Upgrade help..PLEASE!

[blast]

One look at my pc specs and you can guess what I'm facing. Graphics card fan runs alot, games run at a minimum, and crashing happens if I ask too much of her at once. I almost bought a new graphics card x800x but then saw that I needed to have 64bit Windows pro which of course is useless without a 64bit mobo. I'm a novice who goes into my computer once every couple of months and cleans things up, installs basic hardware,ect. Should I
try to put in a new mobo myself...with a kit... Can I use my old hard drive and memory. I just bought a new 20" LCD which Im affraid won't even perform well when it arrives with my present computer situation.
I enjoy and therefore want to be able to play interactive high demanding games but my main computer use is for graphics.. photoshop and watch movies. Please Advise, my budget is about $380 is that enough?
Thanks for any help you can give...

Compaq Presario 061 P8655C-ABA 8000T NA230 0p]1411RE101BLAZE10
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. 'P4SD-LE' Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.08 05/14/2003
Drives Memory Modules c,d
163.90 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
5.05 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Maxtor 6Y160P0 [Hard drive] (163.93 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Y42NNE8E, rev YAR41BW0, SMART Status: Healthy
Slot 'DIMM0' has 512 MB (serial number SerNum0)
Slot 'DIMM2' has 512 MB ...two empty slots

Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 157.21 GB 2.10 GB free
d: (FAT32 on drive 0) 6.70 GB 2.95 GB free
RADEON 9200 [Display adapter]
RADEON 9200 - Secondary [Display adapter]
OEC 15.7 [Monitor] (15.7"vis, October 1999)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE
Intel(R) 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 24DD
Aureal Vortex 8820 Audio (WDM)
Aureal Vortex Game Port
WaveCenter card Frontier Design
WaveCenter WDM Interface

[rond36]

Hello blast, and welcome to The PC Guide Forums!

Here are the specs for your PC (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?docname=c00025803&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN)

I almost bought a new graphics card x800x but then saw that I needed to have 64bit Windows pro which of course is useless without a 64bit mobo.

Where did you get that information? There is not any video card that requires Windows XP Pro X64!

I have an ATI All-In-Wonder X800-XT AGP X8 video card in my other PC and it is not X64 capable and it works just fine with Windows XP Pro and 32bit Windows Vista Ult RC-2 except for the TV tuner.

The only problem that I can see with installing an ATI X800 AGP 8X video card is that your power supply is a mATX 200W and may not provide enough power for that card.

Something that may improve performance is cleaning up your hard drive
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 157.21 GB 2.10 GB free
It is not good to have your hard drive that full!

[blast]

I started to buy the Ati X800X on ebay, the seller sugested going to the Driver site to make sure the card would work in my computer. On that site the specs for that card said I needed windows pro 64, but then I could have read it wrong... lol thanks.
I want to clean up my hard drive and have bought such software as Advance Systems Optimizer and Registery Cleaner to do it for me but it does not touch a lot of that information. I will attempt to do it manually today. Thanks for your reply.
Also have been trying to find some free software to update my drivers. I have downloaded four which claimed to be free untill I clicked the download drivers button and then they want 20+$ for their product. Do you know of a free one that works good. Hate to spend that much for a one or two time use. Thanks again...

[mjc]

The best way to update drivers is to obtain them from the manufacturer's website. In the case of an ATI video card...grab them from the ATI site.

Any of those programs that you have to pay for to do something that you can do manually, for free are just a scam and are ripping you off.

[blast]

But how do you know which programs need to have drivers updated.. one of those software driver update search programs said I needed 39 new drivers and then wanted $29 to do it.
I just deleted four so called free Driver Detective software programs out of my trash and got 30 more gigs of free space.

[mjc]

Drivers don't need to be updated all THAT frequently.

Basically, the ones that need it most often are video, then motherboard and audio. Generally, once you have a working set, you shouldn't need to update them unless you install a new game or program that needs an update (which would most likely be video or audio).

[blast]

For the past couple of hours I've been cleaning up my hard drive deleting games, music and programs I have not used since 2003. I have more space but still not much compaired to what I started with. When I get some more DVD disk I will take off the movies that got saved on my computer but still only have
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 157.21 GB 5.17 GB free
Unfortunately the 30 more gigs I refered to earlyer was only .30
So are you saying that if I update those items I won't need to get a new motherboard or graphics card.

[mjc]

Not necessarily...it just depends on what you want to do.

If you want to play the latest games, then yes you definitely will need to upgrade because the video card currently in there won't handle them...everything else...probably good enough. But even with the latest video drivers, you won't get much improvement for game play.

Your big thing that you NEED to do is to free up space or add a second hard drive...getting the videos moved off the drive will help.

[blast]

Now up to 44.75 GB free Still working on it and will be removing 5 more movies.
I appreciate all your help and time.
My original question has been modified as I think you are saying now that I only need to up grade my Graphics card.1But to be sure are you saying that my mobo is good enough although I have never had much respect for it... (that opinion came from reviews I read after it was a year old and was in the process of replacing the second hard drive under warranty.) (Painful down times.)
And if you say its a good idea to replace the mobo as well,2 is the job easy enough for me to do it? Also.3 should i buy the same type of hard drive and/or size as what I already have? 4 Is Tiger direct a good place as any other.
Yes I want to play the latest games, what card at the minimum cost can handel it, as Im not playing on the internet. Mainly at home but that might change.
Thanks again,
blast

[blast]

come on these were my four most important questions... which I pretty much asked in the beginning... Please somebody answer strait out... Ive been researching for over a week and just been lead around in a circle with too many choices and not enough clarity.
Im ready to buy just don't want to buy the wrong thing and get in over my head.
Again PLEASE Somebody HELP

[mjc]

1. The motherboard is not great, but should be adequate, for the time being...it should, with a decent video card be able to handle most games from the past year or two. Yes, it is an HP and doesn't have all the features that a retail board would have, but it doesn't absolutely need to be upgraded, unless you want to prepare for Vista.

2. Maybe...it is basically a put part A into socket B type thing. A few common sense precautions and a 'plan of attack' make assembly fairly easy.

3. Yeah, probably...I can't find enough on the current motherboard to see if it has any SATA, but I doubt it does...

4. Tiger isn't my (or many of us here who do a lot of online buying) first choice. Most of us use Newegg.

[blast]

Thank You Im gettting Right on it.