Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

I have decided I am going to build my own computer. Today I completely tore down an old one and am trying to remember all the names of everything. I put most all the key parts back in. I know where they go!!! I will do that a few times til I have it down pat! Only took me an hour....

What I am looking for is diagrams of Motherboard w/ all the names of the other parts.Putting it togather was the easy part! I can't remember all the names of the parts I put in....OR...Does anybody know if you can build a virtual computer online???

Any info please pass it on!!!

Who gives a damn?

Go back to mud wrestling...Some people like to learn new things....

You have to find out the name of the manufacturer, the motherboard model number, then go to their website and download support documents AND the latest bios software. The life of a computer, technologically is about 3 years - and they are not often upwardly compatible (old parts will not always work - Dell is especially bad for this). You can also upgrade the actual chip, if the board can take it. The new DD3 memory will not fit older computers. You might be better off buying a new motherboard (something with SATA sockets), populate with the old stuff, then gradually upgrade. A good power supply is also important, especially if you get into overclocking (upping the power to the chip for massive speed increases).

My overclocked computer faster than any production model made at this time and I measured 28.4 mbps download speed the other day. I would sure miss that speed in Mexico ( I understand in Lake Chapala it has just been upped to 2 mbps).

Right now I am in computer heaven..My friend builds them and has tons of stuff to learn on , I am going to build mine w/ his guidance.. Any reference or tech stuff or stuff other people learned doing an endeavor such as this is what I am interested in. Now I am strictly into hardware..

From my very latest, layman's learning experience, of having my computer "upgraded" by a tech. is:

On an older 32 bit comp. running Windows XP the best upgrade is to replace the 512 mgb RAM memory card with a 1 gig card.
To go over the 1 gig ram memory card you should have a 64 bit computer.
I found that going from 512 mb to 1 gigabyte RAM really speeded things up and now I hope that my older computer will do for another year or so until I upgrade to one with 64 bits and with Windows 7.
(for what it's worth)

I even understand what you said!!

I will be attending a Windows 7 party, this month..My other geek buddy has secured me a trial version of Windows 7 which is good for 90 days. Also they will drawings for a free 7 version if you are lucky enough to win. I'll post on 7 and let y'all know what I think.

Win XP with 512 was adequate (until Win7) if the video card had it's own RAM, and you did not allow XP SP3 to be installed. (XP SP3 was the last straw for 512 MB shared RAM)

arbon, would you agree that if one is to buy a new computer that it should be one with 64 bits as opposed to 32 bits. 32 will soon be obsolete...so don't get sucked in?

shh, I have been reading that Windows 7 is very complicated to download and install by yourself unless you're a geek. XP has to be wiped off..that means copying all that you want to keep and re-loading into Win.7 as well as downloading new drivers, etc. I'm not going to attempt it.