Upgrading a Pre-Built PC

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Storm1

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Feb 11, 2006
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Hey, what's up. New to the boards, but i usually browse though. Anyways i have a HP PC and i'm wondering if i can upgrade parts from its original, like the ram, psu, graphics card, motherboard, and CPU.

I'm wanting to build my own, but i'm not 100% sure if i can get it to work properly. I've read tutorials and when it comes to the motherboard, what does it mean with setting jumpers(i think that's what it is)?
 
Please post the model number, current specifications and a picture or two of the motherboard. The pictures should show the processor area, expansion slot area, IDE/SATA connector area(s) and the memory area in particular. It is quite possible that you could upgrade, but without more info there's little use in speculation.
 
jumpers are small connectors on the motherboard itself. Please provide at least model number if you want a good answer (already mentioned).

 
yeah we need the model info, some hp's use a small form factor psu so you probably wont be able to u pgrade it depending which one you have, but memory and gpu should work as long as you have the slots availible and the rest of the system meets the min system requirements.
 
Storm1 said:
upgrade parts from its original, like the ram, psu, graphics card, motherboard, and CPU.
Click to expand...

That's practically a completely new computer, minus the case and drives.

Building computers is fairly easy if you take your time and research a lot before doing it. It's good you're asking questions. :p

Like Shmuckety said, jumpers are small connectors on the motherboard. You'll see pairs of raised pins, with a plastic/metal clip inbetween certain sets. That is a jumper. It either opens, or closes, a circuit (a setting). I've noticed most newer boards have very few jumpers now. I didn't have to touch any when building my computer.

But yea, welcome to the boards :) Post your HP model and we'll see if it's upgradable or not.
 
I've got an HP Pavilion a1230n, and about the only thing HP about my box is the box itself and the lightscribe dvd/rw. Some model HP's are very upgradable.

Depending on what model HP you have of course. Here's my set up..
HP Pavilion a1230n
AMD64 3700+ SD @2.2
ASUS AmberineM skt939
2gig DDR400 Corsair
200gig SG Cuda' SATA/150
BFG 6600GT OC @560/1.2 via PCI-Ex
Audigy2 ZS
Antec TruePower2 480w

If you reflash your bios you can overclock them, but I haven't. yet. When I bought it (2mo ago) I bought the Antec 480w psu and the BFG 6600GT same day and slapped them on before I even turned my cpu on.
Added additional 1 gig of ram, Audigy audiocard and you've got a capable gaming rig.

I've thought about upgrading the mobo, but it's fine for now and even supports dual chips.

It plays F.E.A.R. and COD2 at near highest settings and decent framerates. Been a nice little prebuilt for $629.
 
Yes, you could upgrade most of those parts. Unless you want to overclock, that's a pretty solid computer. The weakest link (in my opinion) is the video card, everything else should be good for a year or two at least, unless you start doing something other than gaming that is very intense (then you might want to go for dual core).

For those wondering here is the link for his computer.
 
Yup, I agree. But the 6600gt has played all the games I play very well. Not much for 3dMark scores thou.
I'll wait for the newer cards to hit later this year. Played with a 7800gtx at Fry's the other day and wasn't blown away, but was hard to say. I'll wait for something to blow me away I guess.
 
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