Adding new life to an old PC

[orbit]

My main computer is a dinosaur: Antec case, Asus A8V motherboard, real early AMD Athlon 64 processor, 3 GB RAM, two hard drives totalling 330 GB.

The machine started developing a boot problem, sometimes yes, sometimes no. A stab at the reset button usually solved the problem. No blue screen, just a click of the master hard drive, like it wasn't getting enough juice. That drive is less than three years old.

I decided that the ancient electronics probably needed a boost in power as the old Antec 330W power supply was either beginning to fail or couldn't meet the needs of the other old junk running in the computer.

I've always been picky about keeping the inside of the case clean of dust and junk and I didn't think excessive heat was a problem.....

So, I paid a visit to newegg and got me a new power supply plus a video card upgrade.

The video card is a HIS IceQ H467QS1GHA Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready Video Card. I got this because of the AGP-slotted motherboard. It works well, after I adjusted the settings on my acer x223w monitor. Old vid card was a nvidea 64 bit something or another, more than likely approaching 10-years old.

<info on the vid card can be found here>

The new power supply is an Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply.

It's got more power connectors than Carter's got pills! A ton of 15 pin SATA power connectors, not enough 4-pin Molex power connectors, which I really needed. A trip to CDW's retail store in Vernon Hills got me the adapters I needed to finish powering up the stuff I needed power for. I'm now running three fans, as opposed to the two I ran before.

I got this power supply as I can use it if or when the time comes to upgrade the hardware in the old box.

<info on the Antec can be found here>

As usual, the stuff from newegg arrived quickly and was priced reasonably, too.

Anyway, the computer now boots super fine, no hang ups or other malfunctions, graphics work, fans make noise. Everything seems a bit faster as well.

I've since installed a copy of Bootvis and played with that a bit, which seemed to help the boot sequence just a little bit more.

I got about $210 stuck in it total. Plus a 60 mile scooter ride to pick up the adapters........

[Big Cheese]

Too much like work.

I'm becoming a fan of whatever laptop (HP, Compaq, Toshiba, etc) is on sale. We don't have any desktops at home any more.

I believe 3-4 years and time to upgrade. I've been in the $350.00 range on the last two.

Oh yeah, I did pony up for a 1 TB portable hard drive for backing up. Good insurance.

[orbit]

Yeah, we use laptops mostly here too.

However, I do use the PC a lot for graphics and video stuff.

For that, it's just easier to work on the big computer than it is the little.

[Big Cheese]

Dual monitor setup in the home office.... Just sayin