Computer upgrade on a budget

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 10:25 am

Ok guys and gals...

Im starting to feel the pinch of having a 6 year old computer. I just bought a new PC game and well my system wont even play it, like wont even notice it in the DVD drive...

As far as system requirements go, Im lacking on the processor according to the games minimum panel...

Anyways- here is what I got.

AMD Athlon 1.33 Ghz 266 FSB
512 Ram (I got 700 something in their, a stick must of went bad?)
30 Gig HDD
ATI Radeon 7200 vid card- 64 MD DDR memory

When I built this it was top of the line pretty much. Just two processors down from top of the line...lol

There is just to much out there now I really cant decipher it. I do CAD work so I need something that can hang with that. THis current system is fine with it until I get into large assemblies... So I need an alright video card...

So if anyone can help me piece one together or work out some sort of a barter/trade I would appreciate it. I THINK I can commit around $300-400 for a tower- The cheaper the better. I can still use my case and power supply I hope...

HELP

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:06 am

It's probably your best bet to start piecing together a new one. Prices right now on computer stuff is so cheap. You're not going to get a whole new system on 300-400$, but not a ton more than that. I can help, as well as I'm sure a bunch of other people on here.
You might not be able to use your old power supply. Depends on whether it has the extra 4-pin power connector on top of the big 16-pin one that all motherboards use. I can't remember when they started using the 4-pin. You're also going to have to find out how much power your PS can supply since power demands just keep growing, especially with newer video cards. I don't think cases have changed at all, but I'm not sure.

Bwcad1 · Post by **Bwcad1** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:16 am

u dont need a hardcore graphics card i run ug with a 32mb at home and a 128 at work and hardly notice a diffrence. more ram and high processor speed is better for cad.

MaxdSPL · Post by **MaxdSPL** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:20 am

PM me and I will get you some prices. I also am a certified IT tech, so I will get you some good prices and be able to help trouble shoot as well.

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:03 pm

Bwcad1 wrote:u dont need a hardcore graphics card i run ug with a 32mb at home and a 128 at work and hardly notice a diffrence. more ram and high processor speed is better for cad.

He said he plays games. He'll need something better to play todays games at any decent resolution. The vid card will contribute to any rendering done by the CAD programs (never used them before, so I don't know which ones that would apply to :) )

MaxdSPL · Post by **MaxdSPL** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:05 pm

Depends on which games. Doom3 and Fear require a good video card running around 200-300. a decent one for pong and others like it. :happy055:

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:19 pm

Ryan from Ohio wrote:Im starting to feel the pinch of having a 6 year old computer. I just bought a new PC game and well my system wont even play it, like wont even notice it in the DVD drive...

Today's games.

Some of the newer games have copy protection and whatnot that don't allow certain DVD drives. Not sure how that works out, but that's how it is.

sinister audio · Post by **sinister audio** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:20 pm

i was thinking about upgrading my computer too lately its pretty much the exact same as yours ryan but i think i might just go get a brand new emachine at wally because you can pic up a pretty nice one for 400-500 and you could always upgrade it too later on.

MaxdSPL · Post by **MaxdSPL** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:29 pm

I could build a good upgrade for that amount, or tell you what you how much it will cost to do a good upgrade depending on what you want to do with it, be it for games, surfing the web, CAD, or watching movies on your pc.........yeah........um.........pm me and I can help anybody wants help or has tech questions and I will help out to the best of my ability.

mspiegle · Post by **mspiegle** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:07 pm

If you want a quick and cheap speedup, see if your motherboard will handle an Athlon XP chip. Any of the 2000/2200/2400 chips will FAR outperform your standard AMD tbird/tbred chip. If you don't have money to waste, I would look into replacing the guts (cpu, mobo, ram). You can get fairly decent video cards for not a whole lot of money. Look into any card that uses the nvidia 6600GT chipset - its pretty good for the money. Also, DEFINITELY go with the new core 2 duo. It really is a well-designed processor that performs. Anandtech has some guides on building budget systems that perform. Check it out:

http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2861&p=5