Building/Upgrading this system

[Ikean]

Recently the NVIDIA card on my Alienware laptop died out, and since the system is a few years old already, I am unable to find a replacement swappable NVIDIA card...

As a compromise while I save up for a new laptop I'm trying to spend a small sum of money to build-up a nearly unused few year old DELL desktop system to nearly the performance of my older Alienware laptop (currently, it's far from it). The laptop was a Pentium4 3ghz hyper-threaded with 1MB RAM.

I know very little in terms of specifics about the innards of computer hardware.

I'm looking to spend around $300, hopefully, and go this cheap by using components of the DELL desktop that I already have, if possible (That is for you guys to tell me). Below are the system specs on the system, processor, motherboard, et cet along with some images of the case/mobo/fans/etc.

Please throw your best suggestions out as to what I can do with it all. Processor upgrade? Ram upgrade? Full mobo combo + ram upgrade required? Do I need a new fan? New CPU fan? Where should I get the gear?

What should I get to make the biggest bang for my buck with
all the DELL existing compontents taken into mind as well.

Thanks in advance =)

SUMMARY

Mainboard :	Intel Corporation D815EEA
Chipset :	Intel i815E/EP
Processor :	Intel Pentium III E @ 1100 MHz
Physical Memory :	512 MB (2 x 256 SDRAM )
Video Card :	Nvidia Corp GeForce2 MX/MX 400 [NV11]
Hard Disk :	GENERIC IDE  DISK TYPE47 (19  GB)
CD-Rom Drive :	LG CD-ROM CRD-8482B
Monitor Type :	Dell Computer DELL D1626HT - 19 inchs
Network Card :	Realtek Semiconductor RT8139 (A/B/C/810x/813x/C+) Fast Ethernet Adapter
Operating System :	Microsoft Windows ME 4.90.3000 
DirectX :	Version 8.0


PROCESSOR

Processor :	Intel Pentium III E
Frequency :	1100 MHz   -   (current : 1096.63 MHz)
Support :	Socket 370 FC-PGA
Cache L1 :	32 KB
Cache L2 :	256 KB
FPU Coprocessor :	Present


MAINBOARD

Manufacturer :	Dell Computer Corporation
Mainboard :	Intel Corporation D815EEA
Bios :	Intel Corp.
Chipset :	Intel i815E/EP
Physical Memory :	512 MB SDRAM
LPC bus :	Yes
PCI Bus :	Yes
AGP Bus :	Yes
USB Bus :	Yes
SMBus/i2c Bus :	Yes
Bus HyperTransport :	No
Bus CardBus :	No
Bus FireWire :	No

Case:

Inside:

Upper inside:

Lower inside:

Back:

 

[Ikean]

P.S. A good additional bit of information I neglected, my intended computing purposes:

Despite having had an Alienware I'm not a gamer at all, I was simply looking for a solid reliable high end speedy desktop-replacement style laptop. I'm a developer/programmer mostly, so nothing super intensive, other than the occasional Photoshop and super occasional Premiere video editing. Most of the time I'm just working within Visual Studio or with WAMP (running as a personal server), etc. If it seems like this system is suitable for the tasks I just mentioned, it actually isn't at all. ;). I don't need a whole big performance upgrade to get geared up on Bioshock or something, but as much as I could do to make the system more responsive would be great.

 

[gazaway]

Hmmm, so you don't plan to game, but use photoshop alot. I think a budget dual core on a 64bit OS with 4 gigs of ram should do you quite well. Let me see what I can did up for you to be around the $300 pricerange, just a warning though, it will be the ABSOLUTE minimum and I'll even find an integrated video so you don't need to worry about a pricey video card.

 

[gazaway]

Here's a pretty good budget build:

Mobo - Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-73VM-S2 LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050/nForce 610i Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CPU - Newegg.com - Intel Pentium E2140 Allendale 1.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

Ram - 2x Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail . This is very very good ram..

That will give you a VERY decent non-gaming rigg with 4gigs of RAM on a reliable mobo with a dual-core proc you can easily overclock to 2.5 GHz on the stock cooling all for just over $230.00. You can use your old optical and HDDs, but you will have to reload the OS (I would recommend a total reformat.) The only issue I can see would be the OS you load for this. If you've got xp 64bit I would recommend that. If you haven't got a 64-bit OS then windows will only see 3.5 gigs of ram, but that should be just fine. You just need the most RAM you can get for the photoshop app.

Edit: If you do want to throw a video card in there, that mobo has got a 16x pci-ex slot. You could even throw in Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N541-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail and be at your $300 budget. It won't exactly run Bioshock at high resolutions with full settings, but it will get the job done for any graphically intense apps you do load.

 

[Ikean]

Thanks gazaway, that seems like an excellent suggestion.

The $300 price range was a product of envisioning myself as already having a system in which I can upgrade existing components that I already own. In light of the proprietary nature of this box and even the RAM possibly being maxed out at 512, I have realized I need to build a completely new system and my price range is more flexible. I'm still not looking to spend a lot for a temporary system, but I still need something in the meantime I can get to the level of performance near my P4 3GHz 1GBRAM laptop. You suggestion seems to meet that level of performance (?) and this seems like a setup I may soon purchase.

I'm assuming I also must buy a case, power supply, and CPU fan as well. Are those the only other components I need to purchase on top of the mobo/cpu/ram + video card?


_

 

[gazaway]

If you don't plan on recycling parts from the P3 computer you have now, you will have to buy a new case, power supply, optical drive, hard drive, and floppy drive (if you want one.) I can throw together some links for all of those if you need me to, but I'm about to take off from work so it'll have to wait till tomarrow, sorry lol.

Also, if you plan on putting in a video card, I would recommend a mobo without intergrated graphics, as I can find one with a p35 chipset that will suite you MUCH better. It might be a little bit more expensive, BUT it will actually be a much better performer. Something like this would work: Newegg.com - ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail or Newegg.com - Open Box: ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

That P5K board is borderline gamer's board, but it is nice, and have a very nice open box price. Only issue you may have with it would be that it may not come with the I/O shield for the back of your case.