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Thread ID: 58265	2005-05-26 21:55:00	Upgrade Help	Sleepy (7202)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
358772	2005-05-26 21:55:00	Hello, I've been asked to upgrade my sisters computer so that they can play the latest games on there computer (racing games). Currently they have the following specs, Intel Celeron 2GHz, 256DDR RAM 266, some motherboard, with on board video. I was looking at getting: Gigabyte GV-N66T128D 6600GT graphics card 2 sticks of 512MB DDR RAM All this came to a total of about $450. But however my friend wanted his computer upgraded, and well did a bit of searching and come up with: Gigabyte GA-K8NS-939 Socket 939 nForce3 Motherboard Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 939 Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 939 These came to a price of around $400. Now what would be better, getting an alright graphics card, with more ram. Or getting a faster CPU, and motherboard, use the current 256RAM, and getting a cheap (Gecube ATI Radeon 9250 128MB AGP 8X Graphics Card) for $60. And now my other friend suggests to get a AMD Athlon XP3200+ 2.2GHz, probalary mid range board 150bux which comes to about $410. So with these 3 scenarios, what would be the best value for money, for games. So many decisions to choose from. Thanks.	Sleepy (7202)
358773	2005-05-26 22:08:00	I don't think any of the scenarios is ideal. Really what you want is maybe option 3 plus more ram plus a new vid card. Worst case scenario would be option 1 coz your're still stuck with the weak cpu	Greg (193)
358774	2005-05-26 22:24:00	Video card and ram. Comp will then play the games fine, If not as well has a better balanced system. Is it a brand name machine by anychance?, if so you maybe looking at a new copy of Xp as well.....That is if you swap out the motherboard.	Metla (12)
358775	2005-05-26 22:28:00	Video card and ram. Comp will then play the games fine, If not as well has a better balanced system. Is it a brand name machine by anychance?, if so you maybe looking at a new copy of Xp as well.....That is if you swap out the motherboard. so my first option would be alright? the 6600GT, and 1GB of RAM. Nope its not a brand name, OEM. So your saying that bringing the video card, and ram higher, would make it run as good as a better cpu/mobo with a crap video card, low ram?	Sleepy (7202)
358776	2005-05-26 22:29:00	I don't think any of the scenarios is ideal. Really what you want is maybe option 3 plus more ram plus a new vid card. Worst case scenario would be option 1 coz your're still stuck with the weak cpu Yeah well, they can't afford both, so its either one or the other, damn annoying decisions.	Sleepy (7202)
358777	2005-05-26 22:36:00	so my first option would be alright? the 6600GT, and 1GB of RAM. Nope its not a brand name, OEM. So your saying that bringing the video card, and ram higher, would make it run as good as a better cpu/mobo with a crap video card, low ram? Best is new board, cpu, ram and Graphics. But I agree with metla, the graphics card is more important. So long as the existing board has an AGP slot to install it into...........	pctek (84)
358778	2005-05-26 22:40:00	Best is new board, cpu, ram and Graphics. But I agree with metla, the graphics card is more important. So long as the existing board has an AGP slot to install it into........... yep its got an AGP slot, just the crap on board just doesn't do it lol 32MB i think it is. But what order do you put that in? say video card/ram now, cpu new board later? or vice versa?	Sleepy (7202)
358779	2005-05-26 22:49:00	mr Metla.........um.........new copy xp if one swaps out the mobo ?.......ah.....in my experience, no doubt quite a bit less than yours of course I've found that a repair install usually sorts out xp after a mobo swap ....i'm doin one right now actually...diffrent chipsets and all dont seem to matter i just bang the new mobo in and then run a repair install and that seems to cure it all ....sure you may often need to reactivate but that's not really a prob.....	drcspy (146)
358780	2005-05-26 22:57:00	You do a repair install with the customers recovery cd's onto new hardware? I would imagine you pull that stunt using your own copy of XP and the customers XP serial (as I do) then ring MS to get it activated.All fine and dandy but most people with brand name comps don't happen to have a real copy of Xp handy. And machines with dirty installs never run as crisply as a virgen install, This makes a pretty big impact when it comes to games with intensive requirments, Racing games (in particuler racing sims) require a good 50 fps in order to take corners at 150mph.....	Metla (12)
358781	2005-05-26 23:01:00	so my first option would be alright? the 6600GT, and 1GB of RAM. Nope its not a brand name, OEM. So your saying that bringing the video card, and ram higher, would make it run as good as a better cpu/mobo with a crap video card, low ram? Either way you are going to have certain components creating a bottleneck, Much rather have the smallish bottleneck created by the comparitivly weak cpu (Doom3 only asks for a 1.5ghz cpu) then by the video card, The performance of a 9250 is so poor that you would have wasted your money. Have you though of dropping a P4 cpu into the current setup with some ram and a video card?	Metla (12)
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