Upgrading a Compaq Presario (help a noob!)

noland1985 · Mar 20, 2005, 01:33 AM

Ok...back in july 2004, when i knew little to nothing about current computer harware (or software from that matter), I decided to buy a gaming computer. I looked around for a while, decided that the store systems weren't powerful enough and also the option of building my own was too complicated. So, i customized a compaq presario to a 3.2 ghz p4, 1 gig of hynix ram, and a radeon 9800 card (plain). (by the way, the card was listed as 256mb, so i assumed it was a pro, but i found out later that it was a 128mb card with a 256mb interface, which i think is kind of deceptive [read: evil

] considering the typical compaq consumer, who is unaware of minor details like this. but i digress...) so, when i first got the presario, the performance was decidedly underwhelming, for what i was expecting. anyway, after replacing the crappy 250 watt psu to a 500 watt, unsuccessfully flashing the 9800 plain to a 9800 pro (which killed it, causing me to buy a BFG 6800 gt

), and unsuccessfully modding the cramped case (which killed it, causing me to buy a better one from newegg, cant remember the name...)- i am now much more knowledgeable about hardware in general (though i still have a lot to learn), and the performance of the system has increased. yet, i feel that the motherboard that came with the system is the limiting factor. it was made by Asus (model name: P4LSDA i think) but is unsupported by the company. anyway, it only has 3 pci slots, and no room for upgrading the memory. so, my question is (and sorry for the long post

)

1. can i simply buy a new motherboard and pop in the processor i have, or has compaq screwed me once again and modified the processor to only work with its board

2. are there any boards that have both agp and pci-e slots? (so i can use my current card)

3. what are some good boards that are upgradable to at least 4 gigs of ram?

thanks, sorry for the long post again, and help a noob out please...

noland1985 · Mar 20, 2005, 01:36 AM

oh i forgot to add that i am in the process of changing cases so i am unsure of the slot type for the processor, but it is a pentium 4 3.2 ghz with hyper-threading...if that helps

The_Neon_Cowboy · Mar 20, 2005, 01:57 AM

thats what you get for buying a branded PC!

1. Yes
2. yes for socket 775 only though, ECS has one
3. I don't know.. look @ www.newegg.com

also man you siggy 314x200 image size is way beyond the MAX in forum rules
wich is 400 pixels wide, by 100 pixels high max! (I'd suggest you fix it before a
moderator noitices and does / clears it)

noland1985 · Mar 20, 2005, 01:59 AM

thanks

Sandok · Mar 20, 2005, 02:01 AM

But do you really need 4 giga ram? I got 2048 oced a bit and it's great...

noland1985 · Mar 20, 2005, 02:27 AM

yea, its not that i need 4 gigs of ram now...i was just thinking for the future. also, yea i learned never to buy a brand computer...but like i said i didnt know jack about computers when i began last year. hopefully i can evolve my computer into somethign awesome

jasonbourne · Mar 20, 2005, 06:05 PM

did u buy that radeon 9800 pro seperatly or it came with ur laptop already?

swimtech · Mar 20, 2005, 10:26 PM

Frankly noland1985, with a 3.2Ghz processor with HT, a GeForce 6800GT video card, 1 gig of ram, probably a decent size hard drive and optical drive(s) - sounds to me like a pretty nice machine and no reason to upgrade.

Save up for a dream system for awhile that you can build from scratch yourself - and in the meantime read the guides posted here, Maximum PC, CPU, and other hobbyist oriented magazines to learn more.

What things do you want to do with your 'puter, or need to do that you can't? And what is the complete component list of what is in your computer now? We can help better if we know...

noland1985 · Mar 20, 2005, 11:49 PM

first of all thanks for the responses.

jason borne, the 9800 wasn't a pro, but i THOUGHT it was when i ordered the computer. it literally said "256mb radeon 9800", so i assumed it was either a pro or xt, since only pros or xt come in 256 size. it turned out to be a 128mb card with a 256megabit interface, kind of deceptive. this was especially confusing since the other two options for cards that I could have ordered were both listed as 128 mb geforce cards.

swimtech, you're completely right...i was more interested in knowing about the possibility of upgrading rather than whether or not i should upgrade right now.

