PC Tidbits

[A Nerd]

Is there anyway of easily telling what components your motherboard can support? Like processors, graphics cards and sound cards for example? My computer is getting old and I was just curious about what new components it could support and such. At this point, I just want to price them out and see what it would cost vs. a new computer. Just for kicks I guess. Most components are easy to istall just involving it to be plugged into a slot or such I assume. I have never had a sound card in my PC before, just integrated. Sitting here at this moment I become curious about such things! :D

edit: How do I find out what my motherboard is? I am not sure where or how it is listed.

[caravel]

You need to discover the motherboard model and download the manual for your board. It's usually printed on the board itself or you can often read it on the initial BIOS screen.

[A Nerd]

Where is the initial BIOS screen? Is this in device manager?

edit: I now know what BIOS screen is. I don't want to take apart my PC at this point. I just thought it would be listed somewhere. I guess I could always call the guys that built it and ask them. Probably the path of least resistance. Have them upgrade it, but it is a 35 mile drive to get there! :P

[caravel]

The BIOS screen appears when you boot up the machine, before the OS boots up.

If you're a afraid to open the case - then you should probably not be considering upgrading hardware.

[A Nerd]

Oh, it was just for fun! I wanted to see how expensive components were. I hadn't planned on upgrading immediatley. In time, if I bought something, then I would open it.

edit:OK, I have found that my graphics card and sound card are PCI express. Still don't know about the processor. I don't know the difference anyway about processors and graphics cards. What is better that a Core 2 Duo? How about a ATI HD 3600?

PS: Grumpy ol' Caravel!!!! :P :)

[LeftEyeNine]

What your motherboard can support can be basically determined from

• the socket it has
• the FSB it can support

The most pain-free way to get at such info could be by following the steps:

Click Start > Run.. (or just press and hold Windows button on the keyboard and tap "R") > type "dxdiag" without quotation marks and hit Enter. Preferable click "no" in the dialog box that pops up next but clicking yes won't change much, it just may take more time to get where we want. You'll eventually see some panel like this:



System manufacturer is your mobo brand where as system model is the mobo model.

Then you go to your manufacturers website and find your mobo, you'll see the specifications of your mobo there, which leads us to what you can upgrade with that PC without having to change the mobo (if possible, that is).