chip upgrade/motherboard

Joel Glassman · Post by **Joel Glassman** » 18 Mar 2002 1:31 pm

I'm thinking about buying a used IBM PC 300PL http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1018-404-130143.html and wanted to know about the available upgrades to the chip. (Pentium III, 500 MHz) I'm assuming "upgradability" depends on the motherboard. Couldn't find anything on the IBM site. How would you proceed with researching this? Some vendor must have a site w/data...thanks, Joel

Michael Holland · Post by **Michael Holland** » 18 Mar 2002 2:38 pm

Priced at $2,839, including a 17-inch monitor, the IBM PC 300PL......

GULP! How much is this thing going to cost used?

George Wixon · Post by **George Wixon** » 18 Mar 2002 5:51 pm

Joel,
This is just my 2 cents worth but before dropping that kind of cash I would check out some of the deals at Tiger Direct. I just upgraded to a pentium III system but for 10% of that price. I bought a bare bone system which included the case,motherboard,cpu,32meg of ram and power supply for $219. I added both my hard drives (a 6 gig and a 40 gig),both cd drives( a R/W and R only),and 256 meg of ram. The mother board had the on board vga and sound, but I used my own sound card because I needed full duplex capabilty. Plugged in my monitor, keyboard and mouse and added my modem and was up and running in all of about 2 hours.
This is just a suggestion.
Regards,
George [This message was edited by George Wixon on 18 March 2002 at 05:58 PM.]

Gary Pederson · Post by **Gary Pederson** » 18 Mar 2002 6:11 pm

I would start out by finding the motherboard make & model. I would then check the Intel & the motherboard manufacturers websites. I don't know if this will help. The manufacturer of my pc has a parts bill of material & upgrade parts info on their website.

Michael Garnett · Post by **Michael Garnett** » 19 Mar 2002 1:09 pm

It depends on what you're planning on using the computer for. Intel has very stable hardware, but if you're using this as a recreation computer, you might want to check out some good processors like AMD and the others, because you'll get blazing fast speeds for much cheaper prices. It seems to me that a P3, 500Mhz is a bit "old" in today's computer market. You are absoultely correct that "upgradability" depends on the motherboard. That is for both processor and RAM.

I just think that almost 3 grand is a little bit too much to ask for a computer whose processor is about one FIFTH the clocked speed of the top-of-the-line on today's market. www.pricewatch.com has a pentium FOUR, 2.2 Gigahertz chip for less than 500 dollars. And a 550 Mhz chip will cost you less than 100 bucks.

Talk to a tech-junkie and see if they'll build you a computer. Even if you build your own I almost guarantee you can get a GREAT computer for less than 1500 bucks, and it should blow the pants off this IBM.

Just my opinion, but I don't know what you're using this system for.

Garnett

Michael Holland · Post by **Michael Holland** » 19 Mar 2002 7:10 pm

Thanks for that link, Mike. After checking out some of the systems there I may go ahead and build a new box. Then I can pass on my Pentium III 450 with 196MB SDRAM. Anyone interested?

Joel Glassman · Post by **Joel Glassman** » 20 Mar 2002 10:55 am

Hi everyone--
That was the new price for the PC in 1998!
I can get it used for $380 w/256 ram, 13gig
disc/pentium 3 @~550mhz
It seems like a deal-though the chip speed is not currently state of the art. Can't locate the motherboard specs on the IBM site. I was hoping some vendor of older chips would have a search engine on their site for matching chips to motherboards.
Thanks--Joel[This message was edited by Joel Glassman on 20 March 2002 at 11:04 AM.]

Everett Cox · Post by **Everett Cox** » 20 Mar 2002 12:07 pm

Joel-- Frankly, that sounds like enough of a system for most folks. It may not be the latest/greatest but, do you NEED more??? I'm running most stuff on a brandX machine with an AMD550 CPU, 128M ram, 15G hard drive, etc.

If you do, however, wish to persue an upgrade, check out
http://www.powerleap.com/Products/iP3T.htm
and look at the 1.2 GHz "Tualatin" Celeron: $149.95

The PC300's came in several different 'flavors' of main board/cpu configurations. You can click a 'compatability' list and scroll down or input your system (IBM PC 300)into a search box. You can then see the user review of thier experience. Or submit your info to them and they will tell you about upgrades.

I have had no experience with this company or its products and have no financial interest in this response. PowerLeap has done well by a couple people I know. -Everett

Joel Glassman · Post by **Joel Glassman** » 20 Mar 2002 2:24 pm

Everett-
Thanks! That upgrade to a 1.2Ghz chip
is all I'd need for a while (If I need it at all) This is great. By the way, a 9 hour St. Paddy's day gig paid for this PC. No problem for me on fiddle--but the acoustic guitarist
played 7 sets! My fingers would have snapped
right off :^O. --Joel