Ok I am a computer n00b....like no one no less than me Im pretty sure. Well anyways I have 2 computers. Both Dells(I know). One is a XPS 600(not the top of the line the one below it), and a demension 300.

The XPS stays at my school, and is also my work/dyno computer/anything else you can think of for a car, going to school for high performance motorsports, so thats why I got it so I can run all that stuff.

The demension is my home computer and it flat out sucks, and becasue it only cost $500 when I got it I thought i might wanna upgrade it a little bit. But like I said imma noob so im not sure if it is even upgradeable.

So heres what I know about it
Intel Pentium 4
256mgb ram
33.7gb of total memory
3 pci slot(if i am right about that)
and 2 slots for ram but only one is used
no apg slots
and my grandma can walk faster than it loads


Right now with just people PC and firefox running the commit charge is 492700k / 852536k just if anyone wanted to know. Is this good bad. N00b again. Although it isnt doing to bad right now as soon as I open anything. It just bogs down like hugly. If I open Firefox and AIM and try to talk to anyone it just goes nuts wont load a damn thing and with everything closed can barly play half life without going beserk.

So basically I want to build it up to where I can play about any game out there not worrying about it freaking out.

I have about $1400 to spend and I dont want to get another computer really. Just want to learn on his one. so anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

If possible I'd just upgrade the ram to 1GB.

If possible I'd just upgrade the ram to 1GB.
I agree. Switch the 256mb RAM for 2 516mbs. And get a bigger HDD.

1: k.. it's a p4... but there's quite a performance between the top/bottom p4s.

2: you've got a dell.. therefore you aren't running a microsoft OEM copy of xp pro? if not, your money will be best spent here.

3: like the fellas said, drop $100 on memory.

4: does your motherboard support SATA drives?

ok i went out yesterday and got 2 ram cards and wasnt really sure which one would fit, and niether one did. Is there a certain company that makes one for dell or what.

1 WTF is P$
2 I am running xp home edition but thinking of going to Twinspire I think its called heard it was better
3working on it
4 I dont know what SATA is

And this has benn bothering me for a while what is over clocking your bios and what exactly does it do

Thanks for the help

1. there's no such thing as a P$ only a P4 which is a Pentium 4
2. I think you mean Linspire. If your also going that route you might as well also try out Xandros or just stick with Microsoft and upgrade to Windows XP Professional.
3. as for the memory check your service/owners manual to check out the specs of your computer. It will probably be something that looks like DDR xxx or PC xxxx (where x is the speed of the memory unit)
4. since you claim to have a crappy dell this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIDE might be the interface for the hard drive you have. To answer your question about SATA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata

and overclocking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclock

hope this helps...

Well I read over everything the best I could and from what I can tell. I have niether the PATA or the SATA on the motherboard, and over clocking seems to need alot more cooling capacity than what my lil one fan and shitty ass duct can handle. I mean I can barley feel it blowing that ow much it sucks at life.

So I did a little more reading on that forum you provided and I think the best route to go is just a new mobo that supports APG slots, HD fans, better heat sinks, and has some kind of ATA.


But I did notice something about my original setup. I have alot of connectors going to nowhere. Im not sure if they go to the A drive that isnt there or not.

thanks for the help again. Oh BTW played HL2 yesterday on my computer at school. OMG its pretty. And I love CSS

Overclocking is kind of like taking the final gear out of a transmission... So say your rpms should be 2000 cruising at 60, overclocked.. they'll be 3000. It's slightly more responsive, but there's consequences, and it isn't worth it. Want more pep in your step? Buy a v8 instead of a v6.

APG is going away. Everything is going PCI express with varying bus. Cooling claims are overrated; the difference between enough and "too much" won't be noticed performance wise. Things may last longer though.

With $1400 and your lack of computer knowledge, i'd suggest setting aside $300 for XP pro then taking that $1100 and having someone build it for you. It will be much more logical just to start from scratch than chop your current setup. If you want to learn, you may just want to buy a tower w/ power supply, motherboard, and cpu from one source and have them mount it all and you do the rest. You may spend $20 extra doing it this way, but it's worth not having to do that crap. After you get the barebones system, go to best buy, or another source, and buy the rest of the compatible hardware... you can put that in and configure it.

But for starters, I'd do exactly what you are doing now. This is exactly how I got started into IT. Just keep reading, researching and asking questions. It's the fastest way to learn about this stuff. Now the final step is taking everything you've learned and actually applying it. Don't be afraid to put it all together yourself after you've done your research. Get some books and read. See if you can find a Community College in your area that offers an Introduction to computers / computer hardware class. That way you get to learn on their equipment instead of your own. After that, maybe even find a place to get A+ Certification.

A lil update on this.

The 500$ dell kicked the bucket one day still not sure what happened, just slowed down and eventually stopped. Reformatted and it seems alot better, but I have moved the XPS back to my house to continue my daily bitching at YZF.

After reformatting I really just started playing around with it. Went into the set-up screen before windows booted, not sure of the technical term, and it seems that my hardrive was running on its lowest setting, so I put it on performance, and noticed a bigger diference. As far as over clocking anything, I dont have the software to do it, and the graphics car, Intel Graphics contoller, cannot be overclocked at all.

I have bumped up my cooling, well the reneck way for now. I have a 10in fan blowing onto the heat sinks, and it lowered the temps from 87f to about 58f, not bad for a lil house fan, but ill do it up the right way when I get new fans.

I am going to start building a new case soon. I have all the sheet metal, and access to all the bending shaping tool via my old tech school. May do a rotory inspired design on the side.

I have been reading up alot, and have been adjusting mainly so it runs CS better. I have noticed lower CPU lag, and for some reason on dail up my ping is 190-250, and I dont know how the hell its that low.

Any suggestions on what I should do next would greatly be appreciated.