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dobry2

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How & what to upgrade

I know little about how comp parts interact with each other and what each does.  My comp is a Gateway tower 100MhZ with 1.01 GB,  2 X 8 MB EDO RAM,  4X CDR, Vibra SB16 Sound, S3 Trio 64V+, 56k modem, with a Gateway Vivitron15 monitor.  The whole thing is about 4 yrs old but the modem is only 1 yr.

What is worth replacing or would a whole new system be my ONLY option.  What can I replace, what should I replace, can I keep some of the things I already have, how far before my tower can't take it(115v, ? Amp), can I keep my monitor.

What would be recommended keeping in mind I don't have $10k to spend and don't need mr. super 600MhZ, 30 GB, 128 MB RAM.
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dobry2

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Edited text of question.
Long story short, buy a new system, keep your monitor if it is good for you.

The hardware of four years ago may well still be useable, but for 1/2 to 1/3 of what you paid four years ago, you can buy a new system, with all the latest technologies, OS, and be ready for the next couple of years.

Yes there are mainboards to fit your older case, your power supply probable has enough uuumph to drive the newer products................ unless you just feel like making the system a hobby (and ending up costing more than a whole new one), relegate it to the corner where you can mess with it when its raining.

bill
I agree with  the oldgreyguy, if you keep your monitor you can find a system like 400-500 mhz with kick a-- stuff inside for about 800 bucks. IF you like to mess with computer parts and put them together and to spend lots of time configuring and posting troubleshooting questions 8-), then you could upgrade by getting:
motherboard and processor
new comp. case (same price as a power supply)
new hard drive (8.4gb is good)
new memory (64mb is the usual standard config)
you could keep your sound, video, and cdrom drive.
Installing the new motherboard and setting up the bios would be the most difficult part.
the stuff you would have to buy would cost about 500-600 bucks so for 200 more you would get a lot more bang for the buck.
also depending on what your primary use is for the comp. then you would want to spend more on some components and less on others.
I will have to agree with the above comments but you can speed your current system up alot by adding memory (64MB is a good start)
If it was me I would get a new moniter too (17") and keep your old computer as a backup or use it to cruise the net or see it intact to a friend (for $250 to $400) maybe get a little for down payment on new system
that was supposed to read "sell it intact"
rayt333 is right about the memory, it will add speed to your system in loading porgrams and make those programs run faster, but overall your processor is fast becoming "obsolete" when you consider the minimum requirements for most new software.
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jgagne
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Sell it. The motherboard now is the limiting factor with the new technology. Yours is 60 mhz the new ones are 100. Thus what ever you do, you are still limited.
And Ram.  EDO Ram is expensive.  If you try to upgrade the ram in that machine you'll pay a lot more then if you could use PC100.

I recently(May had a similar system) maybe about 8 months newer. P133 64megs 1.6 gig. etc etc.  I sold this system for $400 Canadian and bought myself a new case, motherboard, celeron processor, and ram.  Got new keyboard mouse and floppy.

Pulled the sound card from old system as well as Hard drive and cdrom.  This all cost me about 650can.  So a 250can upgarde and I ended up woith a PII450(cel) 128megs ram small drive, sound card, cdrom etc etc etc.  But With the money I saved I could still go out and get a bigger drive and it's pretty much new.

The point is I pretty much replaced my entire system.  Your current system would need too many upgrades in too many places to make it up to date.

Gordon
I agree with Gordon. With technology runing ahead of people who even just bought, makes their system obsolete in 6 months. I would just settle down, go to a PC maker, take your PC, and he can then install a new board, 64 meg memory, power supply, AMD or Intel chip 400 + Mhz, any maybe a new case.

I am doing this for a friend. I told him not to buy a PC (oh, Packard Bells will not be sold in the US anymore, PC World, Jan . pg 57), well he bought an old 486 machine that the previous owner loaded Win 95,had a 9600 Internet card with dip switches exposed, etc. Well anyway with about 300 dollars, using his basic componants, he can get a case. power supply, memory, 100mhz ISA motherboard 400 mhz CPU. This is really the best shot. This way you will have the latest buss speed,  be able to add or change componants as you wish. If you buy a propriatary PC like Compac, IBM, or HP, then you run into conflicts with generic parts. Also you might look a step up at dell since they seem to be great on their units( although if one is not careful one can buy 20 units and have twenty different computers), cot about 1800 dollars.
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I would probably need too much research into the matter of upgrading this fairly old maching but yours was the best out of all the answers I recieved at answering my question.  Actually what you named there would be just what I need considering I don't play 3D games just the SimCity, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Command & Conquer type games.  To find out anymore info I would have to talk to someone at a comp store.  I will probably end up getting a stripped down new comp again considering I don't need mr. super, answer cosmic questions of the universe, computer.

Thankyou