New hardware

tenacious-me

Hey, just wondering, Iv got a fairly basic PC, looking to get a better one in the next year, but I have this for the moment:

Processor: 2.53 GHZ Pentium 4
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9000 64MB
512 MB DDR-SDRAM
Windows XP

Basically, I need a new Graphics card and probably 2x1GB RAM
Any recommendations for both, wouldn't be a fan of spending a huge amount, especially on the Graphics card, but still I'd be flexible. Komplett.ie has a good selection, ive just being out of PC gaming for a long time so I have no idea what's what.
cheers!

uberpixie

tenacious-me wrote: »

Hey, just wondering, Iv got a fairly basic PC, looking to get a better one in the next year, but I have this for the moment:

Processor: 2.53 GHZ Pentium 4
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9000 64MB
512 MB DDR-SDRAM
Windows XP

Basically, I need a new Graphics card and probably 2x1GB RAM
Any recommendations for both, wouldn't be a fan of spending a huge amount, especially on the Graphics card, but still I'd be flexible. Komplett.ie has a good selection, ive just being out of PC gaming for a long time so I have no idea what's what.
cheers!

If you wish to play modern games well you will need at least a dualcore....

If you wish to play older titles a singlecore P4 will be fine when you add a better gfx card and a bit of ram.

however your choices will be limited as I assume your radeon 9000 is an AGP card?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=346359
(fastest AGP card on the market) €106.49. You can go a little cheaper though.

2 gig of DDR1 pc3200 ram will cost at around €70
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=309845 (example price from komplett.ie)

Still even with the above upgrades you will be playing any modern game @ min spec if you are lucky....

e.g cod 4 min specs

Recommended Specs"

* CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core or better is recommended
* RAM: 1G for XP; 2G for Vista is recommended
* Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space
* Video card: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI Radeon X1800 or better



"Required (Minimum) Specs"

* CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 2.4 GHz or AMD(R) Athlon(TM) 64 2800+ processor or any 1.8Ghz Dual Core Processor or better supported
* RAM: 512MB RAM (768MB for Windows Vista
* Harddrive: 8GB of free hard drive space
* Video card: NVIDIA(R) Geforce(TM) 6600 or better or ATI(R) Radeon(R) 9800Pro or better


EDIT
Up and coming game: Batman Arkham Asylum specs:
framerate:

Minimum

* CPU: Intel single core 3 Ghz or AMD equivalent
* Memory: XP = 1 GB, Vista = 2GB
* GPU: Shader Model 3 NVidia 6600 or ATI 1300 or higher

Recommended

* CPU: Pentium D 3Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Dual core)
* Memory: XP = 2GB, Vista = 3GB
* GPU: NVidia 7900 GT or higher

tenacious-me

im not actually sure if it's AGP or PCI
Ive looked at the pictures of both, and I opened the PC and tried to get the Graphics card out, but cant figure out how to release it to get a good look, 2 of the 3 insert bits come out, but i cant figure out the release, sorry this is total noob stuff!
Also would the cpu be able to handle 2gb of ram or would i need to start some proper cooling etc?

uberpixie

tenacious-me wrote: »

im not actually sure if it's AGP or PCI
Ive looked at the pictures of both, and I opened the PC and tried to get the Graphics card out, but cant figure out how to release it to get a good look, 2 of the 3 insert bits come out, but i cant figure out the release, sorry this is total noob stuff!
Also would the cpu be able to handle 2gb of ram or would i need to start some proper cooling etc?

Define what you mean by CPU? (lots of people can mislable things CPU or Harddrive so one does have to ask.):pac:

2gig of ram gives off little to no heat, you will not need any extra cooling at all.

If your gfx card has a clip holding it in then I would guess its agp. Have a look at the end of the card, there will be a retention clip of some kind holding it in. (you will figure out how to release it handily enough. )

All in all don't kill yourself upgrading your present PC it is a dead end system, unless you want some little extra kick in older games.

Again I would refer you to what game devs are looking for theses days to run their games: a dual core CPU.

Time for a new pc or a new build tbh. Unless of course you want to learn a little about the insides of PCs or want to build in the future, learning by adding little bits to an old pc is a good way to start. Just understand modern games are not going to look fantastic and or run at all well.

