Need some help with my laptop please.

[ki9090]

Hi all. Im 16 and am low on cash, usually my pearents buy the family Pc but their has been many things getting in the way of a long awaited new PC (relative with cancer, some car brake downs, buying a new car, ect ect.) My comp that im on know is really old but is not the problem.

My dad got for free from work a Compaq Armada m700, now its not to bad for an old rig (64mb ram, 650mhz) but i got some questions i could not find anywhere on the net.

First i wan this thing in shape for playing some games (not doom 3 or halflife 2) im talking Age of Empires 2, Quake 3 arena, Original Unreal Tournament and some downlaoded online games (freeware). So most of my games have a min requirement of 500mhz 128 ram lets say.

Now first i know this comp can get sup to 512mb of ram but it SDRAM 100mhz, my question is how this be in a game, will that 512 ram be slow and more like 256 ram or what? Whats the deal between SD and DDR and 100mhz and p100 ect.

Second and last is i have no idea if i can upgrade the Video card in here, im not talking huge maybe like a 32mb card Geforce 2 or some thing of the like, would it be possible?

Thanks alot guys for the help, one day (maybe when i get a job, to busy with school now) i can afford to get them nice 3000 dollar rigs but you gotta start some where.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Nubius]

Laptops graphics are integrated. I don't know a lot about laptops by any means but I don't believe you will be able to upgrade that.

SDRAM is referring to the older ram PC100 and PC133

DDR is talking about the newer RAM PC2100, PC2700, PC3200 and now they even have like PC4200 but that's either in DDR2 modules (the 2 indicates it's just the next generation of DDR) or some overclockable RAM.

will that 512 ram be slow and more like 256 ram or what?

I don't understand? Why would 512mb be more like 256? More RAM the better, especially considering it's the old style of RAM and whatnot, unless you put in a slower stick of RAM, 512mb is always better than 256mb

Thanks alot guys for the help, one day (maybe when i get a job, to busy with school now) i can afford to get them nice 3000 dollar rigs but you gotta start some where.

lol you don't need 3000 to make a good rig.

I've put in a little over $1000 on mine, but that's over the course of like.....7-8 months, couple different cases, lots of cooling and stuff like that and I consider it a decent machine.

 

[ki9090]

thanks for the reply, so you think 1 ghz and 512 ram will be good for games like age of empires/mythology, enemy terrirtory quake 3 arena and original unreal (my doubt was casue of the 100mhz speed that the 512mb ram would not be good enough).

Damn i really need like a 32mb graphics card in their, their must be a way for me to get one in their (at least a 16mb one) so i can play diablo 2 quake 3 and my beloved Age of X series.

You this help in my search of a graphics card???
http://www.pangolin.com/LD2000/dock/compaq.htm
Its a docking bay that has 3 PCI slots, could those slots be used for a graphics card?

So i would for like 250-300 bucks be running a laptop thats 1ghz, has a 32mb vid card, 512mb of ram (even if it is only 100mhz) plus be able to hook it up to a monitor (supposedly it also has a composite out so even a TV). Wow not bad for a free lap top. But are the PCI slots on that dock for graphics cards?