Any PC Teckies Around Please !

jimmi5bellies · 19-10-2005, 19:03

Sonny boy has got a free computer from school for his project work and he wants to install his fav game The Sims on it. Problem is, he has about 8 discs to load in as he has the full set, lol and this takes about 7GB. The computer he has has only got a hard-drive of 4GB and believe it or not it is running on XP PRO on only 56 MB of RAM.Now if i buy a new hard-drive, that means i will have to go and buy XP PRO to load onto it dont it ???orcan i buy an external hard-drive for him to load his game on and play from that.Also how can i tell what memory upgrade i can buy this pc ?andhow do i go about linking 2 pc's up for the internet ?right all i know about this pc is this :Hard-drive Fujitsu MPC3043ATAMD-K6 (TM) 3D PROCESSOR56 MB of RAMXP PROThink that should keep you buisy for now, lol. PS the new pc has not got any software on yet for internet.

chav1 · 19-10-2005, 19:48

just buy a 20gb hard drive if you can find one and install the game onto that

the size of the hard drive you buy dosnt realy matter but with it been an old pc the motherboard may not recognise say a 120gb hard drive and olnly allow 20gb of it to be used so i would buy as small a hard drive as possible

i recomend 20gb

entwisi · 19-10-2005, 19:59

What speed of processor(usually says on booting up) K6-XXX

I would guess it will be about a 300-450.

Memory I would be pretty sure you need PC100 Dimms. XP likes 128M min, 256M preferably. I may have some knocking around.

Hard disc you may have a bit of fun with. Some PCs can only 'see' up to 8GB. To get it to see above this limit you need to upgrade the motherboard bios. This usually means booting from a floppy disc which has the upgrade program on.

As for XP, I assume you don't have a disc? I guess this means you also don't have a license. as such its best not discussing this on a public forum.

One other consideration with his fav game is will it run on the spec of PC you have? If its a newish version you may find it will struggle.

All in to get this up to a reasonable standard to run this game will probably cost you a reasonable chunk of cash and a lot of time. It will probably be cheaper and easier to get a different PC.

To connect them together you need to have network cards in each. A specific cable between them will allow his pC to share your net connection. You can do this wirelessly as long as they are less than about 100ft apart. Wireless will cost ~£30 all in, Wired costs £10 for two cards + £2-30 for the cable depending on how far we are talking.

Hope this helps

jimmi5bellies · 19-10-2005, 21:21

Hi Entwisi
The pc has come from the school pre-loaded with XP on it. Gosh, all sounds complicated to me ...

chav1 · 19-10-2005, 21:31

8gb/10gb hard drives can be bought from ebay as they are usualy pulled out of microsoft xbox's

i would also search ebay for some memory/ram but make sure you have a spare slot for it first and would look to be getting at least 256 to run any game comfortably on xp

jimmi5bellies · 19-10-2005, 21:36

Thanks ..still really none the wiser ! will they be compatable ?

entwisi · 20-10-2005, 05:36

will what be compatible? for memory check for PC100. eBay is not my favourite place for memory as it is delicate and easily damaged. It would also be a pain to send it back if it didn't work. You are asking for trouble in my opinion

If teh school put XP on I would say it should be legit. Ask for a disc explaining that you are upgrading the hard disk. I'm a bit surprised that they have put XP on such a low spec machine. You will need to ask for the license number as well if you are reinstalling.

as for being complicated for someone like me its not, if you don't play with PCs a lot you may find it overwhelming. It is a significant investment of time though. To get a new HD, memory, reinstall XP plus all the other stuff, you are looking at 4-5 hours if it all goes smoothly. Any problems and you can double that.

<side note> It makes me laugh that to do a full install of windows, all the drivers, updates, core software(office etc), AV, Firewall, spyware etc takes 4-5 hours min, yet with linux I can install a full system with all software (including servers for www, mail, usenet, and all software to make a fully useable system in about 1 & 1/2 hours tops. Yet Linux is often touted as hard to install!

Less · 20-10-2005, 09:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmi5bellies

Hi Entwisi
The pc has come from the school pre-loaded with XP on it. Gosh, all sounds complicated to me ...

Send Mick a p.m. he sometimes has the odd hard drive and sometimes a bit of spare memory if you talk nicely to him he might even be able to sort it for you.

Less · 20-10-2005, 09:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmi5bellies

Hi Entwisi
The pc has come from the school pre-loaded with XP on it. Gosh, all sounds complicated to me ...

Send Mick a p.m. he sometimes has the odd hard drive and sometimes a bit of spare memory if you talk nicely to him he might even be able to sort it for you.

Could someone please remove this clone of my first posting?

entwisi · 20-10-2005, 09:57

Bloke at work selling this for £60

Compaq PIII 700Mhz / 128Mb RAM / 6.4 Hard disk
CD writer/Floppy disk drive / 56k Modem / Speakers
15" monitor / Keyboard and Mouse
Bought new PC hence sale.

A lot less bother than trying to update the one you've got and by teh time you've bought soem bits for the old one it probably won't be much different in cost.

PM me if you are interested and I'll check it is still available(currently is)

Ian

madmal_1 · 20-10-2005, 18:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

just buy a 20gb hard drive if you can find one and install the game onto that

the size of the hard drive you buy dosnt realy matter but with it been an old pc the motherboard may not recognise say a 120gb hard drive and olnly allow 20gb of it to be used so i would buy as small a hard drive as possible

i recomend 20gb

ASK CARLE HURLES he has a hard drive for sale i think that one is about 20 gig and he will put xp pro on for you he is on accy web

Bazf · 21-10-2005, 13:40

If you need your XP key download this
http://main.thatcomputerguy.us/modul...hp?cid=2&lid=9

vorlon24 · 23-10-2005, 00:10

I have just come across this thread, so apologies if it is a bit late.

Was the pc given to him or has it been loaned on a temporary basis? If it has been loaned to him, won't the school take a dim view of games being loaded on to a computer that is probably just good enough to run a couple of office applications?

If it has been given to him, then please ignore my ramblings...