I got a PC

[Peter]

I got a Gateway from my cousins on friday, and need some advice.  

where can I get the specs on it?  its a G6-350

also where can I get about a 20-40GB HD for it?  what hard drive format is it.

I will also need any info that you guys have on upgraded PC CPUs.

Thanks a lot,
Peter

[kelly]

Hmm. 350 MHz Pentium II.

http://www.techweb.com/winmag/library/1998...022.htm#gateway

You could buy a 1.5 GHz or better machine for what you'll pay to upgrade.

Not worth it IMO. Use as is to learn and  then buy or build a better one.

Some info.

http://www.motherboard-links.com/gateway_m...rd_upgrade.html

Gateway support/documents are a real pain to use.

http://support.gateway.com/support/supinfo/index.asp

Maxtor 40GB EIDE 5400 rpm for $45, 61GB for $54

http://dealmac.com/articles/53985.html

http://dealmac.com/sections/storage.html

You'll need to learn about FDISK and such.

http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/

[Peter]

Only reason I got it is because it was free and came with a very large monitor (19.1" viewable I think)

I know it isn't much of a machine, but I don't know much about PCs, so if I screw up its no loss.

I was also wondering if the power supply & case of a G6-350 could support a Pentium 3 or 4 motherboard- seems like it should be able to

Thanks

Peter

[Paddy]

Peter...what a coincidence...I've been living in a Windoze world for the past 4 days or so as I upgrade 3 PC's headed for friends (2 in Canada) and one to replace our Pentium I (200MHz Compaq). I've been up to my ears downloading drivers, installing OS's, installing new hardware...ack. I sit here thinking "it's sooooo much easier on a Mac!!!". But, the upgrade options aren't exactly endless on a Mac. This morning I got another PC - a 750MHz Athlon (Shuttle AI61 MOBO, 320MB RAM, WinXP Pro) with 17" monitor, keyboard, mouse & speakers for $200 from a guy a few miles from here (thank goodness for CraigsList.org!!) as one of the PC's I've ordered off eBay hasn't appeared and I'm getting desperate. The seller has not replied to any of my emails since Monday, so I have absolutely no idea if he sent it or not. It was a PIII, 550 MHz, HP Vectra ($56 plus shipping). One of the others I got was a 733MHz HP Vectra. Both are towers, both considered "enterprise" machines - and I've been very pleased with the 733 so far. It was $96 plus shipping.

So...as Kelly noted, upgrading can end up costing more than just buying. If you bid really carefully, you can get Athlon 1.3GHz machines for $160-$250 on eBay.

The machine I bought this morning IS upgradeable - either I can add a slightly faster processor (up to 1 GHz Athlon) or I can get really adventurous and switch out the motherboard, processor and probably the power supply and fans (in other words...pretty much everything) at some point. It's an ATX case, but the MOBO is a slot-A, not the much more upgradeable "Socket A". Something for fun...later....much later!!! (I've always said that if I'm going to ever get a top-of-the-line PC it's going to be one I build meself...'cuz you can do it for relative peanuts compared to what you'd spend on a name-brand) But for now, all I need is something that allows me to see all my web designs in the latest PC browsers - and opens those darn Publisher documents that people keep sending me to be put online!!!

Upgrading a name-brand computer, rather than a custom-built one has always appeared to be a more mysterious process to me...there doesn't seem to be as much readily available information out there. (not surprising - the name-brand manufacturers want you to buy their NEW machines, not upgrade their old ones!!) The first thing you'll need to do is to identify the motherboard - because this will determine whether or not you can do much with it. This guy seems to think he can upgrade to a PIII 800 MHz...but there is no way of contacting him (that I could find) to see if he'd be willing to help you out.

http://sahlomonic.tripod.com/brasky/id6.html

Another site I found that may be of some help, is this one:

http://www.8dimensional.com/forum/

It's geared to the build-it-yourself community, but they might be able to help - at least let you know if you're barking up the wrong tree entirely.

Or you could try here:

http://www.motherboards.org/mobocop/view/u...olved/9557.html

As you will note from this page, you need more than just the model number - you can get the BIOS info as it boots - press F2, which will take you into the BIOS and find it there. If by any chance the BIOS is password protected (I didn't know you could do that until I saw this) - here's the info to get around that:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/4862/

What OS are you using on the current drive? How big is the current drive? How much RAM?

You'd probably be best running Windows 98 Second Edition on this machine - trying to put XP on it would be like putting X on a 233 MHz iMac. Not a good idea.

If you want to upgrade the RAM, you can take it to 384MB:

http://www.kahlon.com/result.asp?modelID=5351

But...as Kelly said, if you really want to get into upgrading things, it would probably be more worthwhile to start with something designed with that in mind. The fact that this MOBO only takes 384MB of RAM is an indication of it's age - you really don't want to put much $$ into something that is so inherently limited.

