Need advice quickly upgrade

[123456]

I want to upgrade my older PC again.

Specs: PIII 550MHz
256mb RAM, (PC100, 100MHz), 128, 64, 64, 3 slots.
16mb video.

I want to upgrade any of these three. I don't think I need more RAM, but mainly the video and processor need an upgrade, (a 64mb card would be lovely).
But my budget is $30. And I need something compatible with Windows 95c.
GeForce MX4000 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006I92T6/sr=1-4/qid=1155058049/ref=sr_1_4/102-4665121-9116142?ie=UTF8&s=pc)
GeForce FX5200 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00024ENDY/sr=1-1/qid=1155058049/ref=sr_1_1/102-4665121-9116142?ie=UTF8&s=pc)

I want to do some light 3D gaming, (nothing like GTA Vice City). And I'd love to find a PIII processor between 700-850MHz...

[saphalline]

Ooh... Win95 compatibility? Ouch! That throws out anything higher than DirectX 7, which means you can't use a shader-enabled VPU/GPU. The MX4000 it will have to be. You also need to stay under 512MB of RAM, for the Win9x kernel limitation. Are you actually going to be running these games in Win95?

Grab another 128MB stick of SDRAM, and look for a Celeron Coppermine-128 100 FSB around 800 MHz to 1 GHz. That would be your cheapest bet.

[123456]

I'm not going to run any games in 95, (serious games). More like in XP, but 95 is there for good ol' time's sake. Besides, what could I fit on a 1GB hard drive anyways? I have 95c which uses DX8.0. Maybe I'll buy a 256 stick and leave a 128 and 64mb stick in. And the motherboard is the first to support PIII's, so Celeron probably won't work.

More specs here: Dell XPS T550 Specs (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dkub/specs.htm)

[123456]

Upgraded to 98SE.

[saphalline]

Oh, they're Dell parts? Well then, nevermind. It would be nice to upgrade to a higher speed PIII, but it's better to wait until one drops in your lap. I wouldn't invest any money into it since you can get a modern Celeron D or Sempron 64 for less than $60 these days. $10-15 for a PIII 700+ wouldn't be so bad, but no more. That's my advice, anyway.

The RAM is a much better idea. Just make sure you get a 256MB double-sided stick of RAM.

[123456]

Nice, I found a 700MHz PIII for $15.700MHz PIII 100MHz 256k on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/700MHz-Intel-PIII-100MHz-256K_W0QQitemZ6891924044QQihZ013QQcategoryZ14292QQ ssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) Shipping costs a lot, but that's okay.
I'm willing to buy from Amazon, since we have an account there.
PNY 256mb SDRAM PC100 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JUHKM/ref=ord_cart_shr/104-5487903-7477558?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A9B09ZK9BZJQ6&v=glance&n=172282)
ChainTech MX4000 64mb video card AGP (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002XKZF0/ref=ord_cart_shr/104-5487903-7477558?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A9B09ZK9BZJQ6&v=glance&n=172282)

$70+32=$102. I'm more willing for the processor, then RAM, though.

[123456]

Bought from eBay...700MHz PIII=$31. 256mb PC100 168 pin SDRAM=$22. And I bought a 32mb Nvidia RIVA TNT2 for $13.

[saphalline]

Oh wow! That hardware takes me back... Ah yes, the days of the original HalfLife, the original Unreal Tournament, the first iteration of Quake III, the second System Shock... back to a time when the first Matrix movie was the movie to have... :D

[123456]

Yeah. I thought that 64mb would be a waste, I don't need omsething that powerful. 700MHz is a big step up from 550MHz, at least it will have some sort of power.

[123456]

Wow, 32mb video card came today, installed in both 98SE and XP Pro with no problems, upgraded to DX9c, and everything is smoother already.

[saphalline]

Cool. :cool:

[123456]

That 700MHz processor never shipped and all the other components did.
I'm thinking of cancelling that, maybe going for a celeron, but two things:

EDIT: Found a nicer processor.
PIII 1GHz 100MHz 256k cache (http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-PIII-1000-256Kb-100MHz-Slot_W0QQitemZ200006447818QQihZ010QQcategoryZ14292 QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) Would this work with my motherboard? (440BX)

[123456]

I got and installed the 256mb module. BIOS, 98SE and XP detect it, (448mb total). I don't see much performance increase. It's the processor that's held me back.

[123456]

Wireless card works fine. 32% signal, though...well the router is at the opposite side of the house.

[azzar]

I know and I apologize ahead for being intrusive and not helpful by asking this, but I'm just very curious as to why you would keep an old system for old time's sake if you already have a newer, more powerful system (that you use for games as you mentioned)? My guess is that the games you'd like to play are supported only by Win95/98.

[123456]

Nah, my newer PC is hooked up to the main TV in the house. So I can rarely use that, since someone's always watching TV.

[123456]

Oh, wow. This thing is as fast as the laptop we have (1.7GHz, 64mb video, 512mb RAM). Upgrade was successfull, but the 1GHz processor shipped with no heatsink. So I used the 700MHz heatsink and put the 550MHz heatsink on the 700MHz. I will add the extra 64mb RAM, 700MHz processor, and old 16mb card to our upstate PC for a total of 160mb RAM.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/9873/deskjm9.png

[saphalline]

Nice! Quite the upgrade there! And I see it now has a GF4 Ti? That's actually a decent gaming system now. Well, for playing pre-DX9 games. ;)

[123456]

Yeah. I took my sister's graphics card and put the RIVA in her 2.4GHz P4. Besides, this older PC is better than that one anyways, even after I fresh installed XP on my sister's PC to get rid of the spyware woes.

[123456]

Last little upgrade. My cousin gave me a 128mb stick and a 21GB IBM hd. 512mb RAM total, 1GHz, 21GB master, 19gb slave, 1GB secondary slave. I swapped the 1GB and 21GB mainly for faster boot times, (5400RPM vs. 7200RPM). Made a floppy of NTDLR.exe, NTDETECT.COM, and boot.ini, [edited boot.ini to say XP is in rdisk(1)]. Windows 2000 on the Master, XP Pro as always on the slave, blank FAT32 is the 1GB drive.