Advice?

[JohnnyK3886]

Hey.

The system specs for this particular comp are as follows:

Pentium 4 2.6 Ghz processor
D86GBF motherboard w/integrated audio
Maxtor D740X-6L HD
WSM-52Z CD-ROM drive
nVidia FX5600 256MB video card

I'm looking to fix the computer up and update it to be my secondary - what I was wondering is, given the hardware it's sitting on, what updates would you recommend?

And, finally, what updates hardware-wise should I avoid, to keep away from incompatibility and such? (I'm not incredibly tech savvy, so give me both the long and the short of it.)

Thanks!

 

[b1gapl]

Whats your budget? Maybe you can build another system, instead of updating that current one you have.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Whats your budget? Maybe you can build another system, instead of updating that current one you have.

Agreed. Let us know what aspect of your computer you would like to improve as well, ie: gaming, photoshopping, etc.

 

[Shannon]

Also, you didn't list your RAM.

You said that this would be your secondary machine, so what will you be using it for?

 

[Jorsoft]

Yeah, list your ram and it's speed. You'll prolly be better off using some parts from this system and putting them into a whole new one.

 

[JohnnyK3886]

It's got 512MB at 300Mhz, RAM-wise.

Sorry I forgot to mention that, know it's important. X_X

As to what I'd be using it for, definately a gaming rig. Not an all powerful, dominating-the-known-universe gaming rig, but a nice one. I already know I'm swapping out the infintisimal HD for a 250GB and replacing the RAM with at least 1GB, but from there... where should I go?

 

[Elbatrop1]

Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $79.99
This drive is SATA II which is backwards compatible with SATA I. Your motherboard will most likely support SATA.

pqi POWER Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $97.99
Even if your CPU will want to run this at a slower speed, it will be ok.

XFX PVT73KUAL3 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 8X Video Card - Retail $129.99
Definitely a good choice for a mid-range AGP vid card.

With those upgrades, you should have no problem playing any new game (albeit not at the highest settings).

If you have a higher budget or lower budget than what I put together, let us know.

 

[JohnnyK3886]

That's well within my budget! Thanks a lot for your quick responses, I appreciate it!

As a follow up, since I'll be pestering my relatives and such for computer hardware this Christmas, what would you suggest I ask for, given the upgrades you've suggested and the rig I'm working with?

 

[Ephexx793]

I would mostly suggest you just sit them down at a computer, and tell them "this is what I want" and YOU order it with their permission, I don't know about any of you guys, but I do NOT trust my parents ordering my hardware lol..

You can do that, or simply ask for money for x-mas and just buy it yourself.


~Ephexx

 

[Abadpojotard5]