CDsDontBurn · Mar 21, 2005, 01:14 AM

well first of all. Compaq did not decive you in saying the 9800pro you bought was a 256Mb card. ATI has released both 128Mb and 256Mb versions of the 9800pro. All the pro simply has 256bit memory bandwith, whereas a non-pro card (SE) only has 128bit memory bandwith. If you were to use a 9800SE and then use a 9800pro, you would immediately notice a huge difference when playing games.

The easiest way to find out which version of the p4 you have, is by using CPU-Z. That program will tell you almost everything you need to know about your computer. You can download it here

As you can see in the area I circled, that is where it will tell you what kind of socket your CPU has. Once you know what socket your CPU is, then you can go out and look for an appropriate MoBo. But I already know that because you had a 9800pro when you purchased your PC from compaq, that it is a socket 478 p4. And just like The_Neon_Cowboy said, go over to newegg and check out what they have for MoBos that appeal to you.

noland1985 · Mar 21, 2005, 02:18 AM

but, it wasn't a pro...it was non pro, like i said in 1st post. besides, how many other companies advertise according to bandwith? wouldn't it make more sense to state the ram? i only ASSUMED (ass-you-me) it was a pro b/c teh only thing it said when i chose it was 256 mb radeon 9800. nothing else...anyway, it doesn't matter because it fried it trying to flash the bios. anyway, thanks for the other info

also, i have two 3200 ram slots on the mobo, but it looks like there is room for two more (slots, not ram sticks). is it possible to add two more ram slots?

and one more thing...the motherboard i have does not let me overclock anything in the bios. however, i have seen programs that overclock in windows. is there any way to unlock the bios, or if this is not possible, would you think the program would work?

CDsDontBurn · Mar 21, 2005, 05:44 AM

So you have a total of 4 slots or 3 slots on your MoBo left open for RAM? It's kinda confusing how you worded it.

As far as overclocking your system. Don't even bother, Compaq has already blocked those features from yourself to not have the privaledge to overclock their system from the BIOS. I also would not recommend that you use seperate programs to OC your system. They do not run nearly as stable, and end up causing more problems than anything else. I say that if youwant to start OCing your system, that you get sa better MoBo than any MoBo out of a prebuilt machine.

noland1985 · Mar 21, 2005, 05:51 AM

thanks and forget about the ram deal...i don't know enough ram vocabulary to ask the right question....and it doesn't matter anyway since I will probably upgrade a mobo before i upgrade the ram.

CDsDontBurn · Mar 21, 2005, 12:40 PM

well, whatever MoBo you do get, make sure it's an 865 or 875 chipset board. they usually have a total of 4 dimms for memory, and offer the best performance for the 478 p4s. And because you already have a 3.2 p4, you should already have DDR400 so you shouldn't need to buy anymore ram with your upgrades.

Geminiwave · Mar 21, 2005, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

well first of all. Compaq did not decive you in saying the 9800pro you bought was a 256Mb card. ATI has released both 128Mb and 256Mb versions of the 9800pro. All the pro simply has 256bit memory bandwith, whereas a non-pro card (SE) only has 128bit memory bandwith. If you were to use a 9800SE and then use a 9800pro, you would immediately notice a huge difference when playing games.

actually many of the SEs were 256bit. Mine is. course now its a Pro...but thats not the point. ORIGINALLY it was an SE.

Also, not all of the PROs are 256bit anymore. Many of the 9800PRO cards you see now are 128bit which is kindof sad. I have not seen many vanilla 9800 radeons that were 128bit though.

In any case, Compaq DID INDEED decieve you, and you should have challenged them on it. They have done that to me before(back when my parents bought computers...it was NOT MY DECISION TO GET A PREBUILT!) and I simply yelled at them until either they gave me monetary compensation, or a new part(in this case, graphics card).