Upgrade what I have or build new?

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04tdiwagon

New Member
Hey guys I have a few questions about a pc I have had for the last 4 years.
I bought it from dell in 04, and it had just about everything you could buy for back then, which WAS great but it seems to be falling behind now. I use it for school and web surfing along with a decent dose of World of Warcraft. It does ok at WOW but the graphics are terrible. I also would like to play games such as empire earth III but it doesn't do to well at it and gets very choppy.

Here are the specs on it
Intel Pentium 4 550 3.4 Ghz 800 FSB 1 MB L2 Cache
Dell 0U7077 Motherboard (Junk?)
3 Gig of dd2 memory
Came with 2x512 mb sticks of samsung pc 4200 (266mhz)
I added 2 x1 Gig sticks of kingston pc 5200 (333 mhz)
350 watt PSU
Has 2 7200 rpm 160 gig hard drives set up with raid for 320 total gigs
x300 radeon graphics card, 128 mb, pci-e
integrated sound
running xp pro

This machine I believe is workable with what I need it for but needs some upgrades to keep up! I know I NEED a new graphics card desperately and was thinking about stepping up to a 22" lcd monitor at the same time. I was also thinking about pulling the 2 512 memory sticks out and replacing them with 1 gigs so I would have 4 gig total. Is the P4 3.4 dual core still a good processor for what I am looking to do? I was thinking I might need to upgrade the PSU for the better graphics card, what wattage numbers should I be looking at on those? I am looking to find a good sound card too, along with some good speakers, not surround but a good set of stereos with a woofer. As far as my budget I am looking for midrange, just trying to keep it reasonable.

Thanks in advance!
 
well windows xp can only support up to 4gb of ram so you're at the limit there
you'll definatly want to upgrade that graphics card
and the P4 isn't a dual core, thats a single core processor
 
Its not WinXP that can only support 4GB of RAM but the Mobo you have. Your Mobo has a limit on how much RAM it can withstand. If you go past it, the Mobo will "fry" itself. I know from experience. If you want a new Gfx card, your looking at about a 600W PSU for one Gfx card. Your processor is great 3.4 Ghz. If you're thinking about rebuilding. You have to put it into prespective. You already have a case. PSU, CPU[processor], HDD, and fans. So if you just wanted to boost your original system which I recommend. You just need a Mobo, if you want. Power supply, and Gfx card. As for your speakers and sound card. I am extremely happy for my speakers I got on Ebay for 20 dollars. Look on ebay for a brand called Frisbee I think it is? great great buy. Two speakers with a subwoofer. You can feel the power of these speakers. Let us know whats on your mind after this.
 
I also say just upgrade your video card.

I do believe his motherboard has a PCI Express X 16 slot for a video card. Can anyone confirm that the below video card will work with his system? I do believe that it will.

EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $144 (including shipping costs)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

Edit: I don't believe he will need another power supply to handle the above video card, but I could be wrong.
 
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Its always better to have a tad more than recommended, these video cards love power, and even if they say it should be fine. The card will use the extra power if its there, and if there isnt any, its going to be taking it away from everything else in the computer; Ie: HDD CPU and fans. I think that you should invest in atleast a 600W PSU; I always say, think about the future, not just tomorrow, because things are always getting better in the tech world. Be prepared.
 
I know he can probably still use his Mobo for a new Gfx card; but it isn't capable of holding alot of RAM which will give him the speed he and his processor, and also that hungry Gfx card again the memory to be most efficient, and proefficient.
 
I believe it is just a pci express x1 slot not the 16. If I was to upgrade the motherboard what would be a good one for over clocking with?
 
justin52493x2 said:
I know he can probably still use his Mobo for a new Gfx card; but it isn't capable of holding alot of RAM which will give him the speed he and his processor, and also that hungry Gfx card again the memory to be most efficient, and proefficient.
Click to expand...

He is running Windows XP, not Vista. 2 gigabytes of RAM is plenty for Windows XP. If he upgrades his power supply and video card he will likely see a dramatic improvement in video game performance.
 
Its not WinXP that can only support 4GB of RAM but the Mobo you have. Your Mobo has a limit on how much RAM it can withstand. If you go past it, the Mobo will "fry" itself.
Click to expand...
All 32-bit operating systems are limited to theoretical maximum of 4GBs of RAM, out of which usually 3-3.5GBs are seen, depending on hardware configuration. Since he's got XP, chances are it's 32-bit as there's practically no prebuilt desktops that come with XP 64, not to mention his CPU may not even be 64-bit (Only the latest P4s were)

Also, what kinda mobo fries itself if you put too much RAM in it? I've never heard of such thing happening, it's never happened to me and I can't figure out how it could happen...


@OP - a Radeon 4850 will last you a while, it's currently one of the best-performing cards for the price out there, that paired up with a new PSU will dramatically improve gaming performance. Your CPU seems good enough for your needs, but is a bit of a bottleneck, i would suggest finding out what socket the motherboard has and seeing what CPUs it support, and upgrade the CPU if possible. Or, you could get a new mobo, CPU, PSU & graphics card and reuse all other components - this will cost a little more and probably ain't worth it if you have a mATX case, but if it's ATX you may want to consider it.
 
hackapelite said:
Or, you could get a new mobo, CPU, PSU & graphics card and reuse all other components - this will cost a little more and probably ain't worth it if you have a mATX case, but if it's ATX you may want to consider it.
Click to expand...

Acronym translation if you don't know what the above means:

CPU - Central Processing Unit
Mobo - Motherboard
PSU - Power Supply Unit
MATX - Micro ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)

Also, the Radeon 4850 video card is a PCI Express x16 2.0 video card so he won't be able to use it unless he upgrades his motherboard.
 
Well I pulled the case apart tonight to find out that the radeon x300 I have now is in the agp slot, and I have a free PCI-E x1 slot but no x16. I remember this was on the dawn of the PCI-E coming out so it doesn't surprise me. It looks like to me I might as well be looking at a new computer here. I can't over clock with the current mobo, it has no x16 slot for a good video card. I need a new PSU, and the processor is outdated of course. Are the new phenom x4s any good for gaming?
 
04tdiwagon said:
Well I pulled the case apart tonight to find out that the radeon x300 I have now is in the agp slot, and I have a free PCI-E x1 slot but no x16. I remember this was on the dawn of the PCI-E coming out so it doesn't surprise me. It looks like to me I might as well be looking at a new computer here. I can't over clock with the current mobo, it has no x16 slot for a good video card. I need a new PSU, and the processor is outdated of course. Are the new phenom x4s any good for gaming?
Click to expand...

You can get a good Phenom Tri-Core processor and the video card I suggested earlier.

AMD Phenom 8450 Toliman - $104
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103254

GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H Motherboard - $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128335&Tpk=GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H

SUPER TALENT 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 - $41
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609027

Antec BP550 Plus 550W - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B - $85

You might also need a new case for the new components.

Rosewill R624-P BLK Black SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $25
 
Also, the Radeon 4850 video card is a PCI Express x16 2.0 video card so he won't be able to use it unless he upgrades his motherboard.
Click to expand...
PCI-E is backward/forward compatible - you can use a PCI-e2.0 card on a PCE-E1/1.1 mobo with very little if any performance loss (depending on the card, of course).
 
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