PC Hardware → PC Update

Hello everyone,

I have an old PC & I would like to update it for kids & to learn PC harware. here are the details:

Processor
Pentium 4 516 (P) 2.93 GHz; 533 MHz front side bus; Socket 775 Chipset: Intel 915GV

Motherboard
Manufacturer: Asus
Motherboard Name: PTGD-LA
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Goldfish3-GL8E

Video graphics: Integrated with up to Up to 128MB allocated video memory
I have total of 4gb RAM

Expansion slots :
PCI Three (two available)
DIMM Four (two available)

I would like to update the processor to inter-i5 & a reasonable video graphics card.

Please advise if I can update this PC

Thanks in Advance

A couple of thoughts:

I'm fairly sure the LGA775 predates everything in the Core series.

That's already a fairly healthy processor. With your purpose in mind, any money spent on a Core processor would not be justified anyway.

I'd let the kids have as is and see how far it goes.

thanks for the reply but my son is complaining slow speed, If I change the Graphics card to nvidia geforce gt210 1gb 64 bit (PC is 32 bit) ddr2 graphics card, will it be faster?

can I use ddr3 graphics card as they are a bit cheaper but my PC ram is ddr2.
I dont have PCI-E only PCI slot..

Welcome to DSLReports!

Unfortunately that motherboard is not worth upgrading because it does not have a PCI-E slot. Don't bother with any PCI video card, the performance is not going to be any better than the on-board video you already have. The 915 chipset in that motherboard does not support dual-core processors, either.

If you're prepared to spend $200 on an i5 processor, then spend another $60 for a budget M-ATX motherboard, $80 for 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and $100 for a GTX 750 video card. You can reuse your existing power supply and case. As long as your hard drive and optical drive are SATA and are not IDE type (as that board does have an IDE port), you can reuse those, too.

I did a similar upgrade this summer for my kids but without the GTX 750 and with a G3220 processor, and the onboard video performance is more than adequate for everything they want to do with it. So you may not even need the video card.

The old CPU, motherboard, and RAM are still good for kids to learn how to put things together without worrying about them damaging something with value.

I have done an upgrade like that with the Pentium G3258 (aka Pentium K) processer (under $75), an Asus B85M motherboard (under $100) and some DDR3 memory I had kicking around. I added a GTX 580 I pulled from an older machine. The B85M motherboard can go all the way up to the current Haswell processers, if you want. And the Pentium K is overclockable, too. I'd look at the Pentium K, a B45 and maybe a GTX 740 video card. Memory $400.

»ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/NvZbrH

I'm of the opinion that I wouldn't throw good money at bad with that motherboard. Not when you can get a new one for $50 that includes the latest BIOS features and even has USB 3.0 as well.

If budget is a concern, get an A10 APU for $130 with 4.0GHz. It has built in graphics that will blow a crappy PCI gt210 out of the water.

Get only 4GB of RAM if you're still looking to save money. That's $235 instead of even spending $400.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-6790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($134.99 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: Asus A78M-E Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($53.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($47.95 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $236.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-26 15:55 EST-0500

Personally, I wouldn't touch AMD with a ten foot barge pole. If you remove the video card and use the Intel internal graphics and drop the memory to 4 GB, the Intel version drops to $213. And it's upgradeable for the future. It will also require a new power supply, I suspect. Add $75.

Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor | $78.32 @ TigerDirect Canada
Asus B85M-E/CSM Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $89.99 @ Newegg Canada
A-Data Premier Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory $44.99 @ Canada Computers
»ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Xxhz99

thanks for your input guys, I just install Ubuntu on the PC & its way faster now & most importantly kids likes the GUI.

Thanks once again..

I disagree DKS, in as much as my understanding is that the on die graphics power of some AMD APUs is stronger than the processors Intel offers. I might be wrong, but Graphics power will probably be more important to foodcourt than CPU power since kids are using it.

I stand by my statement. I would not touch AMD today with a ten foot barge pole. I have the setup I described. It works and works well.

Why?

Performance vs. cost, among other things. As I said above, Intel offers a good solution for the OP at a very low cost. It is even scalable. Fanboy arguments aside, Intel is the leader today.

However:

His kids will be the primary users of the computer and gaming might be their main use, if they are like most kids. AMD's APUs have strong graphics controller performance, the emphasis of those processors is on the graphics. Plus, many APUs are fairly low cost. How much CPU power does he really need on such a system, probably not as much as you do. I have an i5 in my laptop (Intel) and yeah, it's a little faster, but in real world use, compared to my nephews APU based computer, it's not so huge, and nephew can game on his games that won't play as well on mine.

Black and white thinking isn't a good idea here.