Upgrading a desktop

[Panic Button]

My son wants to upgrade our four year old Packard Bell desktop. He wants to add memory, and change the graphics card.

Neither he nor I have ever touched an internal component.

He seems to think it is just a question of pulling out the old bit and plugging a new bit in.

Is he right?

[ChuckFickens]

memory yes he is right... go to the link below to make sure you get the correct memory

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

Graphics card little more complicated..

firstly is the motherboard capable of having a different graphics card, if you have onboard graphics then often you will not have a slot to put a new one in.

if you do have a slot then you need to determine if it is PCIe or AGP and make sure you get the correct card to fit that slot. then install it and install the drivers.

[ChuckFickens]

oh meant to add as well, are you sure it's worth doing? memory, if you have less than 1gb then it's probably worth upgrading but putting a new decent graphics card in an old machine may not be worth doing.

[MrBounty]

I concur

[ChuckFickens]

and I managed to not mention Linux once ;)

[MrBounty]

You're learning! :)

[Ethel]

I agree.

Memory - yes, it's a cheap and easy job that is worth doing.

Graphics card - no

[Panic Button]

Thanks. As I thought, not so simple.

[VHG]

The other thing with graphics is that to make it worth while you are going to have to spend more than �50 (anything less will proably not be much better than you have now).

And it is probably not worth spending that on a PC 4 years old.

Also, as someone has said, the slots for the graphics cards have changed in the last few years.

The old slot was called AGP (replaced by PCI) and if your PC has an AGP slot you are going to find it hard to get a decent card as most people are making PCI cards now.

You can buy a brand new "system unit" for around �200 (without monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc) and you are far better puttng the money towards that.

Finally, Packard Bell is a poor PC World brand, try to find a local PC builder who will put a PC together for you, then it will be easier to upgrade it at a later date.

[Panic Button]

Thanks Guy, you are very helpful.