Hi, relative newbie here who was recently assisted greatly by this group,
other online resources, and a small shop or two, in a massive upgrade and
assembly of a system. I think you should start here by indicating exactly
how you use your computer (gaming, internet, photo editing) and what seems
slow to you. Then, assuming people agree your mobo/CPU could stand
upgrading, maybe focus on it. State its specs. From there, it may very well
turn out that you could stand a new power supply, as well. Then more RAM.
Then the latest version of Windows. Then yada yada. If you do end up doing a
massive upgrade, here are my comments based on going through this process a
few weeks ago.
1. You absolutely have to make sure the motherboard (mobo) and CPU are
compatible. Some or all mobo manufacturers at their web site state which
CPUs are compatible. So like the other posters said, you need to post
information about your hardware.
2. Generally speaking, compatibility could be said to be the key in general
for all components. Will your case hold a full size ATX motherboard, or only
a microATX motherboard, for example? That's just the tip of the iceberg, of
course.
3. Two of the most helpful "build it yourself" sites I found were
http://www.directron.com/byo.html and
http://www.directron.com/howtochoosco.html
If you're going to do an upgrade of more than just the mobo or CPU, I would
surf these sites for several hours over a few days.
4. Once I started coming across mobos, CPUs, cases, power supplies etc. that
I thought might do, I checked user reviews available via
www.newegg.com and
IIRC
www.circuitcity.com . When a particular product performs poorly, it
often becomes apparent after reading a few reviews.
5. People here are kind enough to offer up many helpful hints. E.g. I was
looking at RAM for my mobo and was going to do blah blah, then someone
chimed in that Circuit City had a Kingston 512 Mb stick of RAM compatible
with my system yada available for much less (with rebates) than what I was
going to spend for a 256 Mb stick. Also, I selected a mobo/CPU combo but,
before purchase, ran it by others here. Someone caught something that
strongly suggested possible incompatibility and so further checking.