It's been a while since i blew a hole in my motherboard (gigabyte KA8 or something, socket A, dual bios thingy AGP vid socket) Anywho now i'm sat reading micromart and i'm dribbling profuely over socket 939 x2 processors then the slap in the face comes and reminds me i'm a student, POOR, skint and any other word for financially challenged. My pc consisted of: athlon 1200xp (xp i'm not sure about) ati radeon AGP gfx, cant remember full model name 256mb 266mhz ddr ram (cheap) IDE hdd maxtor 80gb other bits should i get replacement mobo for these bitsand stick where i am for the mo, or go for mobo that allows for pci-e vid card and get the upgrade train moving, i'd love to buy amd64 3400, gigabyte K8N sli, 2gb corsair ram and lovely pair of gfx cards in sli/crossfire but it's just so damned expensive. Currently running amd k2 6 500, 384mb ram sd, 15gb hdd and velocity 4400 gfx card, i dont think it know what 3d means Please help Edit: sorry missed the upgrade section when looking where to put this thread, if it needs to be moved, sorry
Ultimately, you would be served by a new motherboard/CPU combo for starters, you may need to settle for a good Socket A motherboard. For the motherboard and CPU together, you're looking at $150 to 200 on the low-end. Finding ones that support native AGP and PCIe together is pretty hard to find. I don't think there's any SLI motherboard with a real AGP slot. The reason I'm saying a 'real' AGP slot is because a lot of motherboards out there have a hack-job AGP slot siphoning off the PCI bus---and that will kill your performance. It might be a little tricky to find a Socket A board, but I'd wager you could pick one up for around $50 if not less.
Basically the spending depends on what decision i make. At the mo shitty pc i using doesn't recognise any keyboard which makes using it 'interesting'. Never used onscreen keyboard sooooo much, wrote 1000 word essay with it the other day. Nearly wore out my mouse and my patience Just replacing mobo - Might be able to pick up second hand else might just not worry about getting into pci-e for now, most used game at mo is heroes of might and magic III, doesn't need keyboard so only real game i can play that'd mean £50 or less hopefully FULL upgrade - hopefully when i get my deposit back from rented house i'll have around 300 british pounds (?550 dollars?) to spend on new pc, can use old ram (if it didn't get blown by other mobo), hdd, dvd writer and stuff so would be after basically CPU. mobo. GFX card Mobo i['m not gonna skive on as it's the backbone and shit to replace compared to vid. Also needs basic overclocking capablilty easier the better i'm a ?newb/noob?. card so then there's the cpu... semprons sounds like celleron to me and they sucked like chasey laine so need help on that bit, amd 64 3000+ venice???, basically sound, not been into overclocking before so not tooo important to consider tho it'd be nice to have a go with cpu and ram timings when bored of work. Vid. card gonna be £60 or less, it'll suck on 3d but will do till i get more money over summer. Sounds like i've convinced myself MY MONEY Anywho feedback ALL good, unless you insult my mum, that's just not kewl
I'd make sure to get something with an AGP 8x slot. I don't know what the local shops have, but a few around town here have some older Dell Dimensions or Compaq's complete with monitors for under $300. The specs, I don't know, but I would certainly look at the local shops and see what can be had for a reasonable amount. PCIe is ultimately better, but if you've got something with AGP, there's at least some gaming potential.
