Upgrades

MattJones2k6

MattJones2k6

MattJones2k6

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Joined
21 Jul 2006
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299
Location
South Wales
Hi,

I'm helping my friend upgrade his eMachine 220/420 (No help at all).

The current motherboard only has onboard gfx, and 3 PCI slots no AGP slots and his current memory is pc2100 and i believe the CPU is a 2.6 Celeron.

He wants to be able to run games like HalfLife 2 and battlefield 2 etc.

So i was thinking of upgrading the motherboard i beleive its sockett 478? and he needs one which he can still keep the same HDD (ATA) same CPU but upgrading the memory to PC3200 512mb

All i need is some answers on the CPU and some links to motherboards which support these specs, i think because S-ATA has taken over then AGP boards will only have ATA on them but AGP is fine.

And maybe some ideas on gfx cards which will run well along side the memory and CPU.
 
How much money does he have to spend?

512mb of ram does not run BF2 well at all, even on lowest settings on largest maps its a bit stuttery as it pages to the hard drive.
 
MattJones2k6 said:
Well, around £140...
Click to expand...

I probably shouting obvious here but i helped a mate upgrade his emachines and it turned out the case was MicroATX and i was daft enough not to notice, just thought i would warn you! :D

£140 aint gonna get him playing Battlefield, you need at least 1GB of RAM, (this is the game that pushed me up to 2GB) a 3500+ or better will run fine and you will need an x800 or better gfx card
 
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for the money your gonna spend upgrading that machine to its max potential, you might as well do a new build which will be more futureproof... its worth looking at the single core AMD range as they have just been reduced massivaly, alongside some of intels chips aswell... as already stated a 1gb amount of memory is a must(2gb if poss) at least a 256mb 6600/X1600 card to run it relatively decent...
 
MattJones2k6 said:
well he wants to keep his celeron 2.6 ... think i can push for the 1 gig but am i right in saying the celeron 2.6 is a little "crap?"
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your underexaggerating with 'crap' it will really struggle to play BF2. although saying that it is within the minimum requirements

essentially its a new build anyway but if you can find a mobo to go inside the potentialy microATX case then you might aswell keep that and the PSU if its any good (likely not) if your gonna put a stand alone gfx card in it and a CPU of any value make sure it is at least 350 watts
 
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thing is he doesn't want to listen to me when i say "you would be better off with a new machine" if i don't do his upgrades hes got his friend who thinks he can put a AGP card on a PCI slot and installin PC3200 memory which will run with problems for sure, and then seeing him achieve nothing :P

What about other games like, HL2, star wars galaxies those type games? instead of having games like BF2.
 
Will run, but not with all eye candy.

HL2 will run on a Geforce 2 Ultra fine, but looks rubbish. Very scalable game but really will not look good.

Wipe your hands with the rig, new build is almost needed or your throwing money into something that will come out very slightly better, its a waste of money almost to upgrade that PC for games, with only £140.

A new build is needed, £300 would get you some good second hand kit and a rig that could run BF2 with medium settings, the others medium / high.

Wipe your hands with the PC if your mate will not budge, his problem if he will not listen to advice.
 
again your pushing it with those specs the games may run but they'd be bloody awful to say the least... heres a little spec that should do with room for expansion, and taking into account he reuses his HDD and DVD drives...

CP-157-AM AMD Sempron 64 3000+ (Socket AM2) CPU - Retail (CP-157-AM)
£43.95 £43.95
MB-149-AS Asus M2NPV-MX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-149-AS)
£46.95 £46.95
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£51.95 £51.95
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£67.95 £67.95
CA-051-AN Antec SLK2650BQE Black Quiet Mini Tower Case - 350W SmartPower PSU (CA-051-AN)
£32.95 £32.95
Subtotal £243.75
VAT £42.66
Total £286.41
 
Only PCI gfx cards? Complete waste of money IMO. I 2nd (3rd?) the call for a complete upgrade and AMD single core route. You simply have to convince him that it's a waste of money to upgrade if he wants to play any 3d games from the last 4 years.

What lance posted ^^ would outperform any upgrade he could do on his current rig AND be massively upgradeable to something many times faster.

And then...
Yewen said:
Wipe your hands with the PC if your mate will not budge, his problem if he will not listen to advice.
Click to expand...
 
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if he doesnt want to use any of the effects like AA and AF in BF2 or halflife i recomend a geforce 6200 as i ran bf2 on this for months and months with no problems although it was not a turbo cache version but i do know someone that plays it on an xfx geforce 6500 which is around £40 these are pci-e but im sure there are pci versions available, as for ram 1gb will be fine
 
PCI surely on a modern class of card, like the 6200 even would be bottlenecked at the PCI though.

AGP has not been passed bar the 7950 or some stupid combo for a single card yet, but PCI was passed with the GF4's for performance as I remember.

Just think they would perform worse than the PCIe versions of the card. Prove me wrong though as PCI solutions are by no stretch of the imagination anything I am currently clued up on.
 
Thx guys, either way he is going to upgrade his kit and i will explain both options crap upgrade which can go nowhere or to build a new kit which can run the games etc. better. Thanks to Lance for those Specs :)

Those Prices all from overclockers?
 
not only that but PCI cards usually cost abit more then there PCI-E or AGP counterparts for less performance!!! and emachine cases are fubbin ugly, get a new one lol:D why not build the new rig and sell the old bits to recoup some money, you wouldnt get a lot but its better then nothing...
yeah there from OCuK but without delivery charges...
 
The new system is very very good value for money, the difference is a rig that can't play any game, to a PC that can play any game, and any coming in the next six months and Crysis by the looks of it, with low - medium settings.

The difference between what he has now and what he could have with double the budget is phenominal really.
 
LanceCrossfire said:
again your pushing it with those specs the games may run but they'd be bloody awful to say the least... heres a little spec that should do with room for expansion, and taking into account he reuses his HDD and DVD drives...

CP-157-AM AMD Sempron 64 3000+ (Socket AM2) CPU - Retail (CP-157-AM)
£43.95 £43.95
MB-149-AS Asus M2NPV-MX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-149-AS)
£46.95 £46.95
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£51.95 £51.95
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG)
£67.95 £67.95
CA-051-AN Antec SLK2650BQE Black Quiet Mini Tower Case - 350W SmartPower PSU (CA-051-AN)
£32.95 £32.95
Subtotal £243.75
VAT £42.66
Total £286.41
Click to expand...

this is a good spec if you can get him to see the light. perhaps the athlon64 3000+ would be much better for not much more money or even the 3500+ if he has his head screwed on tight for only another £20

at the end of the day if he doesnt listen to your suggestions wipe your hands of it and let his other mate make a hash then stand back and do the whole i told you so routine
 
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lucifersam said:
this is a good spec if you can get him to see the light. perhaps the athlon64 3000+ would be much better for not much more money or even the 3500+ if he has his head screwed on tight for only another £20

at the end of the day if he doesnt listen to your suggestions wipe your hands of it and let his other mate make a hash then stand back and do the whole i told you so routine
Click to expand...


Yep, i will do so thanks a lot guys :D
 
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