I Love My Family (Computer Help)

[Travis L. Stevens]

I guess I can say that I'm pretty blessed to have a brother in law like mine. I've actually known him longer than my wife. We used to be close friends back in the day. Then he drifted and went a different way. I then met his sister, hooked up, and married her. He took my computer under his wing and is performing surgery on it. Here is what it was:

Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz
10 GB Memory
256 MB RAM
GeForce FX 5200 Graphics Card
CD ROM
CD Burner/Rom
3.5" Floppy

I was hoping to update it really good and spend a lot of money on it and change it to:

2.4 GHz+ Processor
100+ GB Memory
1 Gig RAM
Current Graphics card or better
DVD ROM/CD ROM
CD Burner/ROM
3.5" Floppy

He got the computer about a week ago, pulled some strings, talked to some friends, and this is already what he has gotten for no cost (or so he tells me):

2.0 GHz Processor
80 GB Memory
768 MB RAM
Current Graphics Card
SoundBlaster something-or-other sound card
DVD Burner/Rom / CD Burner/Rom
CD Burner
3.5" Floppy

Then I rememberd that I have a $100 Gift Certificate to Best Buy that I got in appreciation from Anheuser-Busch!

So, what do you think the $100 can get me? A really good processor? Better RAM? More Memory? Better Graphics Card? What would you get and why?

[Muttling]

Ummmm......RAM and memory are the same thing. Perhaps you are confusing memory with harddrive size.


There's a LOT more details to know before one can say where $100 is best spent. I'd suggest relying on your brother in law instead of asking people that don't know the details of your computer.

[rustybucket145]

RAM, biggest bang for your buck. Will boost computer performance by leaps and bounds.

[Muttling]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804310#post7804310 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rustybucket145
RAM, biggest bang for your buck. Will boost computer performance by leaps and bounds.


Generally true, but with 3/4 gig of memory it may or may not apply depending on the speed of his current memory.

[Travis L. Stevens]

I AM completely relying on him. He's got all the hookups and friends and stuff for it, but I was just curious how other people would spend it. And yes, I confused Memory for Harddrive. I'm not a computer guru ;)

What other information would be needed? Would the amount of pins actually be a huge difference? Things like that?

[dc]

I AM completely relying on him.

Then give him the money and let him do his thing. :D

[Muttling]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804332#post7804332 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis L. Stevens
I AM completely relying on him. He's got all the hookups and friends and stuff for it, but I was just curious how other people would spend it. And yes, I confused Memory for Harddrive. I'm not a computer guru ;)

What other information would be needed? Would the amount of pins actually be a huge difference? Things like that?

This exemplifies why you should simply rely on him.


The number of pins can refer to a variety of things, I assume you mean the type of socket which the processor sits in. This is not something that can be changed for $100 as you must purchase a mother board and processor to match one another. After that, you must select sound boards and other cards that are compatible with the mother board that has been selected.

Tell him you have a $100 gift certificate and want to put it to the best use possible.

[pnosko]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804269#post7804269 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis L. Stevens
Then I rememberd that I have a $100 Gift Certificate to Best Buy that I got in appreciation from Anheuser-Busch!That's too little value to have to drink Budweiser.

[Nina51]

for pete's sake, a corgi man, A CORGI!!

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804387#post7804387 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Muttling
This exemplifies why you should simply rely on him.


The number of pins can refer to a variety of things, I assume you mean the type of socket which the processor sits in. This is not something that can be changed for $100 as you must purchase a mother board and processor to match one another. After that, you must select sound boards and other cards that are compatible with the mother board that has been selected.

Tell him you have a $100 gift certificate and want to put it to the best use possible.

He already has the Gift Certificate and he can do what he wants with it. If he can pull enough strings, he can spend it on himself for the work he's done. Once again, I'm not necessarily asking for help, just opinions. I'm not going to go up to him and be a smart arse and tell him that someone else told me differently. I was just looking for some input.

[masson]

If its an old motherboard it may be limited to how much ram it can handle.

[Nina51]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804487#post7804487 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by masson
If its an old motherboard it may be limited to how much ram it can handle.

i was...gonna ummm, oh never mind.

[Muttling]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804460#post7804460 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis L. Stevens
He already has the Gift Certificate and he can do what he wants with it. If he can pull enough strings, he can spend it on himself for the work he's done. Once again, I'm not necessarily asking for help, just opinions. I'm not going to go up to him and be a smart arse and tell him that someone else told me differently. I was just looking for some input.

That's cool. We really don't know enough details to provide any useful information. From what I've heard, it sounds like he's doing a good job for you and deserves a few beers at the very least.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Oh definitely :thumbsup: I hook him up with his favorite beer all the time; Bud Ice.

[pnosko]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7804502#post7804502 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nina51
i was...gonna ummm, oh never mind. Just reading "old motherboard" made ya twitch, huh? :lol:

[zenguitar]

As long as you're not spending over the $100, cause I don't see that as being all that large of a difference. You're mostly going to see an improvement just cause the memory but past that, it will be just a little faster.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Well, I was hoping to turn it into a decent gaming PC. Maybe down the line I'll save some money and buy a new system for gaming and keep the old one for the family and word processing.

[zenguitar]

Well, it's going to depend on what your impression of a decent gaming PC is and whether your specs up there are all Intel or the new stuff is AMD and what model of AMD.


I have a water cooled P4 3.0 ghz cpu running at 3.3 ghz
1.5 gb of memory
ATI 9800 pro video card

which for me is doing ok for gaming but I would like to upgrade the video card. For everything else, speaking CPU wise it smokes. The only things I've built for folks that have actually been faster have been dual cores.

So, it's all relative I guess.

[Travis L. Stevens]

I'm more into computing speed than graphics. As much as I like detail, I would rather have something that doesn't jerk, stop, process slow, quit, etc.

[zenguitar]

Do you know if he's talking AMD cpu's or Intel? If it's Intel then a 2.0 isn't anything worth writing home about.

If it's a new AMD 64 running at 2.0 that is nearly comparable to an Intel 3.0.

[petenheather]

hey Travis, give it me! I need more memory :lol:

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7805212#post7805212 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zenguitar
Do you know if he's talking AMD cpu's or Intel? If it's Intel then a 2.0 isn't anything worth writing home about.

If it's a new AMD 64 running at 2.0 that is nearly comparable to an Intel 3.0.

It's Intel. I believe we are going to wait and save up for the new hyper thread processor to come out (or something like that).