BTW - installing a new drive on a PC isn't rocket science - it's just TIME-CONSUMING. Here's a guide that looks helpful:

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/clean1.html

I've done it many times now...and still have to haul out my "how-to", to make sure that I don't miss something in the formatting process. Ain't nuthin' like Drive Setup. (we definitely aren't in Kansas anymore!)

Hope this provides some help. Ask away if you have more questions. Dreambird has also helped me out on the PC side at times.

[tacit]

QUOTE(Peter @ Jul 27 2003, 3:38 PM)

I was also wondering if the power supply & case of a G6-350 could support a Pentium 3 or 4 motherboard- seems like it should be able to

 It is possible, though unlikely, that the case and power supply will work with a Pentium III motherboard.

It will not work with a P4 motherboard--the P4 motherboards have an additional (square) power connector and require high-capacity power supplies. A PII power supply, even a good one, won't work with a P4.

Does the computer have a keyboard connector that is a large round connector, or does it have a very small round connector that's about the same size as a Macintosh ADB connector? If it has a large connector, you have an old-style case and power supply--will not even work with a PIII. You'd have to replace everythng, including the case and power supply, to upgrade that machine.

[Peter]

Thanks for the links Paddy

Tacit- It has the small keyboard plug- I belive manufacturing date is 11-10-98.  has 64 Mb of RAM right now

I was looking a the CPU, and its in a black rectangle with a huge heat sink- how would I get it out, or can I?

Thanks
Peter

[kelly]

Why do you want to Peter?

If you can get that thing online go here.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Or here.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answers...3012791,00.html

[Bill]

"If you can get that thing online go here."

Don't know why but that hit my funny bone bigtime!

[ljocampo]

Peter:

PC!    

[kelly]

Maxtor 30GB EIDE 7200 rpm for $30 shipped after rebate

http://dealmac.com/articles/54004.html

[()]

I got lots of PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP's and CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC's

 

lol

enjoy your new PC,  right click on my computer and go to properties, you can as well right click on your drive c and go to properties as well.

this way you'll know how much ram, processor type etc.

ENJOY!

[kelly]

Peter. Hope things are ok as they can be after the fire.

This is why you shouldn't spend money to Upgrade that PC.

$500 PC kit: 1.93GHz, 512MB, 120GB, FX 5200

http://dealnews.com/articles/54782.html

You still have to buy an OS. And maybe even put it together.

But these are some pretty amazing specs.

[Epaminondas]

Peter,
 
For - "I just gotta old PC and am not sure about this, that and the other"-type technical questions, your best bets include the Anandtech and the ArsTechnica fora.

___________________________________________________________

Upgrading Older Computers:
 
Whenever I consider upgrading a pokey old computer, I look at the software in addition to the hardware.  Remember, most computers were probably speed demons in their day.  It is the bloated newer software that forces you into hardware upgrades.
 
Lighter weight software can get you zoomin' along on an older machine.  A less bloated browser, a more nimble word processor, a lighter weight OS - that sort of thing. Often at a lot lower price than upgrading hardware.
 
Free, even.
 
As to the best OS for your machine, may I respectfully suggest that in addition to whatever Windows it shipped with you also consider a free copy of Linux?  Perhaps a dual Windows/Linux boot if you want to make this your experimental/learnin' machine?  An appropriate Linux distribution will likely run quicker, stabler and more securely than Windows.  Most Linux distributions also include hundreds of free programs, as well.  
 
Various current Linux distributions still run fine on 386s.  But not all - some of the GUIs  - i.e., KDE and Gnome - are a bit bloated (I mean "full-featured") and may bog down your machine.

If you are interested in givin' it a whirl, you might try the Knoppix Linux distribution for starters:  Knoppix runs entirely off a CD without impacting your hard drive.  This way if you do not like Knoppix, just trash the Knoppix CD and your computer will never know it was there -  you know, kinda like when you get drunk and don't know quite what you did with whom the next morning . . .

You may just be able to run Knoppix entirely off a CD on a computer that doesn't have a hard drive at all - I do not know for certain.   Here are the minimum requirements for Knoppix (notice that it doesn't even mention a hard drive):
 
#Intel-compatible CPU (i486 or later),
#20 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE (at least  128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products),
#bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI),
# standard SVGA-compatible graphics card,
# serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse.
 
Oops - too much RAM.  You would probably have to spend at least $8-$16 for a RAM upgrade, so I guess Knoppix is out.  Sorry.
 
Otherwise you would probably have been in pretty good shape.   :-(
 
 
Whatever you do, have fun with your new toy -
 
Epaminondas
 
_______________________________________________________
 

Free Linux via internet download:
 
http://www.linuxiso.org
 

Cheap Linux via purchased CDs ( a few bucks each):

http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com
http://www.cheapbytes.com

[Bernie]

Wanna learn some Registery Tweaks LOL