|
|
Rank: Polio Power!

Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 629 Points: 81 Location: SW Ohio
|
well, by the fall, my mom needs to go back to school to get a masters in administration. with that, she will need to use my current pc all of the time. i have an older pc, but i need to get it upgraded to be bale to support half life 2 and steam games. what im thinking i need is more memory, more ram, a better processor and an updated graphics card. i am on a tight budget...so i want the best bang for my buck. what brands/ products do you suggest? <---(mainly about the graphics card, i dont know much about the "best" in memory and ram is, or a processor for that matter) i want to work with that old pc as much as possible, its probably 5 years old. and it's not a duel core processor either. any suggestions?
|
|
|
Rank: Polio Power!

Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 629 Points: 81 Location: SW Ohio
|
Intel(R) celeron(R) CPU 1.70 GHz 1.69 GHz 224 MB RAM Windows XP Home Edition ACPI Uniprocessor PC Motherboard: Location- On PCI bus Driver date: 7/01/2001 Driver version: 5.1.2600.0 Manufacturer: Microsoft Graphics card: SiS 650 (never heard of that card before)
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member

Groups: Registered User
Joined: 1/17/2007 Posts: 89 Points: 0 Location: itsa sekkrit
|
That "graphics card" sounds like it is just onboard graphics. Even the most robust onboard graphics generally blow ass. You need to determine if you have an AGP slot on that motherboard. It sounds like you have some sort of dell/emachine/compaq box. Some of these computers don't have AGP slots. If you have an AGP slot, it might be worth it to upgrade this system. Without an AGP slot, this computer is not worth upgrading for gaming. You need AT LEAST 512MB of RAM. If it were my box I would try to get two 512s or a 1GB stick and toss the 256 chip. That CPU is pretty weak. You need to find what CPUs that mobo supports. I would recommend at least a 2.4GHz P4. No celeries whatsoever. You can probably get a 6800 or even a 7800 series AGP card for a fairly decent price. Honestly, this comp probably isn't worth upgrading. Maybe you should look to ebay for cheap components since you will be at least a couple generations behind the times even if you max out that old system.  When your sig takes up more space than your entire post, you know you are badass
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member

Groups: {pDs} Member
Joined: 11/10/2006 Posts: 77 Points: 0 Location: earth
|
newegg.com lots of parts on a good value "Its got stuff in it"
|
|
|
Rank: Polio Power!

Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 629 Points: 81 Location: SW Ohio
|
i found out that since my pc is a power spec (house brand of microcenter) it cant really be updated. looks like i have to build my own on a low budget
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member

Groups: {pDs} Member
Joined: 11/10/2006 Posts: 77 Points: 0 Location: earth
|
newegg has all that you can possibly need "Its got stuff in it"
|
|
|
Rank: Fecal Impaction For the Win!

Groups: {pDs} Member
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 1,724 Points: 6 Location: RVA
|
If you want a nice gaming machine, build it- don't buy it. Grab a $400-$600 desktop, bump up the RAM and get a graphics card that can handle what you need. I've got a 2-3 year old Compaq Presario with a 256mb ATI card and an additional gig of RAM. It's treated me well, and didn't cost all that much in the end. Bike wrote:I like to make werewolf movies. 
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered User
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 50 Points: 6 Location: Lompoc, CA
|
|
|
|
Rank: You're gonna stick that where?
Groups: {pDs} Member, Newsie, Server Admin
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 199 Points: 0 Location: San Francisco
|
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T6UX2GC5http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115013 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042 http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4470276 http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4970851 Those are the essentials to get you going. Still need a hard drive, monitor, and optical but those can be found fairly easy at a decent price. With DDR2 prices so low, Core2Duo or AM2 is the cheapest route to go simply because you "save" so much money on ram
|
|
|
Rank: Polio Power!

Groups: {pDs} Member, Registered User
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 629 Points: 81 Location: SW Ohio
|
thanks for the help! ill look into these links
|
|
|
Rank: Polio Power!
Groups: {pDs} Member, WDFNews.com Official Mapper
Joined: 5/9/2006 Posts: 613 Points: 396
|
make your mom use your old computer and you use your good one, if there both yours that is. WDF?: I found a hot girl WDF?: Who lets me WDF?: Drink WDF?: Smoke WDF?: And play video games WDF?: ALL DAY shignog: and in the back door? WDF?: She's back door compatible WDF?: And it comes enabled by default WDF?: I need to teach sirus a lesson WDF?: Oh wait WDF?: That's called gay shignog: if there is a girl there its bi WDF?: lol WDF?: ok shignog: so its not so gay WDF?: Good enough

|
|
|
Rank: Polio Power!

Groups: {pDs} Member, Server Admin
Joined: 5/15/2006 Posts: 642 Points: 27 Location: Behind you, with a crowbar...
|
I agree with Shig - she won't need the horsepower to write papers and such.
I'm still running an old ASUS MB with a P4-2.8 processor. You can get one for a couple hundred bucks with DDR333 RAM. They're old so people who upgrade are looking to get rid of them. You can also probably find an 8x AGP nVidia 5900 series or 6800 series graphics card fairly cheap.
You don't need a dual core processor to play HL2 or Quake 4 or FEAR... My P4 with 1.5GB RAM and a 6800GT does just fine.
|
|
|
| Users browsing this topic |
|
Guest
|