Is it possible to upgrade?

I have a 1998 HP Pavilion 6465 running Windows Xp home spk2. It has had the drive c upgraded and an extra hard drive installed. The problem is the system is very slow, and the video card does not support the modern graphics. Can this system be upgraded by installing a new mother board? And maybe some other parts? Or will I have to buy a new computer.... I have enjoyed this one and hate to give up on it. If I do install a new mother board will I lose my information? I am exploring my options...

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you

 

Greetings, jersuha.

Frankly, my advice would be to prepare to buy a new system - your Pavilion is vastly outdated if you want to run today's software. In order to bring your hardware specs up to the level required to run new programs, you would have to replace virtually everything.

What kind of money are you willing to spend? Very good entry level OEM systems are now affordable.

 

Thanks Caliban, I know you are probably right. I think I'm just putting it off because I have seen so many people buy new computers and then have problems with them and this computer, except for being so slow because it's out of date has never had to be in the shop for anything and I have loved it so much. Guess I'll go take a look at a new HP, since this one has been so good. Guess I better back up everything on a portable HD first though.
Thanks again.

Jersuha

 

No problem, and of course that's just my opinion. No need to throw the HP out the door, either - I've got an old Gateway G6-400 running XP happily as a print server / testbed machine.

Shouldn't be a problem transferring data from the old drive: probably the easiest way is to purchase a good USB adapter such as this one - pretty much plug-and-play. Or, you could go the external HD route.

 

Yes, it just isn't worth the trouble or money to try to upgrade that machine. You would need motherboard, CPU, new power supply and new RAM and then try to fit it all in that particular case. Then there would be the problem of cooling because modern processors would need more fans or heatsink.

As far as even minimal upgrades that machine tops out at 256mb of RAM which you probably already have installed. You can't get past that bottleneck without a new motherboard and then you end up going back to my list of parts above.

As much as we may love some old electronics the truth is that now it often is more economical to replace them rather than fix or update them.

 

Jersuha, ever think about buying a kit? My 1st new computer was one. You buy the op system. No pre-loaded garbage. Chose a kit that serves your use. TigerDirect, NewEgg, ect. Others here could point you out to better web sights on choices.

 

PortaTech offers customizable barebones systems: http://www.portatech.com/catalog/products.asp?id=1239 .

Sam

 

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help me on this..... I'm pretty well convinced it's time to try a new machine so will be doing some pretty heavy window shopping for the next few weeks.... started in fact today..... such slim lines they have now....

Thanks to all of you,

Jesuha