Computer Upgrades


I was able to get a couple of new fans for the computer, the desktop one, that is.

First off –a blue LED fan to suck in air to cool the interior space, glows blue when the computer is turned ON. This replaces the dull old ugly one that came with the case originally.

Secondly –a new heatsink and fan for the processor. We have an Athlon XP 2100+, and this fan is rated for Athlon XP up to 3400+ –so it’s a hefty decent fan. Not only that though, it has a control button that is mounted in a free PCI slot, three positions to make the fan faster or slower. It’s a Thermaltake TR2-M2 which has a copper base on the bottom. Decent fan.

I replaced both of the old devices with the above two items this morning.

A few months ago I was “suddenly” having a shutdown problem with the desktop, and it was running hot then … but hadn’t “seemed” to have done so before that dreadful first “shutdown” day. I cleaned off dust and dirt from inside the box best I could, and that helped … and finally a few days later I got “canned air” and that REALLY helped, but I couldn’t take the “heatsink” off of the “processor” since I didn’t have any thermal grease or thermal other thingie … so the heatsink wasn’t cleaned out as best as could be. All in all, it was alright though, ran better, and I also got a little portable fan aimed inside the open-sided-case … as I run the machine that way to keep things cooler in our NON AC house this year … and the temperature readings in BIOS were better than they had been.

With todays heatsink and fan replacements, temperatures are WAY DOWN! Hurrah!

What I really need now is new Memory. My memory seems to be cheap, and may be totally wrong for this machine in that way.

What I also really need now is a new Mother Board. Something better, with a better chip, and USB 2.0 on-board and well, the ability to run faster memory …

With the advent of Fry’s Electronics opening in the Atlanta market [outpost.com for ONLINE shopping], I have the stuff I want, need, can use, for good prices available for only the exchange of cash for product. No shipping and waiting, can look at all the stuff and touch it and compare it physically, so it’s SO MUCH better for me to get computer parts this way. I love shopping online, but with stuff I’m not surely wizardly good about, physical see in personism is a plus for me. 😉

Things aren’t such that I can get lots of everything I need to do stuff, but it’s that I must weigh what I can do in what stages of install for the best results. I totally see the needs for superb memory, that’s my biggest problem now, feeling that what my 512mb module is doing is what is causing me some problems. I can’t run things as fast as the processor can go.

Now, getting a new Motherboard would mean I could get faster Memory, so the better stuff is cheaper, that’s just the way it is in that case, but it’s still rather high priced.

I could also get a new Motherboard and a new processor for a package price at Fry’s. Good deals, must compare and see what’s what, what should be done.

We are at the point in the road of thinking of building a WHOLE NEW desktop, and fixing up this one I’ve been speaking of to run nicely for the children.

In that case, maybe just some new memory for it, and skip the Motherboard upgrade, skip the processor upgrade … oh, well, that’d be the cheapest way to do it.

Then a DVD-Rom or DVD-R/RW drive … or a dual layer version … ah, a DVD-ROM only for this if children’s computer … yes, but then oh, they’ll be learning how to do stuff eventually and it’s just swimmingly over my head to want to skimp on ‘puterismishness. 🙁 I love decking them out. I love it too much. Gagetry at the ultimate level.

I just spent more time with the AMD processor site and Fry’s online to see what I should do, and I only have educated myself enough to make me understand it all more yet be more confused. Sigh. Dh wants me to go there later and get something more … and I’m not sure what angle to tackle. I am thinking perhaps that a risk on Memory is worth it, or that maybe a new board is worth it, or … hmm don’t know. Yes, I do. New board would be best, as it’d be newer at least, and warrantee stuff is worth it if stuff works badly as THIS CURRENT motherboard that was gotten as a unit of case and motherboard [barf! Sam’s] may just be the problems we’ve had … who knows. I am rambling on here the last few paragraphs, so time to end this and just POST it!


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