Off the shelf - what can I do??

philbf2 · 2 Dec 2006 at 10:55

Quixote said:
The good news is your CPU is pretty good.
The first thing to do is replace the graphics card - this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-OK
for £115 will perform great.
Your hard drive is recent & probably pretty decent. As mentioned, it's probably that you could do with more ram.
You will almost certainly have DDR2 Ram with your Pentium D. Look how many slots your current RAm is using & how many you have free - is it 2 x 512mb or 1 x 1gb. Do you have four slots in total or two.
If you have some free slots, I would add another 1gb cheap ddr2 ram, such as this for £85:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-083-CS
With these parts, you should not have to worry about changing your PSU as the 7900GS has quite low power requirements whilst still being quick.
I've made these recommendations with a view to getting a big performance boost without spending silly money.
I would recommend getting the free program cpu-z to find out what speed your ram is so you can buy matching. Also, confirm if you have free slots for adding Ram & double check that you have a PCI-E slot for the graphics card.
This will make your PC pretty damn good & should run most games includeing BF2 at pretty high details without a hitch.

intel pentium d 930 3GHZ

motherboard
asus lithium 1.04 with 4 slots

chipset
intel i945P

Ram is 2 sticks of DDR 2 512 (infineon)

Graphic interface: It supports x16 (does this mean I can get a BFG 8800??? rofl!)

semi-pro waster · 2 Dec 2006 at 12:24

philbf2 said:
Graphic interface: It supports x16 (does this mean I can get a BFG 8800??? rofl!)

You could, as I'm sure you are aware it'd be a bit of a waste though.

A 7900gs and an extra 1gb Ram sounds like the best option, maybe coupled with a Seagate 7200.10 hard drive.

Nomisf · 2 Dec 2006 at 12:52

Just flicked through this thread and i am going to back up what people have said , becuase it just sounds like a good idea:

Nvidia GeForce 7900GS

1Gb Of DDR2 Ram ( You wont really need 2Gb unless you do really hardcore gaming, so save money and get 1 ).

Segate Barracuda .10 edition hard drive of any size over 200Gb will do nicely i reckon

If you check my sig you will see i run a really fairly similar system, and i can tell you it really is quite good

Regards,

Nomisf

*Edit*

Ok i have had a look around and it seems that your system is running this motherboard ?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00379616&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=&product=1124198

If you could give me the model number of the machine then i can confirm that for you

This means that you can only support DDR2 533 or 667 Mhz RAM. So be careful when buying.
The graphics card you have is already a seperate card so you will have to remove it and replace it , which is nice and easy, a matter of a screw and a lever.
The System supports SATA drives , so that is ok - you can get a nice big juicy drive. Finally if you arent sure , take a looky at this picture, then pop the side of your case and tell me if it is the same as the picture

.

I look forward to your reply and hope we can turn this into a pretty adpet gaming machine, as it seems a promising start

philbf2 · 2 Dec 2006 at 13:20

Nomisf said:
Just flicked through this thread and i am going to back up what people have said , becuase it just sounds like a good idea:

Nvidia GeForce 7900GS

1Gb Of DDR2 Ram ( You wont really need 2Gb unless you do really hardcore gaming, so save money and get 1 ).

Segate Barracuda .10 edition hard drive of any size over 200Gb will do nicely i reckon If you check my sig you will see i run a really fairly similar system, and i can tell you it really is quite good
Regards,

Nomisf

*Edit*

Ok i have had a look around and it seems that your system is running this motherboard ?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00379616&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=&product=1124198

If you could give me the model number of the machine then i can confirm that for you

How do I find that out??? Sorry.....

Hi, I've made a start with t =he grpahics card kindly recommended by you guys. :cool:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-OK

If this doesn't work I'll go for another gig of ram.

I think ram+ graphics card might be key.

It just seems that my system isn't using any of its resources very sensibly. I play most games on medium/low settings anyway.... so either that ATI card is below par or something like that.

Would that be why I get a blue screen when playing grpahics intensive maps with lots of polys (ie wavy grass??) thanks....

I have every intention of building a mad system next year
I might get all the parts in LA (pound v dollar) and bring it back in bits

But as the wise men said above, at my point on the learning curve, raid and sli might not be the smartest step for me yet!

Nomisf · 2 Dec 2006 at 13:28

philbf2 said:
How do I find that out??? Sorry.....

Hi, I've made a start with t =he grpahics card kindly recommended by you guys.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-OK

If this doesn't work I'll go for another gig of ram.

I think ram+ graphics card might be key.

It just seems that my system isn't using any of its resources very sensibly. I play most games on medium/low settings anyway.... so either that ATI card is below par or something like that.

Would that be why I get a blue screen when playing grpahics intensive maps with lots of polys (ie wavy grass??) thanks....

I have every intention of building a mad system next year
I might get all the parts in LA (pound v dollar) and bring it back in bits

But as the wise men said above, at my point on the learning curve, raid and sli might not be the smartest step for me yet!

I just mean the model model , like i dont know , erm HP Compaq Presario 5630 or what ever it might be. Usually says it on the front , on a sticker on the back , and almost definatly in the manual if you still have it. If you cant find it though , just pop the side // top off the case and telll me if the motherboard looks like the piccy in the link i left in my last post

Not sure about the graphics issue , could be a number of things, but most probably the card, which will be sorted out if you get a new one if anyone else has any ideas then feel free to help lol.

RAM and GFX are most definatly the key. I woudl suggest you make sure the machine at least has 1gb of ram as this will be one of the more dramatic improvements

oh , and no worries - everyone has to start on the PC road somewhere, its like a giant trip into discovery lol

Regards,

Nomisf

philbf2 · 2 Dec 2006 at 16:21

Nomisf said:
I just mean the model model , like i dont know , erm HP Compaq Presario 5630 or what ever it might be. Usually says it on the front , on a sticker on the back , and almost definatly in the manual if you still have it. If you cant find it though , just pop the side // top off the case and telll me if the motherboard looks like the piccy in the link i left in my last post

Not sure about the graphics issue , could be a number of things, but most probably the card, which will be sorted out if you get a new one if anyone else has any ideas then feel free to help lol.

RAM and GFX are most definatly the key. I woudl suggest you make sure the machine at least has 1gb of ram as this will be one of the more dramatic improvements

oh , and no worries - everyone has to start on the PC road somewhere, its like a giant trip into discovery lol

Regards,

Nomisf

thanks. I'll check back in. I'll review the graphics card thread and look for dumbass mistakes I might make.... oh and once I crack the case open I'll get that pic of the motherboard etc!