Upgrading PC

[Turran]

Hi all,
Got some cash knocking around (About £300-400) And wondering what upgrades i should aim for.
Currently I Have :
1GB Ram (Do i need more?)
Nvidia GeForce 5500 (Old I Know, Which New One Should I Get?)
250 Watt Powerpack (Should i aim for more?)
Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHZ Processor (Need changing?)
Dont know what my motherboard is, anyway i can check?
Also is a cooling case useful.

Thanks,

(Remember only £300-400 to spend)

 

[Coolan]

gonna be limited what u can change without having to replace everything, main things to look at will be graphics, which im guessing is probally agp, so something like a 6600gt agp version would be a worthwile upgrade, would also recommend new psu, those are the main 2 i would suggest, others are possibly new harddrive depending on what u have and what your motherboard supports.

 

[Neffneff]

i would look into getting a new power supply, more RAM, and a new gfx card, gfx card first, otherwise i reckon you should be fine, unless you're runnin out of hard drive space, then ofc sort that out.

 

[Tallen]

Hi all,
Got some cash knocking around (About £300-400) And wondering what upgrades i should aim for.
Currently I Have :
1GB Ram (Do i need more?)
Nvidia GeForce 5500 (Old I Know, Which New One Should I Get?)
250 Watt Powerpack (Should i aim for more?)
Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHZ Processor (Need changing?)
Dont know what my motherboard is, anyway i can check?
Also is a cooling case useful.

Thanks,

(Remember only £300-400 to spend)

RAM is the main upgrade i'd make (up to 2gig especially of your dual-logging), followed by a new PSU (prolly to 450). With the NVidia 5500 im guessing (without checking) thats a PCI-E card? For £100ish you can upgrade this easily to a better card.

Cooling cases are nice, but by no means necessary.

Spend the rest on your family

 

[confused]

Unfortuneatly the 5500 comes in both AGP and pci, so..

If Pci-e go for a 7900gt or x1800xt

AGP a 7800gs is best but, a 6800gt will run fine

Then with those you might be forced to get a new power supply, Tagan 450w psu should be sufficient or an enermax liberty if you'd prefer a modular case. However if you do get a better psu than this its always better, as you can transfer it into a new rig in the future if you require, and better psu means its running at lower %age useage and so will lower your power bill

Then if you really want to spend more money, a set of cheap value Geil ram/g*skill ram would be perfect

Edit: a 250w psu i'd be surprised if it would even run what you've already go

 

[Turran]

RAM is the main upgrade i'd make (up to 2gig especially of your dual-logging), followed by a new PSU (prolly to 450). With the NVidia 5500 im guessing (without checking) thats a PCI-E card? For £100ish you can upgrade this easily to a better card.

Cooling cases are nice, but by no means necessary.

Spend the rest on your family

I think my Nvidia 5500 is a PCI (How can i check) Im thinking of upgrading to the Nvidia 7600GT.
(P.S It's my birthday so i dont need to spend money on them they spend on moi

 

[confused]

If you do upgrade the gpu its definitely wise to get a new PSU.... the more powerful cards take alot more juice. It really isn't worth losing the whole system for £50

 

[Coolan]

If people are going to recommend pc components atleast get it right, the 5500 will be agp or pci, not pcie which is the latest connection type.

 

[Turran]

If you do upgrade the gpu its definitely wise to get a new PSU.... the more powerful cards take alot more juice. It really isn't worth losing the whole system for £50

Gunna upgrade to a 450watt PSU most likely - Will that support it? or do i need more

 

[confused]

450 will be fine, however make sure its from one of the top makes.

Seasonic, Tagan, OCZ, FSP, Enermax or Antec. All of those have a very good reliability reputation and its really not worth skimping on the psu

 

[Boni]

Gfx card could be improved and the ram too. Replace the PSU with a 450 as you plan before buying a new GFX card, they tend to drain power and a 250 is very light...

oh and goto start->run type dxdiag and youll get a direct x diagnostic thingy running which should tell you your mobo model.

 

[Turran]

Gfx card could be improved and the ram too. Replace the PSU with a 450 as you plan before buying a new GFX card, they tend to drain power and a 250 is very light...

oh and goto start->run type dxdiag and youll get a direct x diagnostic thingy running which should tell you your mobo model.

Thnx Mate, Helped me alot