[NYC GOP Chick]

Any help, suggestions, ideas would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

[Ford Fairlane]

You will need a new motherboard for the new processors (and a new fatherboard too HAHA)

Seriously, I would go with AMD over Intel I have had much less problems with them & they are cheaper

I just priced a new 2GHZ AMD with all the goodies for CAD (& games, video, etc) it was $1,200 wholesale

[Old Professer]

When I was about 16 or 17 years old, my buddies and I would buy "Dago Red" wine from this old Italian guy at the old race park for a $1.00 a gallon; he put it in rinsed out Clorox bottles, always tasted kinda like clean clothes smell.

[bcoffey]

New Pentium 4 (2.0 GHz)/512MB RAM/80 GB drive/64 MB graphics for $700 + monitor (from Dell). (Mine arrives tomorrow - fingers crossed)

[cowtowney]

Go here: www.newegg.com

figure on getting an Athlon mb (Asus is good). you may need new memory. get ddr. get a good fan (thermaltake) for the cpu and box. use your old box if it will fit, otherwise a new one (try Enlight). You should expect to spend $300. Other people might mention different brands. there are a lot to pick from. check out the user ratings at that website.

It's pretty easy to put together. you just gotta know your goesindas.... this goes inda this... and this goes inda that.

[Charlotte Corday]

If you're not into gaming, video editing or really massive database proecessing, what you've got will still do the job just fine.

If you are into any of those things, and don't want to mess around with installing motherboards, power supplies and RAM, your best bet is probably to buy a "barebones" box which has mobo, RAM, power already installed in a new case. Swapping over HDD, CD, sound and video boards from your old machine should be a slam dunk for you (although if you are getting into gaming you'll want a new video board, at least a GeForce 3).

I can recommend a couple of barebones box vendors that have done well by us in the past, but I don't like to do anything that might be construed as advertising in the forum - freepmail me if you are interested.

[damnlimey]

Check out Tiger direct
Some really good deals,also the hot deals page at Anandtech can point you towards the latest rebates etc.

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

I might mention that you have to get a new case for the motherboard. The earlier motherboards are AT form factor whereas the new motherboards are ATX form factor. Diffently dimensionally.

You also need new memories.

Rest of the stuff should be transferable.

Might be cheaper to buy a new machine outright. Check www.output.com for good pricing from Fry's Electronics.

[dsc]

Also think about video and audio. A lot of the new MBs have video and sound chips built in. Are you attached to your video and sound cards? Your video card might not be compatible with your new motherboard, depending on its type. Some of the new MBs have ethernet built in.

Will the new MB physically match up with your old case? Check the configuration of the openings for plug-ins--USB, etc.

A lot of (all?) new motherboards have an additional power plug-in. Does your power supply support that, or will you have to replace it?

Do you have any "legacy" cards that require the older type of slot?

The last 5 machines I've assembled for myself have been Intel, Intel, Celeron, AMD, and AMD. The next one is also going to be an AMD. The price-performance equation just makes it a no-brainer for me.

Lastly, if this is your first time, take it slow and easy. Getting in a hurry or getting frustrated is the best way I know to goon something up. (<--voice of experience)

[John Lenin]

Yes you will need a new motherboard to go to P4 or AMD Thunderbird. For the money an AMD 2000 XP is the way to go. You can get a new motherboard and the CPU for under $200 if you know where to buy it.

[Brett66]

From what I could tell from a google search, the 82443ZX motherboard can't handle more than a 800Mhz CPU, it also has support only for the old SDRAM at 100MHz FSB. You'll have to get a new motherboard and new memory to go any faster.

[krizzy]

Yes you need a new motherboard, cpu, and memory. I do this all the time and get most of my stuff from http://www.computergate.com. I would also go with the AMD, more bang for the buck. Abit has some great Mboards with VIA chipsets for $100 or less.

