upgrade my desktop help?

Hello guys.
I am upgrading the desktop I don't use to often but want a good back up for me.
Here is what the specs are;
eMachines T3092
hard drive 160GB HDD
512mb w/3 empty slots
banks 4
AMD XP 3000+
CPU speed 2171 mhz
Bus Architecture: pci usb
It now has the standard Nvidia GeForce 4 MX graphics (1 AGP 8x slot available)

okay thats what I have found when I scanned it on some web site.
I am going to upgrade to 2GB.
Now I have heard that I need to know the watts. How?
Also I want to obviously upgrade the Graphics to Nvidia's latest for SL also.

SO will my little old puter handle this? I dont use it too much expect for work files and emails. So its been pretty good.
Thanks for any help given

I don't think adding RAM will cause a need for a power supply replacement. I've never heard of adding RAM needing more wattage. Graphics card might be a different story story though but you can probably get away with upgrading to a better card without much worry as long as you stay away from the super high end stuff. I'm not sure about AGP cards being the way to go........that is a more or less obsolete connection to motherboards since PCI express came along. I'm thinking that since your current card is AGP then you probably do not have PCI express. But you should have PCI which in my opinion beats AGP hands down. I would go with PCI...........just don't get carried away with on board RAM and bus speed.

On a computer I had a little over a year ago I ran SL fairly well using an nVidia 6200LE card with 128 onboard RAM and 1.5 gigs of DDR2 main memory. Frames per second usually hovered around 10 fps.............certainly playable but not the best. Your processor speed would be okay as long as you stay away from Vista as an operating system.

These my opinions...........I'm no expert by any stretch of imagination.

That machine is definitely obsolete, but there is still room for upgrades. Since it has an AMD XP processor, I can assume that it will most likely have an AGP slot and not a PCIe. The latest AGP Nvidia cards seem to go only as far as the GeForce 7000 series. Go for at least a 7600GT or if you can find one, a 7800.

Upgrading the RAM to 2GB is doable, and would help. For an operating system, stick with Windows XP. Vista will only slow down an Athlon XP machine.

Morgaine, if you're looking for a decent, closer to modern, graphics card for that AGP slot, something in the GeForce 7 series is your best bet. They're getting harder to find, but they're still available through some online retailers. 7800's and 7900's are nearly impossible to get for AGP anymore, at least not if you want it new in the box. But if you're comfortable taking your chances with a used on one eBay, there's a bunch of 7800's on there right now. 7600's are significantly easier to find NIB.

Newegg currently has a 512MB 7600GT is about $120. That's probably what I'd recommend. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130099

As for your RAM upgrade, according to crucial.com's memory advisor, the eMachines T3092 takes PC2700 DDR RAM. That's not very fast memory by any stretch of the imagination, but there's nothing you can do about that without replacing the motherboard, and probably the CPU along with it, which you probably don't want to do (you'd be better off just replacing the whole machine at that point). You can get a 1GB PC2700 stick for about $50. The maximum that machine supports is 2GB, so spend $100 on two sticks, and you're there. http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=T3092

So, for a total investment of about $220 (graphics card and two memory sticks), you'd have that machine about as upgraded as it can get. Not a lot of money, big performance increase.

That said, if it were me, even though it's a fairly insignificant amount of money, I wouldn't consider it worth it, myself. I just don't like investing in the past, and that machine is over 4 years out of date. I'd rather take that same $220, and put it towards a newer machine. But that's just my opinion. It's obviously your decision to make. If you feel it's a worthwhile investment to breathe a little bit of new life into an old machine, then by all means go for it. As I said, it's not like we're talking about spending a fortune here.








Not sure where you're getting that, Peggy. By what definition do you feel that PCI "beats AGP hands down"? Clearly you couldn't have been talking about connection speed, so what did you mean?

Regarding speed, PCI only has a maximum capacity of 133 MB/second, while the slowest possible AGP is 266 MB/s (double the speed), and the fastest is 2133 MB/s (16 times the speed). In this case, we're talking about AGP 8x, which is the fastest one. So the AGP slot in question here 16 times faster than a PCI slot.

Now, if we were talking PCI Express, that would be a different story. Depending on the version, PCI Express can be as much as 8 times faster than the fastest AGP, at 16,000 MB/second. So PCIE would certainly "beat AGP hands down" in that regard, but PCIE is not the same thing as PCI.

You should be able to get 3 more 512mb memory sticks in there no problem.

Video card, you should be able to get a GeForce 7600GS 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 or a Radeon HD3850 512MB 256-bit DDR3. Of these 2, the Radeon is MUCH better. These are the best two AGP cards still available that I could find.

You're hobbled as far as upgrades go with that system. Thats a socket A processor and the only faster one made was the XP3200, which wouldn't make any difference at all from your 3000. To unlock a faster system and let you take advantage of cheap upgrade parts in the future, you really need to migrate to a PCI Express/DDR 2 based system. The trouble is... thats a whole new computer.

Thanks guys!
I am just upgrading this for back up I have a decent laptop to use on reg basis here. I figured 200 why not? I am getting a new laptop also this month so not too bad too have about as decent as this can be. Funny thing I can run SL as it is on this system.
Well I just got back from the store and I am going to put in the 1G and a Nvidia 7300 I wanted to grab the better 7 series but the dude said I shouldnt risk it maybe i will go back and grab the better graphic?
Thanks guys.

Go for the 7600. I can't imagine what kind of "risk" whoever this "dude" is (computer store guy?) thinks you'd be taking with the better card. They're both AGP, right? They both require the same amount of power. The 7600 is just going to be a lot faster.

ty I just went an exchanged it for the 7600.
Yay now I just have to insert and go.

Cool. Let us know how it works out.

Omg this is the bomb.

It was very easy to deal with and I must say for this old desktop it is great.
I have hardly nothing saved on it so there is so much space then I added 1G and the 7600 graphics. Which is wonderful!
Fast moving and so much more crisper.

Thank You So Much!

I once bought an eMachines. Never again. You'll probably need a new motherboard - emachines tend to use very cheap, very basic boards that are short on slots for things like extra memory. My eMachines only had 1 memory slot, only one AGP slot (this was before the days of PCI-Express) and no PCI slots!

Motherboards, thankfully, are not all that expensive. Just make sure it has a chipset that will support all the other stuff you want to add before you buy it.


EDIT: Only just read the rest of the thread. Whoops! I assume the board your eMachine shipped with was equal to the task then.

thats ok its just going to be a 3rd computer in the home for office stuff soon. Thank You for all your help and concern again guys.