Trying to bring some new life into an old PC

Shindig · 12-07-2007, 06:20 PM

I posted this in the motherboard forum as well, but I figured I'd post here here as well...I need all the help I can get.

I currently have a E-Machines T2042...Pretty old, from like 2002 I believe. It serves me just fine for daily activities and such, but I also use it to play World of Warcraft. But I cant really do much into the game due to the low framerate I get, even with all the videos settings turned down. So I bought 2x512 of RAM to see if that would speed it up, and it did a little bit, but it still lags really bad in cities/heavily populared areas and instances, which is usually where you need it to be smooth. So instead of spending the cash on a brand new computer, I was thinking about just getting a new motherboard or video card.

I dont really need any fancy schmancy stuff here...if I can just play WoW at a constant 20-30fps and go about daily normal internet activities, then kickass, thats all I want/need. I'm what you would call a computer n00b...Another thing is, I DO NOT want Vista, I want to stay with XP.

So what all would I need to accomplish this? I was just thiking about getting a decent mother board and a decent video card, and maybe upping to 2gigs of ram or so. What would you reccomend for my situation?

Kilauea · 12-07-2007, 07:20 PM

First things first, what is your computer, what CPU, what GPU, how much RAM, etc.

Shindig · 12-07-2007, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilauea

First things first, what is your computer, what CPU, what GPU, how much RAM, etc.

Here the page with the specs

http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/rev..._specs749.html

I've upgraded it to a gig of RAM.

Kilauea · 12-08-2007, 02:14 AM

Have a look at this, it will give u an idea: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srl

Kilauea · 12-08-2007, 02:19 AM

After having had a look at your current computer and the requirements for the game, I believe that the component you'd need to upgrade the most now would be the video card, but that is probably a bad idea because we are unsure if there is even a slot on that mobo for a new GPU, we can already assume that the PSU won't be able to power a brand new GPU.... So you'd most likely have to get a new PSU, mobo and GPU, while you're at it, you might as well get a new computer that you could build yourself... using some cheap(as in not pricy) components which you could always upgrade down the road.

Just out of curiosity, what is your available budget ?

oscaryu1 · 12-08-2007, 03:53 AM

More RAM, a better GFX... and possibly a better PSU.

Shindig · 12-08-2007, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilauea

After having had a look at your current computer and the requirements for the game, I believe that the component you'd need to upgrade the most now would be the video card, but that is probably a bad idea because we are unsure if there is even a slot on that mobo for a new GPU, we can already assume that the PSU won't be able to power a brand new GPU.... So you'd most likely have to get a new PSU, mobo and GPU, while you're at it, you might as well get a new computer that you could build yourself... using some cheap(as in not pricy) components which you could always upgrade down the road.

Just out of curiosity, what is your available budget ?

My budget is nothing at the moment. I have a job intewview on the 10th, so once I start the job the budget is basically not that big a problem. I might just go ahead and build a whole new computer from ibuypower.com for around $900-1000 or so.

oscaryu1 · 12-08-2007, 11:18 PM

$1000 ibuypower.com = $600 or so in custom building...

You can get a quite powerful rig if you build it by yourself...

12-07-2007, 06:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
Shindig New Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 5	Trying to bring some new life into an old PC I posted this in the motherboard forum as well, but I figured I'd post here here as well...I need all the help I can get. I currently have a E-Machines T2042...Pretty old, from like 2002 I believe. It serves me just fine for daily activities and such, but I also use it to play World of Warcraft. But I cant really do much into the game due to the low framerate I get, even with all the videos settings turned down. So I bought 2x512 of RAM to see if that would speed it up, and it did a little bit, but it still lags really bad in cities/heavily populared areas and instances, which is usually where you need it to be smooth. So instead of spending the cash on a brand new computer, I was thinking about just getting a new motherboard or video card. I dont really need any fancy schmancy stuff here...if I can just play WoW at a constant 20-30fps and go about daily normal internet activities, then kickass, thats all I want/need. I'm what you would call a computer n00b...Another thing is, I DO NOT want Vista, I want to stay with XP. So what all would I need to accomplish this? I was just thiking about getting a decent mother board and a decent video card, and maybe upping to 2gigs of ram or so. What would you reccomend for my situation? Last edited by Shindig; 12-07-2007 at 10:02 PM.

12-07-2007, 07:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
Kilauea Gold Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Canada Age: 24 Posts: 414	First things first, what is your computer, what CPU, what GPU, how much RAM, etc. __________________ 5½ years old rig ? P4 1.7Ghz MSI MS-6547E 768mb RAM ATI Radeon 7200 40Gb Seagate HDD w/ Xp 7Gb Maxtor HDD w/ Linux TigerPlus 300 Watt PSU (never heard of such company) Broken LG CD-rom drive that seems to work sometimes

12-08-2007, 02:14 AM	#4 (permalink)
Kilauea Gold Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Canada Age: 24 Posts: 414	Have a look at this, it will give u an idea: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srl __________________ 5½ years old rig ? P4 1.7Ghz MSI MS-6547E 768mb RAM ATI Radeon 7200 40Gb Seagate HDD w/ Xp 7Gb Maxtor HDD w/ Linux TigerPlus 300 Watt PSU (never heard of such company) Broken LG CD-rom drive that seems to work sometimes

12-08-2007, 02:19 AM	#5 (permalink)
Kilauea Gold Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Canada Age: 24 Posts: 414	After having had a look at your current computer and the requirements for the game, I believe that the component you'd need to upgrade the most now would be the video card, but that is probably a bad idea because we are unsure if there is even a slot on that mobo for a new GPU, we can already assume that the PSU won't be able to power a brand new GPU.... So you'd most likely have to get a new PSU, mobo and GPU, while you're at it, you might as well get a new computer that you could build yourself... using some cheap(as in not pricy) components which you could always upgrade down the road. Just out of curiosity, what is your available budget ? __________________ 5½ years old rig ? P4 1.7Ghz MSI MS-6547E 768mb RAM ATI Radeon 7200 40Gb Seagate HDD w/ Xp 7Gb Maxtor HDD w/ Linux TigerPlus 300 Watt PSU (never heard of such company) Broken LG CD-rom drive that seems to work sometimes

12-08-2007, 03:53 AM	#6 (permalink)
oscaryu1 VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Houston, Texas Age: 13 Posts: 10,038	More RAM, a better GFX... and possibly a better PSU. __________________ Core 2 Duo E2140 1.6GHz @ 3.04GHz GA-P31-DS3L pqi Turbo CL4 DDR2-800 2GB Sapphire HD3850 256MB Sony Writemaster DVD Burner EIDE Seagate Barracuda 80GB 7200.9 8MB SATII

12-08-2007, 11:18 PM	#8 (permalink)
oscaryu1 VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Houston, Texas Age: 13 Posts: 10,038	$1000 ibuypower.com = $600 or so in custom building... You can get a quite powerful rig if you build it by yourself... __________________ Core 2 Duo E2140 1.6GHz @ 3.04GHz GA-P31-DS3L pqi Turbo CL4 DDR2-800 2GB Sapphire HD3850 256MB Sony Writemaster DVD Burner EIDE Seagate Barracuda 80GB 7200.9 8MB SATII

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