PC Upgrade Ideas

Hey everyone.

I need some advice on upgrading this old rig. Mount Everest says this is what's inside:











Right now it's running Windows XP 🙄 and I want to upgrade it so it actually runs Windows 7 or 8.1 smoothly—also, which one should I go with and why? It's nothing crazy, just basic stuff... it handles Call of Duty 4, SolidWorks, CATIA, and AutoCAD just fine currently, and I'd like to keep it that way.

Would adding another 2 GB stick of RAM be enough? What should I even look for when buying one—any specific specs to watch out for?

Maybe I’m just going blind, but what processor is actually in there? 😬

Do you know which power supply is inside (like, the specific model)?

You definitely need another 2GB of RAM, though we can figure out the rest once I know what kind of budget we're working with. Maybe grab a decent used graphics card too.

The PSU is a GPA-450S8.

Can I throw any random DDR3 in there—or am I stuck hunting down actual DDR2? Does anyone even sell that stuff anymore...

It’s just DDR2, and there's plenty of it available
As for the GPU, even this might be overkill for that CPU

Used, local pickup only 😉

http://www.craigslist.org/ram-memory/...ad-16240482
http://www.craigslist.org/graphics-card...ad-16364330

It’s probably enough for gaming and some light editing work; I guess you could even use the GPU to speed things up in your design software.

LGA 775 is basically a decade old at this point, so I guess you might be better off grabbing something more modern

It’s not even my rig—a friend asked me for advice, and honestly, I didn't have much of a clue beyond telling them to just buy a new PC or max out the RAM 🙂 so that's why I'm asking here.

They aren't looking to drop a ton of cash right now—money is tight—so we're basically just trying to patch this thing up to keep it somewhat functional on Windows XP... as much as possible.

crimsonstag84 said:Used, local pickup only 😉

http://www.craigslist.org/ram-memory/...ad-16240482
http://www.craigslist.org/graphics-card...ad-16364330

It’s probably enough for gaming and some light editing work; I guess you could even use the GPU to speed things up in your design software.

In that case, I guess this looks fine to me.

Won't the GPU be too much for this CPU? I don't want to tell the guy to pick something up just to have it end up being a total mismatch—I'm not looking to take the blame if it turns out to be useless...

silentwolf53 said:Won't the GPU be too much for this CPU? I don't want to tell the guy to pick something up just to have it end up being a total mismatch—I'm not looking to take the blame if it turns out to be useless...

Look, it can't really be "too powerful." Sure, it could be overkill, but that's not a bad thing at all. The processor just won't be able to fully utilize the graphics card, so you won't be squeezing out every bit of performance, but hey, whatever level of power you actually get out of it is still fine... 🙂

It looks fine; there probably won't be much of a bottleneck.

Awesome, thanks a ton! I'll let you know how it goes once I get it running.

Quick question though—which version of macOS should I go with, 7 or 8.1?

I’ve got this one specific wish in my head, but honestly, I’m sitting here wondering if it’s even remotely doable or if I’m just dreaming, so maybe I should go find some actual expert to weigh in on this mess. Basically, I’m lugging around this laptop with an i3 processor, 6 GB of RAM, and an integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics card 😵. Now, the thing is, how am I even supposed to tell if this i3 processor is built right into the board? And more importantly—is it actually a smart move to rip out the processor and the RAM, go out, and drop cash on a whole new motherboard and a dedicated graphics card? Or am I just throwing money into a black hole?

Betty Ramirez6 said:I’ve got this one specific wish in my head, but honestly, I’m sitting here wondering if it’s even remotely doable or if I’m just dreaming, so maybe I should go find some actual expert to weigh in on this mess. Basically, I’m lugging around this laptop with an i3 processor, 6 GB of RAM, and an integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics card 😵. Now, the thing is, how am I even supposed to tell if this i3 processor is built right into the board? And more importantly—is it actually a smart move to rip out the processor and the RAM, go out, and drop cash on a whole new motherboard and a dedicated graphics card? Or am I just throwing money into a black hole?

The processor is integrated? 🤣 What on earth are you thinking? 🙂 The processor is soldered onto the motherboard just like any other, period. As for the laptop, forget about it—it's just a standard notebook that isn't built for major upgrades. You might be able to swap the RAM or the hard drive, but that's about it. You can't just swap out the graphics card or the motherboard to get better gaming performance.

Adam Moore3 said:The processor is integrated? 🤣 What on earth are you thinking? 🙂 The processor is soldered onto the motherboard just like any other, period. As for the laptop, forget about it—it's just a standard notebook that isn't built for major upgrades. You might be able to swap the RAM or the hard drive, but that's about it. You can't just swap out the graphics card or the motherboard to get better gaming performance.

Well, clearly I mentioned I was looking for an expert opinion, which is my polite way of admitting I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing. If I actually knew the answer, I wouldn't be asking people on a forum, would I?

So, I guess there's nothing left to do... just keep grinding and saving up for a real PC.

Betty Ramirez6 said:Well, clearly I mentioned I was looking for an expert opinion, which is my polite way of admitting I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing. If I actually knew the answer, I wouldn't be asking people on a forum, would I?

So, I guess there's nothing left to do... just keep grinding and saving up for a real PC.

It sounded way too simple, man. 😵 Definitely, if you actually want to game, upgrading a laptop isn't really an option—don't even bother. It would be nice, but let's face it, 99% of laptops just aren't built for that. 🙂