It's an eMachine . . . but it's all I got.

kcrasch

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I recently acquired an eMachine for close to nothing (monetarily)

Specs:

eMachine ET1831-05 x64 based PC
Intel Celeron 450 2.20 GHz
3 GB RAM
500 GB HDD
mobo: ????

I am looking to make it capable of handling multiple virtual machines, and a heavy work load. I have been unsuccessful in finding how much RAM it can handle, or what type of PSI expansion/video card I can install. I'm even open to installing a new CPU . . . if it'd be worth it. I'm NOT looking to make it anything special. I am limited on funds and am looking to make it capable of handling what little labs I require . . . from at home. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to enable this machine to give my a little more capability? Besides "scrapping" it and saving for something more financially depleting.

Thanks for any help in advance.
 

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Here's NewEgg's listing for it (which also has the basic specs):
eMachines Celeron 3GB DDR2 500GB HDD Capacity Desktop PC Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit ET1831-05 - Newegg.com

Here is the motherboard itself w/specs:
ET1641-02W MCP73VT-PM | Ecs MCP73VT-PM LGA775 DDR2 Motherboard

It can run a Core2Duo with a FSB up to 1333MHz (I am not an Intel guy so... Google is your friend).

It has a PCI-E x16 slot so you can run any PCI-E card, but you only have a 250W PSU so you would have to upgrade it to use any card with real power.
 
THe way it sits you can't do much with it in terms of VM work. It barely meets handling a decent OS stripped like Windows 7. The only thing you can really do is put a chip like the E6600 in it and max it out with RAM. Bout it.
 
Thanks to all for giving me a jump start here. Thanks PP Mguire, I'll do some additional research on the E6600 CPU. Is that compatible with the eMAchine? I'm a little more excited about this than I probably should be. Trotter, would you recommend a good PCIe Card and/or know of a compatible PSU?
 
Oh, and does anyone know the highest RAM compatibility for this thing. I looked at it a little and I was finding like 4 GB max? I'm hoping it's higher than that.
 
Oh, and does anyone know the highest RAM compatibility for this thing. I looked at it a little and I was finding like 4 GB max? I'm hoping it's higher than that.

Memory
• Single-channel DDR2 memory architecture
• 2 x 240-pin DDR DIMM socket support up to 8 GB
• Support DDR2 667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM

Corsair and Antec are the PSU brands I recommend. As for graphics, whatever your budget can afford, and go with a PSU with 25%-50% more wattage than the card requires.
 
If all you're doing is VM work then I suggest not worrying about a GPU or PSU upgrade as you won't really be pulling that much for power. The CPU will be taxed and that's it. But like I was saying earlier you won't be able to do much VM work on it. The best you can put in this board is a dual core CPU which means you'll have only 1 core for the host and 1 core for any single VM at a time.

The board supports a max of 8GB of RAM. Unless you can get this relatively cheap you'll be spending more in RAM and an old CPU than it would cost for a better cheap setup. Since you'll probably ask, new DDR2 (especially in that amount) costs a ridiculous amount due to no demand since everybody uses DDR3. You're looking at over 100 bucks for antiquated technology.
 
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