Grisu]

ok, I'll try to answer some of your questions:

1) I don't think that chipset supports athlon xp, all the boards I saw with this chip only support up to athlon 1,5ghz.

2) Yep, harddrives are backwards compatible and should run on any board (unless it's a serial-ata disk but I haven't seen too many of those around yet)

3) I don't see a problem there: sure, the more you use your drive the sooner it will fail, but I use primarily my CDRW for everything (it's much quiter than my dvd-drive) and so far it's still running like a charm.

5) take a look at coolermaster they have all kinds of fans http://www.coolermaster.com , or papst-fans have a good reputationt

6) fans usually come with a thingy that lets you mount them on your cpu-socket.

building the new pc:

1) just install all your hardware, put your os-cd in your drive and start your computer. the setup-routine should automatically start from cd. If not, make sure that booting up from cd-rom is enabled in your BIOS.

2) I think Windows XP is just fine for gameing, but Win 2000 should also be fine. I'd avoid the older WinME or Win98, they are, IMHO, crap.

3) the 8x is propably referring to the agp-slot. it means that it should transfer 8 times the amount of data per second as the original agp, thats supposedly 2,12 GB/s (in theory). IIRC the KT400 is a current chipset (just like your amd761), but I'll have to admit, I'm not really current on mb-tech, it's been a while since I bought my last MB as well

My office PC is a "x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7". Anyone knows what Pentium it is?

I'm note sure, but I think it's a celeron-cpu

hope this helps a bit

EDIT: Oh, and I'll second funxus' question: what's up with this name-changeing-fashion?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

As for the name thingie, it's just a spur-of-the-bored-moment-kind-of decision... Not quite sure why myself either.

One further question - I'm thinking of just installing XP over my current Win98 on my current HD (and save on the hassle of moving my files around). Is this a good idea, or shld I do an install fr a clean new HD?

 

[funxus]

I'd say reformat first But that's because I like totally lcean computers.

Usually my computers at home get slow and programs start to work bad after a few months of use. And since we have CD-writers, a working network and double HD on one, it's not that bad back-upping files. However, if you need to use floppies, it's a bit harder.

 

[ainwood]

KD;

WHen I got my new MB & CPU at the technology mall, the guy there fitted the MB and cooler for me.

The cooler came with a piece of tape that was supposed to be thermally conductive - the guy in the store scrapped that off with a razor, and replaced it with some thermal paste. I'm pretty sure thermal paste can be bought at electronics store, and it seems to work quite well.

As for a motherboard, you need to check that it will fit in your existing case (the 'form factor'). Most of them will also tell you whether they are 'designed for Pentium 4', or 'designed for AMD Athlon'. A rough guide would be to get a middle-of-the-range one at the minimum, as this means it probably allows you to upgrade your CPU later for minimal cost.

re the 8X, as KaeptnOvi said, it is probably referring to the accelerated graphics port. 8X isn't really much faster (negligable if at all faster) than 4X. And he is right on the family - it is a celeron. Don't get one of those!

 

[hbdragon88]

You can upgrade from Win98 to XP, but I have no idea how to do it. My dad's coworker was working on my sister's computer and installed XP over 98 because he said that 98 was crap compared to XP.

I watched, but looking at all the DOS commands he was entering made me bored. And I couldn't remember what to type, how he activated it, etc.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by ainwood
WHen I got my new MB & CPU at the technology mall, the guy there fitted the MB and cooler for me.

When I got my parts 2 years ago, the guys there assembled my PC for me.

Problem now is I want to change my existing CPU fan, after two years of noise pollution...

The cooler came with a piece of tape that was supposed to be thermally conductive - the guy in the store scrapped that off with a razor, and replaced it with some thermal paste. I'm pretty sure thermal paste can be bought at electronics store, and it seems to work quite well.

I see. I better bring my chip then and get them to do it for me.

As for a motherboard, you need to check that it will fit in your existing case (the 'form factor'). Most of them will also tell you whether they are 'designed for Pentium 4', or 'designed for AMD Athlon'. A rough guide would be to get a middle-of-the-range one at the minimum, as this means it probably allows you to upgrade your CPU later for minimal cost.

When I buy my MB, it'll be for a new PC, so a new case is needed. Right now, just concentrating on working on my crap of a PC...

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by funxus
I'd say reformat first But that's because I like totally lcean computers.

Usually my computers at home get slow and programs start to work bad after a few months of use. And since we have CD-writers, a working network and double HD on one, it's not that bad back-upping files. However, if you need to use floppies, it's a bit harder.

I'll probably get a CDRW, then back up my stuff (quite a bit) to CDs, before doing a clean reinstall then...

 

[HAND]

Wait for the Athlon 64! Only about 4-5 months before launch...If it makes you feel any better, i'm on a Celeron 533mhz! I'm probably going to upgrade in January 2004, since athlon 64 + ddr2 will hopefully be on mobos together.

 

[HAND]

Originally posted by XIII
I'll probably get a CDRW, then back up my stuff (quite a bit) to CDs, before doing a clean reinstall then...

Yea i would go for a clean install too

 

[Turner]

Originally posted by funxus
I'd say reformat first But that's because I like totally lcean computers.

Usually my computers at home get slow and programs start to work bad after a few months of use. And since we have CD-writers, a working network and double HD on one, it's not that bad back-upping files. However, if you need to use floppies, it's a bit harder.

Originally posted by XIII
I'll probably get a CDRW, then back up my stuff (quite a bit) to CDs, before doing a clean reinstall then...

Sorry for dredging up an old post, but I wanted to chip in with my two cents.

I do a lot of rebuilds and upgrades at work, and when I can, I rebuild. We have several older machines running around with a Win98 base, upgraded to 2000. . . we generally have a lot of problems with these machines, especially after we went to AD and moved everyone off of Office 2k to Office XP. A LOT of problems.

That being said, I took my Crap-villion, which was 98SE, and upgraded it to XP Pro. Very few problems. The only one I have consistently had was the whole XP-NVidia incompatability, which was fixed years ago, and now suddenly XP doesn't like my ZIP drive. As the one I have in the Crapvillion is older, I may just go with my exteral USB zip, that one works pretty good.

But take the time and back up your stuff, and do it on a clean build. This could potentially stop a lot of problems from even starting.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Hehe, have done a reinstall over my Win98. No problems.

But then, I don't have that much stuff clogging my PC, and it's only 2 years old or so. Chged my CD drive to CD-Rewritable, chged my graphics card to a GF4 MMX, upped the RAM to 512 too.