Possible Computer Upgrade

Computer Forum New Build / Upgrade Advice
1

I’m looking at upgrading my 1yr old PC (which was old hardware when I bought it). I’ll have around £150 - £200 soon, but I’m not sure what needs upgrading.

It’s generally used for surfing, e-mails, and some gaming - but nothing major!! The current spec is:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754
512MB PC3200 RAM (Savastore cheapest)
Pioneer DVR-109 DVD-RW
Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-RH

  • nVidia 6100 Onboard Graphics
  • PCI-e 16x Expansion slot
  • SATA 3GB/s
  • Integtated Firewire & USB 2
  • Upto 2GB RAM
    200GB Maxtor DiamondMax HDD
    40GB Maxtor HDD
    Creative SoundBlaster Audigy SE
    Standard PSU (came with case)
    Hanns-G HU196D 19" 1280x1024 8ms
    Creative Stereo Speakers

Any suggestions as what could do with upgrading welcome. Something that would make games nicer to play (better graphics) would be nice. Also, when I get my laptop back, would it be worth upgrading the RAM or HDD in that? The current specs for it are:

AMD Turion 64 2.0GHz
DVD-RW SuperMulti
ATi Radeon Xpress 1100
512mb DDR2 RAM
60GB HDD

Thanks, Thomas

2

Whoops! I’ve accidentaly posted this in Gernal Hardware rather than Upgrade advice? How do I move it (or do I have to be a moderator).

Sorry.

Thomas

3

You don’t. But mods (assigned to a specific area) and admins can.

4

Now, as far as upgrades go, if you’re not doing much more than websurfing, email, etc on the laptop, I’d leave it go for now. I’d probably steer money toward the desktop and upgrade the RAM to 1GB, and get a PCIe video card. Options are more limited on the laptop and I’m going to take a stab that you’re not using it for gaming really. Games these days perform a lot better if you have 1GB (mostly with FPS like Quake 4, FEAR, etc) or more. A video card will free up your RAM from being siphoned off for use by the onboard GPU.

5

There are some nice options for you to slot into that gaping hole (PCI-E slot) on your mobo at the moment. As B. said it will make a huge difference to have a dedicated graphics card. I suggest a geforce 7600gt as its is good value for money and you will be astounded a the difference between that and your onboard gpu.

The GFX card will make the most difference but the ram needs to be upgraded to 1gb to really play games nicely

6

XFX 7600GT Fatal1ty PCI-E 256MB DDR3 DUAL DVI (650MHz Core Clock) (1600MHz Memory Clock) : xfx-76gtf Something like that you mean?

I notice on graphics cards, there is sometimes a standard plug, an S-Video out, and then a white one. I presume the white one is to plug a monitor in aswell, but what is the difference and is it a noticable difference? My monitor accepts accepts both the blue and white plugs, but the onboard graphics only have the blue plug.

Also, would it not be better to go for another gig of RAM, totalling 1.5gb? I’m not planning on running Vista yet (if at all), so will I notice much difference in XP?

Thanks, Thomas

7

Well the more ram you can afford, the more you should get. Make sure that you go for a recognised brand (Corsair, kignston, G Skill, OCZ, mushkin…)and not the generic stuff. I would suggest going for the normal/value options of all the above brands as the performance ram is only needed by the overclocking people.

The White Plug is called a DVI connector and it is used maily by the LCD monitors as it is a digitgal output. The Blue Plug is called a VGA connector and is an analogue output. My gfx card has two DVI out connectors but my monitor only accepts VGA so i use a dvi-vga converter and there is no loss in quality

That Gfx card will be sweet and if im not mistaken, it will allow you to get a stick of ram as well with that budget

8

The RAM I have in at the moment (as far as I’m aware) is generic, so do you think it would be a good idea to remove this RAM and add a 1GB stick like this?

9

Leave it in. More is better even if it’s not from a solid brand. It would be a waste to leave 512mb lying around gathering dust

It will be fine as it is the same speed as yours. If you wanted to OC then you would take it out, but i assume you wont be overclocking (i dont).

10

Ok, All debts paid off I’m left with £140.

Which would I get better perfomance with?

Option 1: 1GB Crucial RAM (CT12864Z40B - 1GB, 184-pin DIMM , DDR PC3200 from Crucial.com) & Novatech GeForce 7600GT (Novatech GeForce 7600GT PCI-E 256MB DDR3 DVI/TVO SLI : nov-76gt)

or

Option 2: 512mb Crucial RAM (CT6464Z40B - 512MB, 184-pin DIMM , DDR PC3200 from Crucial.com) & XFX GeForce 7600GT (XFX 7600GT XXX PCI-E 256MB DDR3 DUAL DVI (590MHz Core Clock) (1600MHz Memory Clock) : xfx-76gtx) ?

Thanks, Thomas

11

i think it’d be cloce but id go with the xfx because you can always get more ram later but to upgrade the gfx card will be very expensive at a later time