Should i upgrade or start new?

[lentonius]

I have an o.k computer that i bought about a year ago for £790 ($1600). When we bought it it wasnt to serve as a gaming computer as i had a PS2. However, now I have found far more enjoyment in PC gaming, i am now buying PC games rather than PS2 games.in the next 6 months to a year i am looking to buy a media center PC that can serve as a good gaming PC also. My budget at the maximum would be £1000 (around $1900). However, my PC can still play games well at the minute, so i am thinking whether to upgrade the one i have or buy a media center instead?

I have a pentium 4 processer 515 (3.0GHZ), 512 MB RAM, and an ATI radeon X300 SE graphics card with 128MB memory. I am not a computer wizard on the technical names of motherboards and so-on, but is it better for me to upgrade or buy another computer. I am looking at 6-12 months time, but i would like to get an idea before i buy something

Cheers :original:
Lentonius

[The Thracian]

If you know how to fit parts by all means go for upgrading. however most of your specs are ok apart from graphics card and it would be better if you had 1GB Ram.

For Graphics card I think a Geforce 6600 would do you Just fine and it's at a good price aswell. NVIDIA 7 Series are best but too pricey

[lentonius]

Thanks.

I think i may upgrade, but really i am looking at the new Intel Media center dual core processors, so unless i can find one of these processors at a cheap price within the next year i think i may wait until i can afford a better all-round package. Thanks for your help! :original:

[Ahlerich]

If you know how to fit parts by all means go for upgrading. however most of your specs are ok apart from graphics card and it would be better if you had 1GB Ram.

For Graphics card I think a Geforce 6600 would do you Just fine and it's at a good price aswell. NVIDIA 7 Series are best but too pricey

i agree..im allways low on cash..in your case i would buy a medium videocard (you dont wanna buy a high end agp and then in 1 or 2 years if you get a new pc you cant use it anymore because pciXpress will be standard)
and double the ram
proc speed is fine
if you want to spend a little more get a raptor harddrive with 10000rpm as i recently learned that improves performance also.
then my friend you will have a system that runs way better than mine, which you dont deserve at all

edit: i dont think uprading is waste of money..there are acually boards that work with pci express and an kind of agp slot..called agr or something.
plus i think with computerstuff you allways want to be one step behind and safe money...if u spend big bucks for the highend of today in less than a year you will be crying over your weak system that you spend so much on

[jegui]

Hi guys,

sorry to sneak in this conversation but I wonder if you could also give me some hints on what to do next ;-)

I have a P4 - 2.6 with 1Gb RAM and a Geforce FX 5200 with128 Mb

Unfortunately my mobo is old and I have reached the top Memory capacity allowed and I also know that my VC is not good enough... Recently I have been getting lots of CTDs with different RTW mod versions which I think is related to the GPU/CPU demands of our TWC keen skinners/modders ;-)

Anyway I was thinking of going the SLI upgrade route but now everybody is talking about new windows/dx10 and that made me think of waiting to upgrade my PC later this year :-( is there any mid term resolution I could do to get rid of CTDs or should I just upgrade mobo/memory and VC?

Thanks a lot for ur help :-)

Cheers

[Timmius]

I don't know the prices of hardware where you live, but I'm guessing they don't differ much from where I live (Netherlands).
I would say buy a good new motherboard and cpu, and a medium graphics card. I would go for something like:
Asus A8N-Sli for €140
Processor either an X2 3800+ for €280 or
Athlon 64 3200+ for €140
and a 6600GT for €140
That's about €420/€560 in total.

The thing with these kind of upgrades is always that there is still a lot of old hardware in you PC slowing the newer stuff down. Like memory and Harddisk(s). The question is always how far to go. Because if you already have a nice new mobo/cpu/vc configuration, you might as well buy some nice quick new memory or a new harddisk, and so on and so on..

In your case you could also simply do with a VC upgrade. But sooner or later you'd have to upgrade you motherboard too. It all depends on your budget I guess

[jegui]

I don't know the prices of hardware where you live, but I'm guessing they don't differ much from where I live (Netherlands).
I would say buy a good new motherboard and cpu, and a medium graphics card. I would go for something like:
Asus A8N-Sli for €140
Processor either an X2 3800+ for €280 or
Athlon 64 3200+ for €140
and a 6600GT for €140
That's about €420/€560 in total.

