I have a HP Pavilion 8180 and would like to get some info on upgrading this unit. Currently it has: Pent II 266mhz HD 6GB Ram 128mb Intel Motherboard My case is the larger one instead of the compact size. I can not afford to go out an buy another computer and that is my reason to try first to do an upgrade on this one. That way I can buy the parts one at a time. My thought was to replace most everything except the CD-RW which is new, the floppy drive and the modum. Can anyone direct me to a site where I can find out what to do first, if it's a good thing to do, what are the draw backs to doing this and what componets will work. Thanks

If you upgrade your current system it will be almost like buying a new custom build system. You'll have to replace the CPU, motherboard, memory and most likely your videocard (depending on which one you have now) Before you upgrade you'll need to ask yourself two very important questions: 1. Are you going to use the new system for games and heavy applications like Photoshop and encoding videos? Or are you just and office user; Word, email, surfing etc.? Depending on that you can ask yourself if you want an AMD or Intel based system. 2. How much are you willing to spend on the components? "That way I can buy the parts one at a time" Not possible, you'll need all components in order to get your system running. But if you mean for example to buy only 256MB ram and later add some more, that's possible. Same goes for the harddrive. If you provide me these necessary information, than I can probably help you out in selecting the components. ~Liz Intel P4 3.2E Ghz Asus P4P800-E Deluxe Kingston 2x512MB 400Mhz Asus AX800 Pro WD Caviar 160 GB WD Raptor 37 GB Creative SB Live! 5.1 Player Sony DRU-700A Asus DVD-E616P1

Unfortunately upgrading a computer can't be done "one part at a time". There is a limit to how much of an increase in computing power you can get from what you have. If you intend to replace all the parts needed except for the three items mentioned you are "buying a new computer" What budget do you have to work with? What are you computing needs?

Upgrading that system will definitely involve changing all 4 components listed above at the sametime, unless you want to save the hard drive upgrade for later, and it will be your bottleneck if you go that route. -- Always do what you are afraid to do --

oh, almost forgot. You probably also need to buy a new power supply. Intel P4 3.2E Ghz Asus P4P800-E Deluxe Kingston 2x512MB 400Mhz Asus AX800 Pro WD Caviar 160 GB WD Raptor 37 GB Creative SB Live! 5.1 Player Sony DRU-700A Asus DVD-E616P1

If you get a new motherboard, it may not fit in the HP case.

Just upgrade the hard drive for now to something like a 40 gig 7200rpm ata 100. should work fine in any other computers. A pII 350 or 400mhz may fit in there with a bios upgrade. Ram will probably cost more than it's worth, unless you can find it used in a computer parts store. I believe it takes 72 pin simms, matched pairs? Extremely doubt it has a agp slot but if so you can buy a decent card that's backward compatible with older agp slots. I wouldn't waste any money on upgrading os. ASUS A7V8X AMD XP 2700+ 2.17ghz 768mb ddr 2700 128mb FX 5200 WD 80gb DVD R/RW