Upgrading pc - Need advice on new components

Thefirestarter

Hey i was wondering could anybody help me with deciding which parts of my pc to upgrade ?

Heres my specs :

CPU : Pentium 4 3.06 ghz
Memory : 1 gb
Graphics Card : Nvidia Geforce 6200 LE 128 mb

I want to upgrade to play new games but my budget wouldnt be big
And i need the parts to be fitted by a place, as i would not know were to start

Cheers

SorGan

upgrade the ram......then the graphics card,:)

jonny72

To play games the very first thing you need is a graphics card. One gig of ram will be 'ok' for now and the processor isn't too ancient. However, the graphics card you have is quite bad.

What PC is it? a dell? if so which type?

If you take your PC in to get it upgraded it will cost a ridiculous fortune, do you have any friends who would know how to do this? (its very easy)

Basically the newer and more modern your PC is the better the graphics card you can put in it. If you can manage to pick up a 7600GT graphics card (one which doesn't require a cable) then your PC should be able to manage most games, just don't expect super smooth performance. The problem with getting something bigger/faster than a 7600gt is that your CPU will bottleneck it, and/or your ram and/or your motherboard.. in order to go faster you would need to upgrade to an entirely new machine..

Whats your budget?

Lastly, some advice.. if you buy a 2nd hand 7600gt and get a friend to install it, it will cost you 50 euros.

If you go down to your local PC shop, they will charge you 150 euros for the 7600gt and 50 to install it.

TerrorFirmer

IF you let us know where you're located, I'm sure someone here can fit it for you.

As said above, you will get fleeced if you pay a store to fit it - PC World charge about 70 euro - and it is, quite literally, a 20 second job.

7600GT, again, as above, is the best choice, and tenfold more powerful then a 6200LE. And most importantly, it's probably the best card your power supply can handle. Ideally you would also need more ram, even another 512 would work wonders.

Is your machine AGP or PCI-E? What games do you plan playing?

If it's the likes of Crysis, you'd need a new machine to be honest. Otherwise, a p4/7600GT is actually still quite good for games such as Half Life 2, Company of Heroes, COD4, etc...

Ricky91t

Pc world will totally rip you off!
I was quoted €70 for a 512mb stick of ram with installation on top
I payed €27 for 1gb stick and fitted it my self!
Have a look in some pc mags they have good tutorials for fitting stuff

Anti

If your in dublin there are a load of us up here that would be happy to fit the stuff for free.

Thefirestarter

ok, questions to be answered...
At jonny72 : it's a packard bell and my budget would be around 200-250

At Terror firmer : I'm located in finglas and it's PCI-E and yeah games like half life, Company of heroes and the like

I was thinking of upgrading my RAM to 2 or 3 gig's and graphics card in the region of 7600 or something similar

Thanks for the replys

TerrorFirmer

My recommendation: a 7600GT and another 512mb of ram to bring the total to 1.5gb. Shouldn't cost more then 80-90 euro including delivery from Dabs or Komplett and no point throwing more money into an old system - but that said, these choices will increase your performance tenfold and will enable you to run the mentioned games at high settings without too much difficulty.

Thefirestarter

Would it be that cheap ? Thanks for all your replies and could anybody recommend where i could get these parts fitted ?

Anti

Like said above any shop will rip you off with an instalation charge. Why not just ask someone on here to do it for you. Would only cost you the price of a pint then

toco123

Hey, firestarter, if you PM me, you can give me a call and i'd be happy to talk you through upgrading your own rig. That way it's free and shouldn't take longer than ten minutes.
TerrorFirmers 1.5GB mightn't be a good idea as you could buy the 512mb Ram and relise there is 512mbx2 instead of 1x1024mb inside!!

Buy these:
TwinMOS 667Mhz 2GB
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327222

And:
Point of View GeForce 7600GT 256MB, PCI-Express, DVI, w/BROTHER IN ARMS
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333142

That is a single Memory module so if there is 512mbx2 or 1024mbx1 , you could team the 2Gig with what ever is inside to get a 2.5Gig or 3Gig!!

That comes to 86euro excluding shipping and handling.


You could use the money from your other budget to contribute to a budget rig and by then you should be confident enough to make it!! Good luck!

TerrorFirmer

Good recommendations above. Hard to believe how cheap ram has gotten these days...:)

Thefirestarter

Ok i'll go with that option as soon as i have the money (i'm 16 so money is tight ha)
Thanks to every one with thier suggestions and help, it's very much appreciated

TerrorFirmer

Before you purchase, what's the model number of your machine - we'd need to know if its socket 478/775, as the ram could be ddr or ddr2.

toco123

Its okay i found it here:

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?pn=pb34232101&t=1409

It should be okay
DDR2 RAM and a full profile PCIE
Its LGA775 as well

firestarter.. im only 16 and im building and selling computers to my mates and making money on every one because they don't know the difference and brick and mortar shops can't match my prices either and dell cant match the quality!!

Thefirestarter

How did you know that my pc ? ha

Just wanted to Thank everyone who made a contribution and supplied info

toco123

There isn't that many packard bells with a graphics card!!! :D:D

Thefirestarter

haha :D