You didn't say what OS you were using, but you may run into a few snags pluging your hard drive into a new motherboard. such as the OS seeing new hardware and old drivers etc. Be sure you do a full backup of your hard drive before you start.

good luck and have fun

[dennisw]

What do you do with your computer? It could be that what you have suits you just fine. MS Word and the internet won't move any faster with a new computer. If you build you own (doubtful) I would get this motherboard at newegg: ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC.--Motherboard - A7N266-VM  on board sound, lan and video. I have one.

For the best deals go here and see what Dell is blowing out for $330 to $450 dollars w/ free shipping.

[ASA Vet]

I'm going though a similar decision taking process.
Should I upgrade from my old Vic 20 to a C-64?

[ikka]

What video card do you have? You might find that getting a fast video card will make everything be much snappier.

[CFC__VRWC]

I was perfectly happy with my 550 PIII until the power supply went Kerflooey! and took the motherboard with it. As soon as the holiday cash hemmorhage ends, I'm buying a new board. I'm leaning toward the P4 - I had a old Duron system on hand and installed my old HD and it wouldn't boot up (I have Windows XP Pro) at all. I took the HD with me to work (that's another PIII machine) and it booted, but it wants me to reactivate the operating system with Microsoft.

Like you, I'm not ready to trash my HD, and I'm hoping that the P4 is similar enough to the PIII that the drive will boot. You may have to reinstall the OS, depending on what you're using and what your hardware configuration is. Before you start, definitely back up any data files that you want to keep. You will almost certainly need new RAM. Good luck.

[ptrey]

You may be better off starting with a barebones and keep your present machine for a backup. Check prices here:

www.pricewatch.com

[Revel]

I am a little confused as to how you obtained an aptiva that can have a mother board upgrade. But maybe they made something like that in recent years. You will be much more limited if you can only use a micro ATX board. Chances are that your CPU is already maxed for your current motherboard. So you might have to buy a new case, motherboard, memory. The newer motherboards use DDR memory. A case is not expensive. They start at about $39.00 Asus used to be a good motherboard manufacturer, but they have slipped. Some of there stuff is real buggy now...I found out the hard way. The Soyo Dragon series are great. As others have mentioned...Amd is great. Just go with a mother board with a KT333 Via chipset or newer.(a higher number is newer). Via was buggy before that. As someone suggested...Newegg.com is a good place to buy. Many of there items have no shipping charges right now. No Tax unless you live in CA. If you don't get built in(Motherboard) audio or video then I would recommend a cheap ATI Radeon video card and a cheap sound blaster audio card. This is assuming that you don't want to buy higher priced cards which are needed mostly for gaming or video editing. All of your drives should be re-usable. If your burner came with NERO then it will install on your new system. If you don't have a stand alone copy of windows then you will have buy it...but you can get it for under $100.00 from newegg if you purchase it with a motherboard or hard drive.

Also a PIII 600 is not to shabby for normal use unless you are into really intense games or something like that. Your not going to see any improvent if all you do is search the internet or use Office and things like that.

[FreeInWV]

I just got a P4 1.7 "basic" system for my dad for Christmas. It was $300 including shipping from www.pcusa.com It was decent enough for a $300 computer.

I can vouch for newegg. They treated me very well when I built an AMD 1800XP for myself a few months ago.

Whatever you do, look up the vendor at http://www.resellerratings.com/ before you buy. It might save you from a bad experience.

[Terriergal]

ping!

[savedbygrace]

Although you can get a complete new system from Dell for a lot less money, you should build your own computer at least once.

Start from scratch, reusing as little as possible from your old system.

You'll need a new motherboard (I like Asus) and processor (w/ heatsink/fan.) You'll need new RAM to match the requirements of the mobo.

Buy a new hard drive and format it from scratch, then install the operating system (WinXP, probably,) and all your apps. Install your current hard drive as a second drive, so you won't lose any of your data files.

Then give your old system to a deserving charity that will appreciate getting it.

Do a Google search for "installing motherboard" and read a few of the guides available online. Lots of good tips to help you do a good job first time out of the box.

Get the best prices at http://pricewatch.com