Upgrade an older computer

[superman22x]

My friend has a Dell 5100

512mb dual channel DDR2 400 pc2 3200

2.6ghz P4 LGA 775

Sata Harddrive

PCI-E card


He never games on it. But he uses it for running Sony Vegas 8 Pro a lot for editing, and it is just getting loaded down with crap too. Probably in need of a format. But an upgrade would be good too. What you recommend doing? Small budget here.... idk exactly how much, but tell me what you would recommend.

 

[Neodude1123201]

Get a Pentium 4 That supports HT,a 3.2ghz would be your best bet,Also another stick of 512mb Couldnt go astray...

 

[CrazyTiger]

why one stick of 512? just get the max the motherboard supports. I just bought 4GB of ram for 44.99 on the egg with free shipping. Im sure 2GB would be just fine aswell.

Its not really worth buying a new CPU for, if you were you might as well just buy a whole new CPU\Motherboard\RAM combo.

 

[superman22x]

Well, it is LGA 775, so would one of the 800mhz FSB C2D work in it?

Does HT help much with the pentium 4s?

 

[CrazyTiger]

Seeing as it is a Dell i would say no, most prefab computers will not take too well to upgrades, specially CPU upgrades.

When was the computer made? If it was made one year after the conroe's came out than you might have a chance with the old allendales. Pre-conroe and your SOL, less than a year and your chancing it.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

That Dell probably runs a 800MHz FSB. Anything over will be bottlenecked. Find him a low-end C2D that runs at that FSB and get him a 2GB kit of RAM. That's the most you could probably get out of the system.

 

[Neodude1123201]

Well he *Could* Get 4gb but on XP Thats ridiculous....1gb is enough if he isnt gaming.

Also the 5100 Cant use C2D's Due to BIOS Limitations,And HT Helped alot in the P4's.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

If he can't get a C2D then sell the system (tower alone) and build a new one from scratch.

 

[CrazyTiger]

Well he *Could* Get 4gb but on XP Thats ridiculous....1gb is enough if he isnt gaming.

Also the 5100 Cant use C2D's Due to BIOS Limitations,And HT Helped alot in the P4's.

He is video editing on it however, and from my experience ram is used up quite quickly when your doing that kind of heavy lifting. Besides when he eventully decides to get a new computer\upgrade and can keep the ram.

 

[Neodude1123201]

You Do have a point there,I Guess it's up to him now