What type of games do you like to play?

tenacious-me

I meant Processor I guess, but if there's no major effect, that's grand.
I have a duo-core laptop but the graphics card on it is useless so it's rubbish for games, I reckon I'm just going to a fairly low key upgrade on this with the aim to transfer anything I buy like the RAM to a new PC,
I got into PC modding a few summers ago but kind of lost interest after a while, and now looking at this PC ive just forgotten everything!
I play FPS's mostly, and RTS's and the likes, but most of what I want is on the Ps3, though nothing like a FPS on a PC.
But i'm currently playing EVE online, the mmo, and it needs shader model 2 and ridiculously enough this graphics card doesnt support it, I thought it would because it ran halflife 2 fine when that came out, but I guess that's kinda old now,
sorry bit of a rant there
Also looking to buy a new PC in the summer, and though I would have never considered this a few years back, there are PCs in aldi every 4 months are so with what seem to be wicked specs for ~600-800 quid. There was a laptop in it last week for 600ish with 4gbs of ram and a duocore 2.22ghz processor and what looks to be a decent graphics card
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/58_8733.htm
thar!
I dunno, would you trust these kinds of deals?
Thanks again for the advice

uberpixie

tenacious-me wrote: »

I reckon I'm just going to a fairly low key upgrade on this with the aim to transfer anything I buy like the RAM to a new PC,

Good luck with that....

DDR1 is not used on any modern motherboard, it is all DDR2 or DDR3 and the DDR standards are NOT compatible with each other at all.

AGP is a dead standard, all modern GFX cards are PCI express x16 speed, and AGP is in no way compatible wih pci express!

The ram and AGP gfx card you buy will NOT transfer to a new pc, this is why I have described your present PC as a dead end system.

tenacious-me wrote: »

I got into PC modding a few summers ago but kind of lost interest after a while, and now looking at this PC ive just forgotten everything!

bit of reading will fix that very quickly.

tenacious-me wrote: »

I play FPS's mostly, and RTS's and the likes, but most of what I want is on the Ps3, though nothing like a FPS on a PC.
But i'm currently playing EVE online, the mmo, and it needs shader model 2 and ridiculously enough this graphics card doesnt support it, I thought it would because it ran halflife 2 fine when that came out, but I guess that's kinda old now,
sorry bit of a rant there

A new AGP would fix that for eve and you can go a little cheaper than the 3850 and get by with EVE.

tenacious-me wrote: »

Also looking to buy a new PC in the summer, and though I would have never considered this a few years back, there are PCs in aldi every 4 months are so with what seem to be wicked specs for ~600-800 quid. There was a laptop in it last week for 600ish with 4gbs of ram and a duocore 2.22ghz processor and what looks to be a decent graphics card
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/58_8733.htm
thar!
I dunno, would you trust these kinds of deals?
Thanks again for the advice

Specs on the desktops are alright but they can shaft you on the power supplies which limits what gfx cards you can put in them unless ou upgrade the power supply as well which is an extra 60-100 quid for a dacent psu.

The laptop above would be alright in games, but the gfx card is still fairly weak and you would still have to dial down setings in games.

I would consider building, you can build a great spec for 800 euro.

PogMoThoin

Pointless upgrade IMO, wait for a new pc as even upgraded that a poor pc not capable of modern games. Dual core is a must and pc parts have never been cheaper than they are today

tenacious-me

uberpixie wrote: »

I would consider building, you can build a great spec for 800 euro.

You reckon? And is it hard to do.....?

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Pointless upgrade IMO, wait for a new pc as even upgraded that a poor pc not capable of modern games. Dual core is a must and pc parts have never been cheaper than they are today

Last time a few friends and I decided to do that, things were quite expensive alright, so ended up abandoning ship....

uberpixie

tenacious-me wrote: »

You reckon? And is it hard to do.....?

Not that hard at all IF you do your research. Reading a few how to guides and playing around with old computers would be a good start.

CustomPC is a decent pc hardware mag to read and has good articles on pc building and parts reviews along with a section on modding.

I think you upgrading your old pc would be a good start.

All in all if you really want to build you can build.....

tenacious-me

I think the main thing in relation to that is....
Is it a simple matter of researching what would work best with what you want, your budget, etc, and then getting all the individual components and just putting them altogether, or would there be fiddly bits like soldering involved, I really don't think i'd be capable of soldering things, to pick a single thing off of the top of my head which would be a concern!
I know Maplin has some really good looking cases to start with, though I reckon buying off of komplett would be cheaper....