Yes, based on your intended uses and desires. Remember to check to make 
sure you can reuse your RAM with the new motherboard.

You did not mention a sound card in your existing system. Yet you 
mentioned you listen to music and have Bose speakers. If you don't have 
a good sound card to reuse, put one on the list. Unless you are a music 
aficionado, it does not have to be top end. In fact, you might try the 
onboard sound first and, if not good enough for you, you can later add a 
sound card to the system. I use onboard sound fed through my stereo 
system and it works very well. Of course I'm also tone deaf and try to 
avoid making judgments on sound quality.
 
There was at least one other response to your inquiry that you may want 
to consider. There are lots of ways to upgrade a system.

Tom Mayer

srs wrote:
> I was told motherboard would not accept a higher upgrade cpu from the 
> people that built this system. So all you think i need is new 
> motherboard and new cpu? thanx for input
> stephen r stanfield
>
> Thomas Mayer wrote:
>> I would plan to reuse everything and just upgrade CPU if possible. 
>> You gave enough details except for the motherboard and RAM. If the MB 
>> can not handle an upgraded CPU or not enough of an upgrade to satisfy 
>> your desires, you will need a new motherboard and CPU. Then you will 
>> have to check your existing RAM specifications to determine if they 
>> will work with the new motherboard. Also, a new motherboard may only 
>> have two RAM slots and you may need to replace the two existing 256 
>> sticks with a new 512 stick to retain a total of 1024 RAM. I assume 
>> you have a fairly standard case that will easily accept a new 
>> motherboard.
>>
>> Try TigerDirect.com to start as they have a good selection of CPU's 
>> and motherboard/CPU combinations (some with memory) to chose from. 
>> Since you are not looking to build a high performance game machine, 
>> the selection is wide open. You might want to give preference in your 
>> selection to reviews by other users. TigerDirect prices are normally 
>> very competitive, but once you make a choice, you might want to check 
>> prices against other retailers such as NewEgg.com. If you like AMD, 
>> stay with it. They are competitive in performance to Intel (except 
>> very high end) and they are normally cheaper for similar performance. 
>> However, I've run into a problem in the last two days getting my AMD 
>> machine to play nice with two recent non-critical Microsoft updates. 
>> I've had to uninstall the updates to have Windows XP successfully 
>> load in normal mode. There may be a problem with other components 
>> rather than the CPU. I have not dug into it yet.
>>
>> My opinions.
>>
>> Tom Mayer
>>
>> srs wrote:
>>> Hello All,  I would like to build a pc.  I don't play games but I 
>>> would like it to be fast (processor speed).  I do some photo from 
>>> digital camera. Some programs from MS Word, business applications, 
>>> writing leases, but nothing that requires a lot of space.  Mainly 
>>> used for surfing net and e-mailing. I also like to listen to music. 
>>> Present pc:  windows XP Home SP2, 1.73ghz AMD Athlon XP, 128kb 
>>> primary memory cache, 256kb secondary memory cache, 81.94 Gb Hard 
>>> Drive with 64.29 free space, Samsung CD-R/RW SW-252F CD-ROM drive, 
>>> 3.5" format floppy drive (never used hardly) Bus Clock 133 mghz, 
>>> 1024 Mb Installed memory(512, 256, 256), connected to a HP Officejet 
>>> 6210 series all-in-one, Bose speaker system, Logitech Keyboard and 
>>> Logitech optical mouse, 17" lcd monitor.  I would like to get latest 
>>> technology with upgrade capabilities.  I just replaced the hard 
>>> drive about six months ago. Can I still use it?  Also what other 
>>> items could I re-use? What type of motherboard and processor?  Any 
>>> and all suggestions are welcome. I have liked AMD and read a little 
>>> about 64 bit processors, but not clear on advantages and disadvantages.
>>>
>>> thanx,
>>> stephen r stanfield
>>>
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>>
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