Advice regarding upgrade.

Westovski

Westovski

Westovski

Associate
Joined
1 Aug 2005
Posts
111
Location
Chesterfield
Hi guys,

Just looking for some help regarding an upgrade (or complete overhaul) to my Dad's computer.

His current rig specification is as follows:

Athlon XP2800+
Asus A7N8X
ATI Radeon 9200 (i know, i know)
1gb Crucial PC 3200 DDR 400
1x 40gb hdd
Levicom 330W PSU

He's desperate for an upgrade so he can run the new Command and Conquer when it comes out, and he'd like to try out supreme commander too.

He knows that he's not going to be able to play the games at full spec or even nearly that high as he'd need a full upgrade.

The main problem is, the budget is only £150. Personally, i was thinking a new graphics card is the key here. and definitely a larger HDD, perhaps a RAM upgrade too...

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks in advance.
 
Westovski said:
Personally, i was thinking a new graphics card is the key here. and definitely a larger HDD, perhaps a RAM upgrade too...
Click to expand...

£150 is too ambitious for all three, I'd just get a 1950pro AGP and that will give a huge boost in games.

HDD is not a problem as long as he has enough space for the game, 2Gb is the ideal but as long as he doesn't turn every setting to max he should be ok.
 
How often does your dad upgrade? Not often I'm guessing so realistically upgradeability isn't going to be all that important. In which case I might suggest something based on socket 939 so you should be able to pick up an A64 pretty cheaply (a 3000 Venice was going in the Members Market for ~£30 not too long ago), a decent motherboard (either AGP or PCI-E) secondhand should be another £30 or so, a 6800series or X800/X850series graphics card will probably cost around £50 which should leave maybe £30-40 for a hard drive.

No real upgrade path to speak of beyond faster CPUs or graphics but it would be a decent jump. :)
 
How about £50 on the same RAM again..and then a £100 left over for a graphics card, what card would be suitable. a 9800 pro or something along those lines?
 
If you pay £100 for a 9800pro you are getting taken, badly. The card isn't worth much more than £30-40. If you must buy new then a 7600GT at ~£100 is a good card, however you might find that the PSU then becomes a limiting factor. :)
 
right, hmm, i'm stumped again now. upgrading one thing always leads to upgrading something else :confused: such a pain.

ihe really just wants something capable of running cnc3. i guess memory and gcard are where i need to be looking
 
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