I am thinking about treating myself for Xmas by buying one of these Compaq tower /desktop convertibles http://www.trcomputers.com/compaqph... it appears to me to be an EVO D320 :- system specs: Compaq Pentium 4 1.7GHZ - Desktop or Tower. Intel P4 1.7ghz processor (socket 478) , 256MB RAM (PC133 168 pin SDRAM, 2 spare sockets), 20GB hard drive, 3.5fd, Nvidea Vanta AGP video adapter, 40x cdrom drive, choice of desktop or tower case (drive cage flips around) , 3x PCI + 1x AGP, 2x USB port, Sound, ethernet , comes with compaq keyboard/mouse & mains power cable. According to wiki the socket 478 supports 800FSB and these processors: Intel Pentium 4 (1.4 - 3.4 GHz) Intel Celeron (1.7 - 3.2 GHz) Celeron D (to 3.2 GHz) Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (3.2, 3.4 GHz) Obviously I am not sure if that is actually the case with the compaq. If that is the case then it will be a simple matter to upgrade to a much faster processor than the 1.7 presently in it. I will of course when funds allow change graphics card etc but this will even with the 1.7 still be my fastest system apart from my 3.2ghz laptop. Do you all think that this would be a good buy for me? bearing in mind the cost of a new processor? At the moment it looks pretty good value to me. I will of course be putting XP pro on it with a view to putting Vista on it when i can actually afford to but Vista Ultimate. It will be used mainly for video processing and as a makeshift file storage with extra drives including external usb and for playin the odd game such as halo, half life , unreal 200x when I have guests. Thanks for the input Woof Always proof-read carefully to see if you any words out.

Not a good buy unless you keep as is.PC133 is outdated unless you upgrade memory on a Pentium I or II.I would not advise trying to match an older motherboard with a more recent 478 CPU.You will run into compatibility problems.You should look at a new motherboard from ECS for example with a CPU of your choice. Those use DDR400 (or DDR2) and come with integrated sound, video, LAN.You have the choice of going AGP or PCI Express for the video for an update depending on board you select. On a tight budget those motherboards offer an intelligent bios that makes configuration an easy task.You plug the new video card and reboot.The integrated video is automatically taken Off. You should go for a 775 motherboard because those are 64 bits ready for Vista.They offer similar specs as just described for an ECS 478.

I wouldn't. This is the first time I've seen a P4 running PC133 memory. Definitely not a good match; PC133 is great on a P2 platform, not on a P4 system. I'm 99% certain that the board won't take an 800MHz FSB chip. It probably won't even take 533MHz chips. Even if it did, the PC133 memory would bottleneck the hell out of it. There are lots of better deals out there. If it has to be an older computer, make sure that it uses DDR and a 2.0+GHz P4. The 1.7 is a Willamette core and hardly any faster than a good P3. Check out my flickr stream.