[XP] I bought a older computer

[Raydee]

Well I have been having some problems with the USB ports on my current machine. It is old now with a P4 2.4ghz processor and 1 gig of ram. Today I was at my uncles house and I was talking about buying a new PC when he said that a guy recently built him a PC with an older processor that he didn't even use and would give it to me for $100. I looked it over and it has a very nice case with a very nice build. I really didn't get to check it out real good but from what I saw it has a Amd 64 1.8ghz processor, 1 gig of ram, radeon 9800 video card, sound blaster sound card, 500 watt power supply and a Abit mother board. I am just wondering if this computer is any better than the one I have now? THe hard drive is small but I have a 300gig just sitting that I can throw in it along with another gig of ram. I never owned a AMD processor so I have no idea if this is any better than my P4. I play a few computer games online and do a little bit of video editing but besides that I only use the PC to get online. What do you guys think?

[Train]

For a $100 I would jump.

Probably a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice but still, that is about what I use for doing video work.
Makes a good backup if nothing else. Network them and you will find you have lots of options open up.

[Raydee]

Well since I am having the USB problem with my current PC I plan to swap them and use the new computer in mines place. I am just hoping it is at least as good as my old pc...maybe a little better.

If I was to take the big hard drive out of my old PC and put it in the new PC will I still be able to use the Windows version that is on the old hard drive? If I ever have to reformat it will XP know that the hard drive was in another computer and give me problems?

[Train]

If you are a gamer, it might be a tad slower, but for what I do, the AMD is more than a tad faster.

If you want teh big hdd as the boot drive, you will need to doa Restore install.

I must admit a clean install would be best.

Option: Do a clean install to the new hdd and after everything is good to go, add the bigger one as a slave drive and use it for storage.

I have 3 computers I run witha KVM switch, I am on the net with on, another can be playing music, it has its own speakers and the 3rd can be doing video work for me. All networked together.

Besides you can add a USB 2.0 pci card to the P4 powered one and forget about the onboard.

Some examples on that line.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ption=USB+card

[Raydee]

Ok thanks for the info. I might even upgrade the new PC since it has much better components then what I am using in my current PC. It has a better power supply, case, video card and sound card. THe mother board is a socket 939 Abit AV8. I wonder if I can get a newer AMD processor for it, maybe a Dual core? I know the AMD's are quite a bit cheaper than the Intel's but I don't know if this socket is too old to bother.

[Train]

Not many of the 939 cores around now. But you can find them.

4000
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103037

A AMD Opteron 185 will work wonders also.

Local store in Seattle.
AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (OEM)

http://www.computersonics.com/_e/AMD...essor_OEM_.htm

[Raydee]

Well I decided to hook the PC up and see how it does. Besides the problem with my USB ports on my other PC this one really doesn't compare. It would def make a nice backup but that is about it.

I think I will gut it and buy some new hardware for it. So now its research time to see what will make a nice fast/stable gaming computer. I think for cost reason's I will try a AMD this time around unless I hear that the Intel's will blow the AMD's away for gaming.

Train thanks for the help!

[lgbpop]

Our family room computer is a Socket 939 machine I built using an AV8 motherboard and an Athlon X2 4400 Windsor (with the 2x1MB cache) and it's a great computer. It was outdated quickly by the AM2 motherboards, but it's no slouch and certainly not obsolete. All you need to do to run dual-core CPUs on it is a BIOS update, available from the AMD website.