Need some expert help please

DJT

New Member
Hi my names David

My son plays MMO games on his desktop such as World of Warcraft. He checked the reccomended specs for the game and his computer could handle the game.

The thing is in some of the busy places on the game his computer is very slow and it takes him a considerable time to move to where he wants to go, he calls it 'Lagging'.

The thing is i really dont know much about computers hardware i know how to use the internet and word and thats about it :D.

I was wondering if someone could help me firstly find out were to look on my computer to what graphics cards ram etc i have and secondly give me reccomendations as to what i could use to upgrade my sons computer so i can get some peace.

Thanks
 
does your son know anything about computers? its just that if he does, i can talk a bit more technical, and things move along a bit faster.
 
welcome David,

first of all, is it a brand name computer (like Dell, HP, Gateway, etc)?

if it is, please provide us with the brand and model number.

or is the computer custom built?

to play world of warcraft smoothly you will need a broadband internet connection, 1gb of RAM with Windows XP, 2gb of RAM with Windows Vista, at least a Pentium 4 processor, and a graphics card purches within the past 3-4 years. those specs would runt he game smoothly with graphics settings on low.

once we know what you have already, we can recommend what you should upgrade
 
Hello

Acer Aspire T180-GB7Z

I hope thats the model number and my internet is fiine its his computer that is the problem by the way oh and its using vista
 
i cant seem to find any specs from google on the desktop, but there are a few programs you can use to tell what the computer has in it. the easiest would be to go into the control panel, then look for an icon on the left that says 'classic view' click that, and then look around the page for an icon labeled 'device manager'. click that icon, and there are a few things you'll need to do in that window. first, look for something that says 'processors' click that and write down what it says. next look for 'display adapters' and do the same.

once you have that information down simply write it here.

EDIT: oh and one more thing. open up 'computer' from the start panel, and near the bottom it will say 'memory:' tell us what comes right after that too.
 
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might want to up the ram, and video card, those are just my opinions, but you must know what kind of ram it is, ddr, ddr2, ddr3(this is unlikely with an acer) and for the video, you might not want to overdo it, your pc probably has a 300watt psu, the only way to figure out is take off the side panel, and look at a box, that has a sticker on it, it will most likely have all these conversions on it, but thats my my opinion
 
Sorry its taken so long got abit busy at work but i looked and as follows:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64x2 dual core processor 5000+

Diplay adaptors: Nvidia Geforece 6100 Nforce 405

And memory read 768 MB


Thanks
 
the processor should be fine, but im assuming that the 6100 is onboard, so you might want a nvidia 8600 gt or an ati 3650(might want to check on the power consumtion for them) and the memory would probably be ddr2, but you probably want more advice from other members too
 
Yeah the 6100 is inboard graphics which is def holding you back. The term is lagging. I would recommend an 8600gt or higher to play the newer games. You are also prob going to need a new power supply as the stock is prob 250watts and an 8600gt requires a min of 300-350watts. Your looking at about $150 to play games with decent frame rates. Thats not including ram if your pc needs it.
 
First of all you need to make sure you have a PCI-e x16 slot on your motherboard. To find this out you can look at the manufacture website and look at the specs there. That card should do but I recommend the one that I have as its the coolest running and fastest clocked version of the 8600gt you can get and its only $80 after the MIR. I would recommend you buy pc parts from a trusted site such as Tiger or Newegg. They both have great prices and fast shipping. Heres a link to the card and a decent power supply.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...P450-8672&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=WEM1546C

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1389575&Sku=T925-2060
 
First of all you need to make sure you have a PCI-e x16 slot on your motherboard. To find this out you can look at the manufacture website and look at the specs there. That card should do but I recommend the one that I have as its the coolest running and fastest clocked version of the 8600gt you can get and its only $80 after the MIR. I would recommend you buy pc parts from a trusted site such as Tiger or Newegg. They both have great prices and fast shipping. Heres a link to the card and a decent power supply.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...P450-8672&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=WEM1546C

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1389575&Sku=T925-2060

Might as well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130333

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339001&Tpk=hec+orion
 
It's pretty easy to upgrade the pc to play some games especially WoW with no problems.

Everything has already been mentioned but I will say that to install some more ram and a new psu ( power supply unit ) and a video card it is not hard at all and can be done easily.

The easiest would be the ram of course, you just clip the ram in on the mother board.

The power supply can be a little tricky to install as you don't know where all the wires go and such but if you read the instructions you should be alright, or check out the guide on here on how to build a pc and I think it shows you how and what to do.

The gpu ( videocard ) can be a little tricky to install as well but you can do it if you can follow some instructions.

Since you don't already have a gpu installed and it's onboard you won't need to unclip any cards already there.

You would just need to plug in the video card into the mother board like the ram and install all the software and hardware drivers that come with the videocards cd and you'd need to disable your onboard video.

Good luck.
 
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