Advice On Upgrading a Compaq Presario

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Tisoraku

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Seeking Advice On Upgrading a Compaq Presario

We have a Compaq Presario 5000, bought over six years ago, even after reloading the entire system every couple months, is doesn't run that well, getting slower over time.

Pentium III
863 MHz
128 MB of Ram

Windows Xp

What can be done with this computer?

I want to upgrade the ram if that would do some good, I read that 512 of Ram is the maximum for this computer.

While I am here, there is someone that wants to play a couple games, one being the Sims 2, is it possible to upgrade this sustem enough so such a game could run?

I know the graphic card is not enough.

What would be the best cheapest upgrades?

Thanks
 
You could turn it into a PVR (like Tivo) and use it on Cable or directv, but if you need a pc, then you'll need a new one, but thats perfect reason to build one though.
 
SDRAM (pc100/133) like your system uses is old and can be a little spendy. Maxing out your ram might cost you $50 or so plus at leastanother $50-100 for a decent low end/ lowmid range graphics card. To get a decent card you may also need to upgrade your psu. It's probably a proprietary model so it'll cost you another $40-50. To top it off your cpu at 866mhz is fairly slow and a big bottleneck on your system. The highest your computer can go is most likely about 1ghz, not much point in upgrading there.
So it'd cost you in the neighborhood of $150-200 to get a servicable computer for playing The Sims 2, it will run on lower settings (no way around that with your pc) and you can't put these upgrades towards your new machine when you buy one. My advice is put this money towards a new build, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck even for a few hundred dollars.
 
i would suggest getting a new barebone system if ur really low on cash. u can keep ur hd if space isnt an issue and u can also keep ur monitor. all you'd need would be a mobo, pc, ram, low end vid card (or onboard), and maybe a case. you can get all that for about 200 bucks.
 
Thanks

Would more ram make much of a difference?

Current budget is near nothing, fifty is pushing it.
 
I was reading that Windows Xp Professional should have 256 ram or better, since we only have 128 ram would that cause any problems?

Thinking of anything I can do to at least make this system run as fast as it did when it was bought.
 
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