Does anyone know about Gateway Destination PCs?

Factual Questions
1

My little brother just got an old Gateway Destination computer. He’d like to play around with upgrading it, - it’s a PII system - but neither of us know enough about the system. The catch is the RCA/component input/output board…it connects via various ribbon cables to the (ISA) soundcard and the (PCI) video card. I believe there’s another card that gets thrown into the mix as well (I’m typing this from work and don’t have the computer nearby for reference). I’d like to see him be able to put a P4 proc/MBD with at least AGP graphics (the monitor is only capable of 800x600, so I’m thinking it shouldn’t require PCI express, though it would be fine with me if we could put that in).

Is anyone here familiar with these beasties and the hardware it take to run them? Or know of a user group that is?

We’re not looking to sink a lot into this; it’s more a ‘for fun’ project (and may not be possible at all, if compatible hardware is unavailable…but IIRC Gateway didn’t often use parts that weren’t off-the-shelf, so I’m hoping we have a chance here).

2

Well, the thing is, you’re really going to be doing is building an entirely new computer. Once you put in a P4 processor and a new motherboard to support it, you’ll have onboard video and sound better than the sound card and video card you have, and you’ll probably need new ram to be compatible with the motherboard and a new power supply to run it. I could be wrong, of course, but I’d bet the only parts you’ll be able to reuse would be the case and maybe the hard drive. So, yeah, it’s possible to upgrade it, and probably to keep it under $250, but it’s really more like building a new computer with some recycled parts.

3

I figured that would be the case, and we’re both good with that; it’s finding parts that work with the case that look to be tricky - specifically the RCA inputs/outputs. Maybe the pinouts it connects to are common, but I haven’t noticed them before on other boards.