HELP- Need to upgrade

[alwasy confused]

I recently ordered Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and I know I need a better graphics card and maybe a whole new computer. My question is, what do I need to change, update, or replace in my computer so that it can run Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, so that it looks pretty good? What type of graphics card should I get/ which cards are better? Do I really need to get a whole new computer? Please can somebody help me!

My Computer Specs Current:
-Dell Dimension 4800
-Pentium 4 Processor 2.66 GHz
-Geforce fx 5200

 

[gust_nul]

it depends what your specs are now...
Nvidia are better, and it all depends on what you wanna spend..

 

[visionRAY]

Well, first I'd recommend something like a nVidia 7900GT for the graphics card. It's a really new, powerful card that should last quite a while and run Oblivion well. Either that or a 7600GT.

I'd be happy to recommend a new system or build, but--like gust_nul said--I don't know what your budget is like.

 

[cwiz]

i'm using the 7900GT and its a beast, love it! if u've got a PCI-E 16X slot, i would recommend it!

you might want to overclock your cpu too.... get some artic silver 5 thermal compound between your cpu and heatsink... u wont be sry
oh, yeah, how much ram u got?

 

[meefle]

Wow how is he suppose to OC a dell?

Nvidia are better

Both companies are pretty much equal. ATI has the best cards but their drivers (as soome ppl say, not me though) can ahve some "annoyances." ATI Cards can outperform nvidia cards in certain games and nvidia beats ati in other games. You could try a 512MB X1800XT, which performs better than the 7900gt in SOME games. Both are about equal, one beats the other in somethings, the other wins in other things.

If your goin to build, wait until july 24th, conroe will be out and AMD prices will drop, alot (an X2 3800+ is goin to be $170, now its $297).

 

[alwasy confused]

Thanks for all the help! The following should clear up some questions, and i have a few of my own.

(I HOPE) Full Specs:

-Memory (RAM): 512

-Processor Speed: 2.60 GHz

-Primary Video Contoller: AGP

-Clock Speed: 2.66 GHz ----- What the **** is this?

-Bus Speed 533 Ghz

-System Memory Speed: 333 Ghz

-System Memory Channel Mode: Dual

-Installed System Memory: 512 MB DDR SDRAM

-Cache Size: 512 kb

-Processor INtel(R) Pentium(R) 4CPU 2.66 GHz

-AGP Aperture: 128 MB------It allows me to change it to 256 MB, should I?



I have just a few more qestions to ask.

-If I plan to spend around $200 on a graphics card whcih one should I get?

-How much will changing the RAM to 1GB cost? Should I go higher then 1 GB?

-Is my Processor good enough at 2.66 GHz?

-What kind of Power supply should I get?

- What other things should I adress?

-What does it mean to overclock?

 

[alwasy confused]

Thanks for all the help! The following should clear up some questions, and i have a few of my own.

(I HOPE) Full Specs:

-Memory (RAM): 512

-Processor Speed: 2.60 GHz

-Primary Video Contoller: AGP

-Clock Speed: 2.66 GHz ----- What the **** is this?

-Bus Speed 533 Ghz

-System Memory Speed: 333 Ghz

-System Memory Channel Mode: Dual

-Installed System Memory: 512 MB DDR SDRAM

-Cache Size: 512 kb

-Processor INtel(R) Pentium(R) 4CPU 2.66 GHz

-AGP Aperture: 128 MB------It allows me to change it to 256 MB, should I?



I have just a few more qestions to ask.

-If I plan to spend around $200 on a graphics card whcih one should I get?

-How much will changing the RAM to 1GB cost? Should I go higher then 1 GB?

-Is my Processor good enough at 2.66 GHz?

-What kind of Power supply should I get?

- What other things should I adress?

-A lot of people tell me to build my own but id ont know how niether do my friends. Should i buy it from a company, which one? Or should i collect the parts and have the local tech bussiness guy look at it?

 

[meefle]

Overclockin is makin the CPU run faster than stock speed by either raisin the HTT (for AMDs) or FSB (for intels). For example, my P4 is stock 2.8Ghz with a 200MHz fsb and a 14x multiplier (14 x 200 = 2800), now i raised the FSB up to 230mhz so my clock speed went up to 3.22 (14 x 230 = 3220). THe only problem, you cant overclock with prebuilts (at least that i kno of), inless you get a new motherboard.

PSU - you could get a good 600W one for $120 with a $10 rebate. OCZ Gamexstream. It has 4 +12v rails at 18amps each. Its a beast. Or you could get a cheaper Antec.

You CPU, its ok, not the best though. Once again, if you build, wait till july 24th when AMD CPUs are cheap and conroes are out.

You could get another 512MB stick of RAM for around $30 (i'm assumin DDR since you have 333 mhz RAM Speed).

For the video card, you could get a X1800GTO which can be unlocked to a X1800XL. Either way, it'll run wut u want it to. Sapphire announced (maybe came out with, idk) the X1800GTO2 which is already unlocked (from 12 pixelpipelines to 16).

hope that answers your questions

 

[alwasy confused]

I've decided to change my whole computer and I already picked these parts:

-AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply
-Masscool AMD New K8 Cooling Fan for Socket 754/939 5F531B1M3CG
-Samsung DDR 400MHz 256MB (PC 3200) 184Pin Memory, Non-ECC, OEM
-SAPPHIRE 100152SR Radeon X850PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO AGP 4X/8X Video Card

What else do I need?