Upgrading Old PC

[Nitz]

Hi guys I am looking for some advice/suggestions.

Just this week I bought a new comp and love it :)

I do have an old PC its connect in my LAN however its is about 5-6 yrs old now and I am thinking of upgrading.

OLD PC'S Specs:

P3, 450 MHZ, 196 RAM, 12 GB HD, CD Burner, Cd Drive, Xcel 2000Mother board ( only 3 yrs old)

Right now I have room just enough for one HD as my IDE wire has a clip that's free. Now for about almost 1 yr I've been living with that old pc and after a few hours it has a bad lag, not sure what the problem is. I doubt its the hard drive as I am on the LAN listening to music from my old pc on this new one and there is no lag.

I thought the PC was overheating but im not really sure why it lags a lot as hours pass by it gets worser and worser however it isnt bad enough to a point where it freezes it just lags say if you reply on forums or write.

I can easily get used parts for the PC but I just need input on if the costs will be worth it and what parts to upgrade.

Hope people here can help me out. Thanks :)

Nitz.

[Thong_Ispector]

Xcel 2000 is the chipset...

Get out the manual for it and see how fast a processor will fit on that board.. I am thinking you could double your cpu speed..

You would need more ram..

Personally I would now put in the time and effort...

Hardware prices have dropped dramatically over the past year.

Sell it, as is, to someone that needs an entry level computer.

As for the computer getting sluggish, I would suspect an overheating CPU

[Coconut Monkey]

Personally, I wouldn't bother upgrading it. Maybe throw in some more RAM if you want a better operating system, but other than that, I would just keep it as a spare box for testing or running older programs.

If it's running a little sluggish, then I suggest a reinstall of Windows. Wipe the drive clean and start afresh. ;)

[Nitz]

Alright well my manual says:

Pentium III supports 450mhz & 550 mhz clock rates

Support for 66mhz & 100 mhz memory bus

Maximum installed memory can be 3x256MB=768MB

If I can get used ram for the PC cheap it could be worth it still? Or even a formatted used Harddrive? Need some advice, thanks.

[Duckster1]

The Xcel 2000 is a re-labeled SiS 620/5595 chipset and is found in the PcChips
M741LMR & M748MR!
Why PcChips re-labeled these chipsets know one knows!
Seems to me for a few dollars more you could get a new board and build your self a better system!

[kentek]

It seems to me that this is the wrong place on the web for a question like this from what I've just seen after regiestering. People in here know a whole lot more then what this question asks but since I'm here and I have a question relative to the same board. Here goes!

I have the same board, the only thing that identifies it to me is the same thing Xcel2000 on one of the chipsets. It's a two in one chip board and I've been working on a old PII for years and years now, so my Chipfan got noisy ahnd I got brave and tore it down, then thought OK I have this Board so why not use it, after 4 years in a box if not more, so I threw that in and i can't figure out where to put the reset switch wires and LED's I don't have the manual and would be glad if I could see an IMAGE to help me sort this out, I'd like to make sure all connections are in place and fire it up but can't so if anybody wants to come down to my level and assist me I'd be very gratefull for your knowledge base. Thanks again to all you over qualified individuals in here. Really C++ and website design, OK, hey don't mock me for ussing my PII chips in this motherboard funds are tight and I can't even do the upgrade stuff yet so I just want to get it up and running again.

Oh Yah this one here is my 13 yr olds and it's a P4 he's done mocking me now. Cheers!