The thing with these kind of upgrades is always that there is still a lot of old hardware in you PC slowing the newer stuff down. Like memory and Harddisk(s). The question is always how far to go. Because if you already have a nice new mobo/cpu/vc configuration, you might as well buy some nice quick new memory or a new harddisk, and so on and so on..

In your case you could also simply do with a VC upgrade. But sooner or later you'd have to upgrade you motherboard too. It all depends on your budget I guess

Thanks Timmius,

Yeah that's the sort of budget I was planning to spend and the prices u mentioned r very similar here... actually that was the mobo and processor I was searching for ;-) I think I'll have to spend money on memory as well 'cause I have 2 x 512 PC2100

DO u think this upgrade will keep me going for MTW2 and the new Windows coming at the end of the year ?

Is the extra memory on a 6600gt 512Mb worth the money? or shall I go for the 256 Mb one?

[Proximus]

lentonius
Do you have one 512 MB stick or two 256 MB sticks of RAM?
If you have one 512 I would suggest buying another 512 stick, if you have two 256 sticks you'll need to buy two 512 sticks.
For a vc I would suggest a Geforce 6600 GT (AGP).
A 6600 GT and 1 GB RAM would be enough for playing games for at least 6-12 months.

[Timmius]

Well 512MB is kinda overkill. It is only really usefull for high resolutions as 1600x1200, which the 6600gt isn't capable of anyway.
And i do not think this upgrade will be enough for MTW2. The mobo and cpu are ok (if you take the X2), but you'll need a faster graphics card. sorry
If that is your aim, then I would buy a 6600gt (maybe second hand if you can finf it) for now and save up for a whole new system in the (near) future. Maybe an M2 system or something.

[Proximus]

Well 512MB is kinda overkill. It is only really usefull for high resolutions as 1600x1200, which the 6600gt isn't capable of anyway.
And i do not think this upgrade will be enough for MTW2. The mobo and cpu are ok (if you take the X2), but you'll need a faster graphics card. sorry
If that is your aim, then I would buy a 6600gt (maybe second hand if you can finf it) for now and save up for a whole new system in the (near) future. Maybe an M2 system or something.

That system will be MORE than enough for MIITW.

[Timmius]

That system will be MORE than enough for MIITW.

I seriously doubt it. You can of course turn all the graphics optoins down, but then what would be the point of upgrading. I'm playing SPQR atm with a PIV3,0@3,6 1GB RAM and a 6800GT and I experience lag and framedrops in big battles. And MTW2 being more detailed and all, I think you'll need a lot more power than a 6600GT.

[jegui]

I seriously doubt it. You can of course turn all the graphics optoins down, but then what would be the point of upgrading. I'm playing SPQR atm with a PIV3,0@3,6 1GB RAM and a 6800GT and I experience lag and framedrops in big battles. And MTW2 being more detailed and all, I think you'll need a lot more power than a 6600GT.

tx again... well I supposed that if we have 2 X 6600 gt running in SLI mode would handle MTW2 or maybe not ;-) u r right I should just wait for better VCs and for the prices of 7800/7900 gt to come down... Is there any point in the SLI business if two old graphics in SLI mode won't handle better or the same as one more expensive new one?

[Timmius]

tx again... well I supposed that if we have 2 X 6600 gt running in SLI mode would handle MTW2 or maybe not ;-) u r right I should just wait for better VCs and for the prices of 7800/7900 gt to come down... Is there any point in the SLI business if two old graphics in SLI mode won't handle better or the same as one more expensive new one?

The entire point to SLI isn't shear performance power, but the fact that you can buy a medium vc now, and after maybe a year add another for less money then a high performace vc, but get the same performance. But I don't think it works that way. If you buy a 6600gt now for €150. You can play most games with medium detail. After a year you'd have to play with graphics setting on low. At that point you could buy another 6600gt for €100 so you can play on medium setting.
But what happens moreoften is that ppl wait for the highranged vc's to drop their prices drastically (which always happens) and buy those. For usually around €200-€300. All in all those cards are the best bang for your buck, and usually they are still fast enough to play all new games on full detail. Instead of have to play on medium setting all the time if you'd choose the SLI setup.
So it's all just a matter of money.

[Lee1026]

If you want a computer to play MTW2, buy when it actually come out. Prices usually go down.