Heres the spec on my tower,what upgrades can i do to make it awesome? 2.9GHz -intel pentium4 processor 515 -512MB DDR -80GB HDD -16x DVD+R/RW (double layer) -ATI RADEON 9250SE 128MB thats the current spec,is it any good?
i want the customised feel im not sure really,id like it to have great graphics capability,run real fast and not struggle with anythink.
Well in that case, you're looking at a new CPU, of the Athlon 64 kind, new motherboard, probably more RAM to add up to a GB, and a new graphics card of the nVidia 6x00 series or the ATi X800 or higher cards. Its not going to be cheap either. Is that what you mean?
If you like, you give us a budget and we can help you to decide on what to get based around that budget Your CPU is'nt bad if thats what your thinking, just a little below par for todays standards, especially for gaming!
im not looking at any budget as im not planning on doing everything at once, more of a over a period of time thing. i dont plan on spending hundreds on 1 product tho if you get my drift
Hmm it's alright for a 'Media Center' although the Graphics Card is a bit iffy... I'd look along the lines of an AMD64 3000+, Decent Motherboard with PCI-e maybe from the likes of ASUS, you could even look into a Motherboard/CPU/RAM bundle from places like this, 1GB of Performance RAM and something like a 6600GT PCI-e or 6800GT PCI-e although the latter is more expensive, better but more expensive...
for a decent system, i would looks for 3200+ OR 3500+ AMD64 X800GTO OR 6600GT graphics card Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-030-CS) << ram like that. Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU (CA-023-EN)<<psu like that get a WELL known brand named psu, like antec, tagen, enermax, akasa, seasonic, seasonic are amongst the best out there. at least a 160gb HDD, like seagate or western digital, dont get maxtor, they seem to not have a good reputation. Get some decent cooling for your cpu, like the AC FREEZER 64 I would reccomend a motherboard from ASUS, or DFI (DFI LANPARTY SERIES) but depending on what you want to do, if your wanting to overclock then the DFI Lanparty boards are better.
No matter what direction you go, you can hang onto your hard drive and DVD burner. The cheapest options would be to upgrade your RAM to 1GB and upgrade your video card. A Radeon X700 or GeForce 6600GT-based card can be found for around $150-200. An extra 512MB can be had from about $45-150, depending on what brand and line you get. You'll want to make sure that you do have DDR and not DDR2, as many motherboards with DDR2 do not have DDR slots to upgrade (there are exceptions, but as a general rule). In otherwords, the cheap upgrade would run you about $200-300. Upgrading in small steps isn't going to be exactly easy. As already stated, you can keep your drives without any issue. You will have to get the motherboard and processor upgrade at the same time. Since you want to switch video cards, this would be the time to do it, and may have to be done anyway, given that AGP is on it's way out the door in favor of PCI Express (PCIe/PCI-E, not PCI-X). Along with those three, you may have to change the RAM and power supply. If you don't have DDR400 (PC3200), I highly suggest upgrading it to that. You can find good DDR for $100-200 for a good 1GB stick or 2x 512MB sticks (which is good for dual-channel setups). Most newer motherboards have gone to 24-pin ATX power connectors. The extra four pins take off some of the load from some other lines. Additionally, they help power PCIe slots. I could go on and on, but I've got a link about choosing the right power supply in my sig that you'd be well off to read. On that end, you'd be looking at $600-1000, depending on what parts you get and where you get them.
