Need help

I need help! What can I add to my computer to make it better to play games. The problem is I'm not even sure what I have! I have about $400 to spend on upgrades. I can I tell what I do have and what is the best way to spend my money? Can somebody help? I am a total idiot when it comes to this stuff but I do want to learn.

Find what model computer you have, go to the company's website and type in the model. It should give you all the specs of the computer. That is the first step.

We bought a refurbished CPU. This is what I know:

Pentium III 500 Processor
128 MB RAM Memory
4.2 GB Hard Drive
36X CD ROM Drive

Isn't there some where on my computer where I can find out this info? I know we'll need lots more hard drive space.

if you're running a Pentium III 500mhz, chances are you don't have DDR ram. if that's the case you'll need to get a whole new motherboard/processor because your current motherboard will not run DDR ram. but you can definitely upgrade this with your $400 budget. it also depends on what type of games you want to run. if it's stuff like those yahoo games, simply adding more PC133 ram will be good enough. however, if it's stuff like FarCry, you'll need the DDR ram.

Thanks ya'll! My husband does most of the game playing, He doesn't really know much about on-line gaming...yet! We do have Broadband internet (cable). He plays stuff like Nascar Racing and all those shooter games. Will the upgrades mentioned above let him play those types of games from a CD?

I'll have another $500 to spend in Sept.

You should probably also get another hard drive. 4.2 GB isn't that much if you want alot of games on it. How can you do that?!? i only have a 9.somthing GB and it's hard.

It is very hard! I keep having to uninstall games! A new hard drive is #1 on the list. Probably a 20 GB? I have a guy that will install what I want...so what do I want?

Here is more I found out:

L2 Cache 512 KB Intergrated
System memory 128 Mb GCC SDRAM
Video Memory 4MB SGRAM

To determine your system specs; goto Start --> Run, Type dxdiag and click OK. Your CPU (processor), Memory and DirectX version is listed on the System tab. Your video card specifcations can be found under the Display tab under Name and Chip Type. Your soundcard is listed under the Sound tab in the Name field. Some other (free) tools you can use are CPUz and PC Wizard (both available from http://www.cpuid.com)

Probably a 20 GB?

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To be honest, even though you probably can get a 20GB drive (and it would be an improvement), those drives are antiquated and space per buck, they are a bad choice. The "financially ideal" HDD would be in the 80-160GB range depending on your budget

Video Memory 4MB SGRAM

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To play any recent games at anything deemed acceptable/good, you're gonna have to get a much newer video subsystem. I suspect you have a onboard videochip (because the 4MB cards werent very long lived) ... in either case you shoulld definitely make this a priority

System memory 128 Mb GCC SDRAM

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I'm not familiar with GCC SDRAM and in either case, 128MB, while "doable" isnt the greatest for optimal gaming. I sell computers and in most cases, 512MB is the optimal "minimum".

Of the two (video and memory), odds are the video card is more crucial to gameplay and RAM will affect loadtimes and overall system performance. You may be able to overclock the CPU since P3s dont make very much heat however I'll need to know more information before I can comment on that