Upgrading my PC, a ton of questions.

eaapops

Solid State Member
Messages
7
Ok I am a first time poster here, I looked at the sticky at the top of the page but I still have some questions. I AM upgrading this PC for gaming and gaming only.

Ok I am looking to upgrade my current pc, the stats on my current PC are

512 ram
1.6ghz processor
geforce 4 ti-4200 128mb gfx card
cable modem

I want to keep the price on upgrading these to under $800. My main problem is, I don't understand what to do about my motherboard and processor. The motherboard I have now is a Socket A, but when I was looking on Newegg I found that there are a lot of different socket types. Really I just don't know what to look for in a motherboard and processor.

For the processor I want something above 2 ghz, there are a lot of options, but there are other things that are complicating to me. Like the FSB, some of the processors have a certain mhz, but the others are integrated into the chip. I still don't understand what it means if it is integrated into the chip, and am really unsure what the certain mhz means. Is it better to have a higher mhz on the processor, or is it better to have a integrated processor?

Now for the motherboard, which socket if any is best for a gamer? I want an AMD processor, so I think that limits me to Socket A, Socket 939, and Socket 940. What should I look for in a motherboard? There are a few stats that are weird to me, Onboard LAN, and form factor. Also how do I know if my motherboard and processor are compatable?

Lastly, my graphics card. I plan on getting a Geforce 6800 128mb card. Is there a big difference between a 128mb card and a 256mb card?

Ok that's about it for now. Sorry for the extremely long post, but as you can tell I know NOTHING about the way computers work...I have had this rig for a long time and my friend built it for me, so this is the first time on my own. I tried calling the local PC shop and I couldn't explain all of this over the phone.
 
Lol, intergrated processor for gaming? No.... That means that the CPU (stands for central proccessing unit, which means just processor), is built into the motherboard. This is used to make really low end and cheap motherboards, and you don't want that. For gaming, definately go with AMD. I'll look up a good one for you in a bit. But socket A should be just fine, but you need a mobo that compacts with it ( uh a mobo means a motherboard, if you're wondering ). And yes...There is a pretty much 200% difference between 128mb card and a 256mb. Both ATI and Nvidea make very good cards, i've worked with both, and I like both companies. you can go with the geforce or the radeon, look at some of the other topics around here.
 
the 128 and 256 ram wont matter much, you will still get good performance out of a 128 model.

Go with a socket 939 motherboard.

and go with a amd 64 bit 939 processor.
 
I'm not sure about every component you wanna upgrade, but if you're only talking about upgrading your ram, mobo, graphics card, and processor, I would suggest getting:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-500&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-214&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-523&depa=1

I didn't give a mobo becuase I think you should wait for the nforce 4 boards to come out and then get either an nforce 4 ultra or SLi chipset board.
 
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