Sata?

I like to help out when I can, and I know that kona has hit some hard times, so it just felt right to do something for a community member currently down on his luck.  Besides, you're a pretty top bloke yourself, always the true community member and willing to help out when you can, so many thanks to you for all that you do.

That would be a SATA drive and it may just help kona out some.  The drive I am sending is only a 160gb to replace a dying 200gb, so if you were to send the 60gb it would give him 20 gigs more storage than he had.  I'm sure kona would appreciate the help, so if you'd like to help send him a PM to work out the details.

I sent him a gig of RAM, turned out to be the wrong type. I'm glad you guys are able to do more.

What a great community we have here!

We do. And I am proud to be part of it. 

At least you tried, and that's the thing.  It may not have been the right type of RAM but you made the effort and tried to help, which counts for a lot in my book. 

Thanks, mate.

Me too!

BTW, I sent you a PM which requires an answer, if you'd be so kind as to check your inbox.  Thanks.

Checked, replied.  

i have a 160gb SATA HDD here that you can have, Plus i have 2 DVD burners that work great if you want as well as an ATi HD3650 512Mb AGP graphics card you are welcome to.

Cool, nimbin. I think he needs a PCI gfx card, but the HDD will be handy.

In case I'm wrong....this is his rig.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00485641&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1130585

It's an HP Pavillion A1220N

It looks like a PCI FX card is his only option, which i am very surprisedc about as i thought it would have had a AGP slot as well, but oh well. He is going to be hard pressed to find a good PCI graphics card but there are a few around still.

Guys a few of us were talking about upgrading my machine using DDR2-5300 or DDR2-4200. The machine currently uses DDR2-3200. Anyone know if this will work? My machine is a HP Pavilion A1220N. Thanks!

I suspect the main issue is not lack of memory. That rig dates from 2005. It has chugged along on 512 MB's of ram for 7 years. If it needed more memory, it would have been added well before now.

If you have not been getting Low Memory warnings, it isn't the lack of RAM that is slowing it down, it is a failing HDD.  Think about your page file and virtual memory  and where it is stored.

Putting more RAM in it will do little good until that  HDD is replaced. I just replaced one in a a720n after the owner spent 150 bucks on a PSU and extra gig of RAM at Best Buy. I was just given another rig, also after the owner blew 165 bucks at Best Buy having the Goof Squad work on it. 

I replaced the IDE HDD's on both and they both are as fast as when brand new. 

I can't find any mobo specs that say that a1220n will downclock 4200 or 5300 so my advice is, if it still has the original motherboard to stick with 3200, but  go ahead and try whatever you get, it will either boot or  it won't, but it won't hurt anything.

Good luck with it, kona. I would send you a drive, but I'm out of both IDE and SATA drives ATM.

Well to be quite honest the reason that we haven't upgraded the RAM is because we haven't ever had the money to do so. I think it would make a difference as no one I know these days uses 512MB. As for replacing the HDD, that is in the works as well, thanks for the advice.

Kona, did you not let Crucial scan your PC? Did it not say 5300?

If you're worried about it, swap it for the 3200. Upgrade is ok, 5300 will work. If my goof on ordering the SODIMM has undermined your faith in me, I'm sorry. We all make mistakes now and then.

I'm running Linux so Crucial can't scan my computer. Sorry. Your goof has no bearing on why I asked if 5300 would work. I was just trying to get some feedback. My apologies. 

Any speed will work, but will only perform at the slowest module installed.

Good seeing you in the forums, yrag.

The grinding and clackety-clacks coming from his HDD are trying to tell him something.

If more RAM will fix that, he's good to go.

I get what you are saying Wizard. I just think after a new drive is installed that the Operating System will still be slow due to lack of RAM. 

If it was worth my time and money to do this much, it should be worth $5 to finish the job. Surely you know someone with a printer. Or a public library.

The OS will still be slow because you have a slow CPU.

2.9 GHz is slow? 

2.9 "single core" is slow, yes.

I just took a 2.7  single core out of my wife's rig, replaced it with a dual core 2.1 I had gleaned from another PC I used to have. It is much faster and she can now multitask.

Before, she couldn't do 2 things at once without bogging down her PC.

Your old P4 cpu will be your bottleneck once you get the HDD replaced. RAM actually isn't going to help you that much.

I will send you a molex to sata power adapter first thing in the AM. I dunno how long it'll take to get Starker's stuff.

Nimbin made a good offer, I hope you responded to him.

Good luck man! Your WC friends are good peeps! Help comes outta the woodwork when a fellow member of the community needs help!

Thanks everyone!!!

Well I don't think I have any options with this setup to upgrade the CPU. It seems to run Linux and Windows XP fairly well. Only trouble I have is opening too many tabs in Chrome or trying to play MP3s while a browser is open. Thought the extra memory would solve that issue.  

Thank everyone for their help, it is very, very much appreciated, and I will pay it forward when I get a chance.

I am sending kona a 160gb SATA HDD that's not had a lot of use and 2gb of 4200 or 5300 RAM, depending on what my dealer has in stock when I call on Monday.  Anyhow, these items should help get him out of trouble for now.  However, if somebody has a PCI graphics card they can donate [he currently has onboard] it would be greatly appreciated.  I have tried to source one but thus far have been unable to, so yeah, please help out if you have such a thing and it's just collecting dust somewhere.

Okay, it mightn't be the best machine, and probably a lot of us wouldn't bother trying to upgrade it, but it's all kona has and can afford, so how about we help make it the best it can be until he is in a position to get something better?

As for the CPU being a bottleneck after the RAM and HDD are installed, I don't know that it'll matter a hell of a lot to kona when he's only running Linux/XP and isn't doing any high end graphics or resource intensive stuff. The thing is, the improved machine will get him by until such time as he can afford to upgrade.

Oh yeah, I'm also sending the connectors to go with that SATA drive... it's all packed up and ready to go, so he should have everything he needs to set it up. I'm just waiting on the RAM, which hopefully I'll get Tuesday or Wednesday.... once that arrives I'll bung [put] it in the post.