Upgrade Help!

[Super-Ted{KEA}]

For many of your guys that have played with me on BW, you would of noticed that for one thing I'm a hpb, and the other that I blame my computer for bad spells of play sometimes, well ok, I do blame it abit too much!

Anyway, I've had my computer for coming up to 3 years now in november and its has served me well,
/me pats my computer and hopes the vibrations dont cause it to crash

Theres not anything really wrong with it, i.e virus infections or shit like that, its just that its gettin older and out-dated. I know alot of you out there are probably saying 'well mines alot older than that and I'm not complaining' but to tell the truth, i think my *ahem* "beast" needs some kind of upgrade!

I'll get to the point now, basically I need you guys to help me upgrade it, I'm not much of a computer whizz and I normally go by the theory that if it costs more its better, but after a few years of having a computer I've now learned that this is not true. I'm not going to upgrade it straight away but a few good ideas would be nice to dwell upon untill I do.

Thanks alot for any response
cya all soon

 

[S-Gray]

What are your current Specs?

I think for this time of year something like...

Geforce 3 Ti200 or Geforce 4 Ti4200
256mb DDR Memory
Soundblaster Audigy or Soundblaster 5.1

Thats what i would use for Gaming, the rest is for everyday use such as:

40gb Harddrive (7200rpm)
Liteon 40*12*48
17" Monitor (Or if you have Cash go for a 19")

There is much more you can add, but i dont know what you wanna use your Comp for

 

[Super-Ted{KEA}]

first of all, thx SG!

My current spec is this -
P3 500 mhz
ATI Rage graphics card
128 mb RAM
13 gig HD
not sure bout my sound card but its not a good one
+usual stuff, 17" screen blah blah blah!

I'd just like a gaming comp, nothing really else i use it for, except the odd bit of work on word!

 

[throdgrain]

Yeah its old, replace all of it
Seriuosly, CS plays well whatever you have, its the good thing about the game, but the better system you have the better the game will look, and the smoother. I would replace you processor, motherboard, video card and put at least isdn in ther eif it was me, but then Im a rich cunt
You may find you can pick up a 1 gig p3 chip and it will go into your m board, but I dont know. If it did and you could pop a gf3 ti 200 in as well , as SG says, it would seriously speed up your pc.
For wether you can do all that I would ask Mr Embattle myself.
(Well we all have our uses )

 

[S-Gray]

Only prob is Emb. has gone to America for 3weeks..

The Spec of the System i put down there would cost about mmm £500/£600

 

[stog]

How much cash have you got to work with?
Here are a couple of sites I use to get stuff cheaply (well I think they're pretty cheap)
www.dabs.com
www.overclockers.co.uk

I haven't a clue about overclocking but its a good site with lots of mad modding stuff
My mate helped me build my own PC for £300 from these sites but that was only the case, athlon 1.6 xp, 256 mb ram and motherboard and that was last christmas. I think if you can find someone who knows how to set up stuff like hard drives and motherboards you can build a comp quite cheaply as you can salvage things like cd drive, monitor, hdd
dabs have a PNY gf4600 ti for £188 which is about as cheap as i've seen but still expensve (its been dropping in price though...he says as he waits for it to drop below £150)

 

[Tom]

Before you start counting your money, consider what exactly you will be using your PC for. Work? Games? Family stuff?

If it's a games machine you're after, I would get a good branded motherboard, a good quality ATX case, a medium-fast cpu, a good nice (but not ridiculously expensive) video card, and some reasonably fast RAM. You can save money by keeping your keyboard, mouse, vdu, hd.

There's a good common-sense line to take in audiophile hi-fi...spend more money at the source than at the point of delivery - ie get an expensive turntable and a medium priced amp with even cheaper speakers. I imagine it works just as well for computers - spend more on your motherboard than on your gfx card.

I would imagine your RAM is a bit too old to go into your new motherboard, so you might consider donating your current computer to the nearest school or library - realistically - how much is it worth, and how much use could you put it to?

 

[b00bie]

pfffffffffff

XP1800+ £70
256mb DDR pc2100 £60
motherboard around £100
Geforce3 Gainwood goldensample £120
17` monitor for around £140

you can pick up a SB live for around a tenner now.

thats all you need, you dont need to replace yer CD or HDD, it wont really effect yer performance.

My gaming rig plays anything i want.

XP1800+ £70
512mb DDR pc2100 £120
Soltek SL-DRV5 Mainboard £120
Asus Geforce3 Deluxe £310 (got it when they first came out)
maxtor 40gig HDD £99
SB Audigy £140
Phillips DVD+RW208 £250
Netgear Nic £20
17` Phillips 107E monitor £145
Custom Watercooled £170 for parts

And for sound i use the Cambridge Soundworks DTT3500 Digital
5.1 digital surround


Silentb00b{KEA}

 

[-adz-]

tbh he wouldn't need a new monitor for an upgrade

unless its on deaths door of course

 

[-adz-]

oh and i got my gainward gf4 for around 100 quid

 

[Trem]

B00b is teh nerd

I think your pc sounds fine apart from the gfx card and ram Teddeh, your processor is not exactly slow, get a gfx card matey then take it from there.

 

[S-Gray]

Well it all depends on if he wants to try out the new games which will be comin out soon.. the P3 would be fine for Counterstrike, but may not run as smooth on BF1942 for instance

 

[Super-Ted{KEA}]

thx

thanks alot for all your suggestions guys, givin me alot to think about + much of my computer would not need replacing, i.e moniter(19" philips one), mouse(microsoft intelli point optical) and keyboard(microsoft internet explorer)