Interested in upgrading

[girlgeek19]

Someone gave me a desktop for free and I'm interested in [attempting] to upgrade it so that it can handle modern games. Some of the games I would like to be able to play are Assassin's Creed, Halo (1,2,3), COD (4,5), and the Sims 3. What I'm wondering is if by the time I get done buying new parts for my existing system, will I have been better off just buying a new prebuilt system?

CURRENT HARDWARE:

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 1600 MHz (12 x 133) 1900+
Motherboard Name Asus A7V8X (6 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM)
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8377 Apollo KT400
System Memory

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT (Microsoft Corporation) (128 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 XT

Storage:
IDE Controller VIA Bus Master IDE Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive MAXTOR 4K060H3 (60 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive Memorex DVD16+/-DL4RWlD2 (DVD+R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive VERBATIM 401248AL (40x/12x/48x CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

I just copy and pasted fom an Everest report. Sorry if I sound clueless. (Which I unfortunately am. I'm trying to learn.)

Thanks in advance!

 

[DawnOfDoom]

Sorry to disapoint you, but upgrading an old system like that is useless. We can help set up a brand new build for you if you can give us a budget. That is if your willing to assemble your own PC. I would salvage the optics from that old PC (CD/DVD Drive = Optics)

Sooo let us know a budget and we'll try our best in guiding you to PC excelence.

 

[girlgeek19]

Hm. I figured that was the case.

What's the minimum I would have to spend to get something resembling a gaming rig? I'm a college student, so $$$ is precious.

I already have a decent sound system, monitor, and keyboard/mouse. Oh, and would I have to buy a new case too, or is mine fine? I'm willing to try to build one, though this will be my first time.

Thanks for the help.

 

[DawnOfDoom]

depends on what case you have. also having the monitor, Keyboard and mouse does help with the budget alot.

I'd say somewhere inthe neighborhood of 600-700 bucks for what you wana do. I'll throw a quick build together and let some of the other guys cme in here and tweek it a bit if they have any disagreements.

Would you also be interested in Overclocking?

 

[girlgeek19]

I know what overclocking is, but that's it. I'm open to anything...especially if it'll save money.

 

[DawnOfDoom]

well OCing isnt going to save you any money just cost you a bit more in the quality of parts you must buy to do it well. anyways that budget sound good to you?

 

[Trotter]

Once we know what you can afford, we will find what will fit into that amount. It is totally up to you, of course. Compared to your current computer a $350 build would be killer.

 

[95BlackGA]

Once we know what you can afford, we will find what will fit into that amount. It is totally up to you, of course. Compared to your current computer a $350 build would be killer.

Agreed, for around $350, you can get a decent setup. If your power supply is any good, you may be able to use it to save some money. Depending on your case, if it's big enough, you will be fine using it too. You would have to use your optics (the DVD burner mainly), and you could use the hard drive for backup.

Newegg.com - ASRock A780LM AM2+/AM2 AMD RS780L (760G) Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards (If you're not going to play graphic intensive games, you would be able to get away with the onboard graphics to save some money too.)

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops (You could also spend a little more and get a Kuma 7750, which is a great processor, and well worth the extra little bit.)

Newegg.com - GeIL Black Dragon 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory (I have absolutely no idea if this is any good or not, just chose something that wasn't the cheapest thing on their, to give an example)

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards (This will hold you over on graphic intensive games for a while. You may not be able to play all games on max settings, but it will get the job done with most games. It also has integrated HDMI, which is good for HD playback, if that's something that may interested you.)

Newegg.com - Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives (A good drive, that will give you a lot of storage for the newer games that like to eat up hard drive space. Plus, it will give you better performance over the 5400rpm IDE drive)

Newegg.com - Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies (Have heard a lot of good things about these power supplies.)

All that comes out to $351.94 before shipping, and has $15 in mail in rebates.

 

[girlgeek19]

That sounds like a decent machine to me. Some things I can upgrade later when I have the cash, can't I? (RAM, graphics card, processor)

Also, I'm a little bit nervous about the building part. Was it as difficult as you thought it would be for your first build? I don't want to ruin $350+ worth of hardware.

Oh, and how do I know if my case will work?

Sorry for all the questions. You all are very helpful!

 

[Gilles]

You shouldn't have a problem building your PC. It's plug and play; things won't fin in places they aren't supposed to go. There are plenty of people here who can help, so be sure to take your time, and ask questions.