Computer components

[Peter McCoy]

So I've got this other tower - it was my sisters old PC since I gave her my old one (since I got my new one). And I'm tinkering with it, learning how to take it apart and put it back together etc.

I found the manual for the motherboard online and I've replaced the processor with a slightly faster one, as well as beefed up the RAM slightly. But I'm a bit stumped with the graphics card. Belarc Advisor tells me it's a GeForce Ti 4200 but there was a 64MB and a 128MB veraion. Does anybody know of a program that could analyse it and tell me, or even a way to identify it directly?

[Peter McCoy]

Ah - it was easier than I thought - found a program called GPU-Z - basically identifies your card and how much on-board memory it has. Now I'm getting somewhere. I can finally start to identify just how ancient this tincan really is.

So far I've been able to identify the following:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1600 1.40GHz
Motherboard: AS Rock K7VT2 2.0, BUS 133MHz
Memory: I wasn't sure what was relevant so included all this:

Nanya
NT512D64S8HB1G-5T
512MB DDR-400MHz-CL3
PC3200U-30330

Samsung
Korea O327
PC3200U-30331-A1
M368L3223ETM - CCC
256MB DDR PC3200 CL3

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X (128 MB onboard memory)
Sound:
Hard disk: 2 x 120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 IDE drives
Optical drives: Optiarc DVD-RW AD-7170A and Pioneer DVD-ROM DVD-116
PSU: 300W ATX 2.03(P4)

Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I can start thinking about what I can do to improve it modestly.

The best card I can go for is a Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 which I've seen on Ebay for around £80 - thats more expensive than a 1GB DDR3 Radeon HD 4670!

To make it a viable current gaming machine I'd have to replace the lot, so unless I can get the other parts for buttons, it's not going to be worth anyones while upgrading it. Having said that, I work in a broadband support center so perhaps there's a kind soul with an old 512MB Radeon 3850 or similar card going spare. And DDR1 RAM is going to cost as much as (if not more than) DDR2.

If nothing else, it's a bit of extra storage - I could always look out for bigger hard disks, even if they are IDE - and I could play older games on it without the hassle of compatibility issues. But if anybody has any suggestions or tips for what I could do with it, I'd glady accept them. I was considering overclocking but don't know the first thing about it so would have to thoroughly read up on it first.

[Yog]

I can finally start to identify just how ancient this tincan really is.
Ancient is the correct word to use here. The Athlon XP 1600 is 9 years old. The motherboard supports AGP graphics cards only, and it's not socket compatible with current generation memory or CPU's. Upgrading this rig for gaming is a bit like attempting to fit formula one tires on a horse carriage.

My suggestion would be to save up some more money, buy the cheapest parts you can find that is no older than 1 years old, and build something from scratch. The good news is, if you're willing to do the research and shop around for parts, you can get away with it for a bargain.

The harddisks and optical drives can be used as well.



I could play older games on it without the hassle of compatibility issues.
How old do you have in mind? Games more than 5 years old?

[Peter McCoy]

Yes, actually. Games like Alpha Centauri, Civilisation 2, Grim Fandango, Gangsters (epic game). But also, it would do my mum I suppose as a web browser and word processor, and for my dad to manage his iTunes stuff for his iPod. i even doubt the case would allow for a current motherboard and graphics card, but I'll check the measurements just to see. The motherboard won't even take the Core2 AMD equivalent.

It really is a relic. When I took it out of the wardrobe I had to stick a sack of sand and replace it so as not to set off the booby traps! LOL!

[Yog]

Actually, your motherboard / case is likely ATX form factor, which means modern motherboards could probably fit in there.

As far as CPU upgrades go, your options are kind of limited with your current board:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=K7VT2

.. so yeah, basically the only way to really improve performance with that board in a significant manner is replacing video card.

[Morgan Evanar]

With the exception of Grim Fandango, those other games should run fine on Vista or 7. Even then, it would probably be faster to use a modern dual core and XP or 98 virtualized with VirtualBox.

[Peter McCoy]

I actually think I got Grim Fandango working with a werid file that you used to launch it, since there's an option in the menu you can change but the menu is only accessible in-game, you can't access it before loading a save.