I am leaning to buy a new computer but i was wondering if there were any cheap upgrades i could do instead?
Question by Adub: I am leaning to buy a new computer but i was wondering if there were any cheap upgrades i could do instead?
Currently i have a Compaq its about 3 years old it has a Intel Pentium 4 processor 631( with hyper-threading) , and 2 gigs of ram , a 160 hard drive i have a ATI Radeon Express 200 series( which i think is terrible but idk how terrible) . I mostly use my computer for world of warcraft and thats what i am looking to upgrade it for . I have been using this computer and it runs way to slow for games but i have been just toughing it out for a while now but i was going to start looking for a new computer but i just wanted to kno if their would be some easy upgrades that would save me from dropping 00 for a new computer. Any suggestions will be valued i already have an idea new computers i would get , just wondering more of what upgrades i could do instead
Best answer:
Answer by Boring
P4 is outdated. Therefore you will need a whole new motherboard. Getting a new mb will require you to get new ram, power supply etc most likely. You need to just get a whole new computer it sounds like.
You can get a super good computer for 00. I just built one for that price and can play everything I’ve thrown at it so far with setting on max with no lag. (so far only sims 3 and bad company 2 iv tried)
What do you think? Answer below!
Graphics= PCIE: ATI 4670 or more money 5770 those range from $80 to $250
or AGP depending on slot if AGP then i recommend AGP ATI 3650 around $90 good card.
CPU: Should be fine by itself
RAM: if you want get two more gigs: im running 2GB Kingston and running fine w/ windows 7
HDD: 500GB Seagate SATA around $60-$80.
that should be it
Agree save the money for new system
You are 2 generations behind on processor and video
Unless your motherboard supports core2 and pci-e graphics, there are no upgrades for it that are going to do much
Yes, you need a new PC. May i consider building your own? You can get a PC With: AMD Athlon II x2 240 2.8GHz Dual Core CPU – 58.99$, 4GB DDR3 Ram – 104.99$, ATI Radeon 4770 512MB – $104.99, RAIDMAX Tornado ATX-238WR Black Case – $29.99, Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2SB 500W PSU, and an MSI NF750-G55 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard? It’s total around $500!!! and it can play any of todays games! Hope this helps, William
If you want to upgrade only, then the first thing I’d do is:
1. Get a better processor. Single cores are waaay out of date. If you can get a q6600 quad core 2.4. These go for around $120
2. If you want to run quad core you’ll defiantly need to upgrade your motherboard. Id recommend a geforce 750i. You can get one as low as $80
3. Upgrade your GPU (graphics card) try a 9800gt for around $100
4. If you do get all these, you’ll need a better power supply. I’d recommend a 700+ watt psu. These are dirt cheap now.
5. and of course more storage, you can get 500Gb hdd for $50.
These are all moderate upgrades, but its a huge step up from what your currently using. As you can see you can pretty much build a new pc for just a couple hundred bucks, and with those components you can run wow on all the highest settings.
I’d recommend using TigerDirect.com I’ve been building pcs with them for years.
You might be able to upgrade. Give us a computer model name to work with so we can check the specs and upgrade options.
Some motherboards of that vintage will accept dual core processors, others won’t. The Radeon Express 200 is a chipset that supports PCI Express 1.0a, so it’s very likely you could add a video card to your existing system.
You won’t be able to play the latest games on high settings, but you may very well be able to upgrade your systems for ~ $200 to something that plays WoW fluently.
WoW is an online game, isn’t it? Perhaps the slowdown is your internet connection. Also, if your HD has less than 15% of its total capacity filled, that will definitely slow things down.
How much does WoW costs anyway? Are you really prepared to spend hundreds of dollars just so you can play a $50 game?
This is an old computer, but its uselessness really depends on what you expect out of it. My tastes are much more conservative than yours – I’m happy playing the original Half-Life and games based on the creaky-as-all-hell QuakeIII engine, so my circa 2003 Toshiba Satellite is perfect.
To get gaming performance, you’d need a modern CPU and graphics card, and that requires both a modern motherboard to plug them into, and a powerful power supply (about 450 watts) to keep them going.
Scrap your computer, make your own.It’ll be cheaper.
On Newegg, you can find a Radeon HD 4850, Anthlon II X3, 2 GB of DDR2 800, ASUS M4A875-M motherboard, and a PSU that can support it all for about $320. I got it, and so far, can play any damn game I play on it on high (admittedly, i got a pretty low res monitor). While you’re at it, might as well drop another $30-$50 to get it to 4 GB of RAM, if you’re thinking of using 64-bit OS. And if you feel like getting a HDD, you can get a SATA 250 GB for $40-$50.
Its worked for me so far. I used to have a Dimension 3000, and this was like a blessing.