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Budget Gaming Upgrade
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05-05-2009 10:57pm#1
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bigger GFX cards sometimes need bigger PSU , 260w seems kinda low
everything else I would agree with.
Sample parts attached there from komplett , lots of room to move on the price , but that should cover everything .Im sure someone will correct what I have picked as is the boards way
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The mobo isn't that old, but what CPU is in there? You'll survive with an X2 but on the other hand there's no point upgrading everything else if an old Athlon 2000+ is bottlenecking the entire system... :rolleyes: That said, unless its a Phenom 2 in there (yeah right!) a 9800GT is utter overkill. A GDDR3-based HD4650 or maybe HD4750 (if they ever appear) would be enough, and they're cheap (as low as €55 on Komplett) and need very little power (~40W max load in real life). If you do need a CPU urgently then you can get a 4850e (45W) or a 5200 (65W, if you replace the PSU) for €59 on Komplett. 2GB of DDR2 RAM can set you back as little as €22 there too.
And don't worry about bricking the system, that could only happen if you had to flash the BIOS (which is highly unlikely). Changing inapporpriate settings might prevent you from booting but just yank the battery out, put it back in and reset the time and it's still good Just bear in mind that if you want to avoid reinstalling Windows (which is safer and easier IMHO) you'll need a second bay to stick the new HDD in. 320GB are out of stock but the 500GB Samsung is only €48 anyway.
And is that PSU in there "Delco" or "Delta"? Big difference. If the latter, could you post its specs or a clear pic of its label? A reasonably modern Delta 250W might support an entry-level graphics card without a forced upgrade - they're dead solid units If you do need a new PSU that cheapie 500W Axpertec Joeface suggested should be grand.
And Nog, I don't think spending €500+ on a system with a Q8200 and still needing a GPU upgrade after is really such a good idea...
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Hard Drive: I would just add a cheap 160GB, some people simply don't use much space, and apart from the odd few games, leave their HD relatively vacant (realistically, a few GB will cover music and pictures for the average user, so an extra 80GB would be more then enough to supplement the 40GB). Your friend doesn't sound like someone who uses a lot of space if the 40Gb has sufficed until now. Personally I still have a 250GB drive, and have 10 recent games installed (each of which would occupy more then something like Total War: Rome), as well as about 100 movies and a few gigs of music and pictures, and still have a decent amount of space left, to give you an idea.
Ram: It depends on what the configuration is at the moment. If its 1x1GB, then another simple 1GB is fine - if its 2x512mb, then you'll have to just replace both really, 2GB kits are so reasonable.
Graphics Card: If an X300 has done until now, then something cheap like the HD4550 is a fantastic upgrade and several times faster. Now, that said, the X300 is enough for Rome: Total War, so the fact you've said she can't even run the intro movies would suggest her machine is probably riddled with other problems - spyware, adware, viruses, or so on. So a complete reinstall might be necessary anyway. Make sure when you're doing so, to install something like AVG Anti-Virus and Spybot S&D to protect her machine. I've included the 4650 in the list, in case she wants to play newer games, but the ten euro cheaper 4550 would definitely suffice for Rome Total War at high settings. Also note its the DDR3 version of the 4650, the rest are DDR2 and much slower, in case you're wondering at the price difference between it and the cheapest 4650.
CPU: Hard to tell if it needs replacing, we'd need to know what it is. Even a relatively low end Athlon 64 is still totally fine for games like Total War, and a low end X2 would definitely not need replacing in this instance. If its a Sempron though, and it easily could be if the machine was bought somewhere like PC World, a new CPU would be nice.
Here's an example, and note you might need a new PSU as well, depending on as Solitare said, if its Delta or not, and I'm not sure what the 12v is like on that unit (going from past reviews of 300/350w models, I'd imagine it could only be 12-14a on the 12v):
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Yup. Just throw in some cheap RAM, a cheap graphics card (HD4550 or maybe GDDR3 HD4650) and a cheap 250-320GB HDD and you're off. CPU seems decent (funny speed though...), nForce4 mobo is okay for it and at least 2GB RAM, and even if you do put in a better GPU those I listed consume little more than what they'd be replacing anyway 0
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