Compaq pentium 120mhz, 16mb of ram

[WoLFe]

My brother is at uni, using our old aging compaq (which we purchased in 1995 for £2200)

It struggles on windows 95, and its just generally very slow.

I know this is proberly one of the stupidest topics ever, but is there anyway to upgrade a part or 2 inside it?

I have no idea what sort of ram it takes, and would it make any difference?

I feel so retro

[pdug175]

bloody hell, build an amd system for a budget £100 or something.

[directhex]

a pentium overdrive chip & some fresh EDO simms?

it'd be cheaper to build a new duron

--jo

[3Dfx]

LOL no chance

Compaq will use their own RAM and basically, u wont find it anymore (well not SIMM anyway) so ya screwed on that count.

CPU... uhm, no
Mobo, lol. no
sound card,..... probably if it has PCI slots, tho it'll slow it down more
GPU - doubt it has AGP, tho there are sum PCI ones around
HDD... IDE will work so thats upgradable
CD-ROM - upgradable to DVD-ROM
Add a CD-RW
Floppy - remove!!! add a bootable USB-Pen Drive (if it has USB ports)
Bigger PSU (550w like mine :-D )

[Agent]

Just get one around second hand gear.

Check out the FS forum - exmaple, at the moment im selling a IBM 233 chip, with a TXPRO 2 motherboard, and 32meg of SDRAM, with onboard graphics, and onboard sound for a low £10 </pimp>

But seriously, 2nd hand gear is a cheap and easy way to upgrade a system.

[directhex]

compaq SAY they use their own ram. for example, 64mb of Compaq ram for the GF's laptop is over £550. however, buying bog standard PNY value memory from PC world costs £12.50 and did the job

--jo

[joshwa]

i don't think it's really worth spending any money on upgrading it. it's just not worth it.

see if you know anyone who works in an office. normally there's old p2-350 type machines that they chuck out.

alternatively there's a nice system in for sale / wanted forum <£200

[Trickle]

Originally posted by WoLFe
I know this is probably one of the stupidest topics ever, but is there anyway to upgrade a part or 2 inside it?

Yes, confirm that the case is of the old AT format (should be) and look on the 2nd hand forums for an old AT format board and chip - something like an old AMD k62 500 etc with preferable 160+ meg of ram and an old TNT2 gfx card.

I recently gave away an old BX board and 450 celeron + 192 meg for free, so you can pick up this sort of stuff for next to nothing.

This will still leave you with a PC capable of running XP/2K and word 2000 with no trouble. You will still be stuck with the same 14inch monitor, so I would also say go get yourself a 2nd hand 17 inch one for £50 - possibly best looking at the local shops for this as delivery makes monitors less worth while on the 2nd hand forums.

Add a cheap 2nd hand HD: and total cost overall should = <£110. Much better than buying a completely 'new' 2nd hand 'internet ready PC' that everyone will try and rip you off for. This is provided he only requires something to do his uni work on etc


Huge Edit: Dam. Didnt see compaq
If the case isnt standard AT format, then you can disregard all the above

[praetorian]

Dare I say it
www.ebay.co.uk for parts or the FS forum here
Only been registered a couple of days and I feel at home already

[prehensile]

that computer will always be crap...
however people will buy it for office work, old ladies and similair, so you will be able to sell it on and get urself something twice as fast also on the second hand market...
sell it for 100 or so and buy an new 266 for 160