Ideas for upgrading?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bryan Anderson
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Bryan Anderson

Hi - been lurking around here for a while. Until recently my PC
has been used almost exclusively for office apps and some minor
photo editing, etc. Now though, I have found myself more and
more tempted by some game sout there....not got any work done at
all today thanks to GTA Vice City!

So - bearing in mind that I've not hit any real performance
issues YET, but that I would like to make sure that I have a
useable PC for newer games, what would you recomend as upgrades
to this:

m/board: Intel IM845GL
processor: Intel Celeron 2.2Ghz
memory: 512KB (couldn't tell you what kind it is exactly....
how do I find out?)
graphics: Sapphire Radeon 9000 Atlantis (128MB)
sound: On-board
hard drive controller: Intel 8280 1DB Ultra ATA
hard drive(s): Maxtor 4R060L0 (60GB) and Maxtor 6Y080L0 (80GB)

Many thanks,
 
Actually looks like a pretty decent sys,

Though I would look into the possibility of changing that celeron to a P4.
Lots more power, and usability. 512 MB of ram is more than adequate. The
video card "could" be better but isn't a real issue yet. Although I have
never been a fan of ATI. They make outstanding cards, but buggy drivers.
You got plenty of HDD room. So that is what I would recommend.

ParanoiaBOTS
 
Hi - been lurking around here for a while. Until recently my PC
has been used almost exclusively for office apps and some minor
photo editing, etc. Now though, I have found myself more and
more tempted by some game sout there....not got any work done at
all today thanks to GTA Vice City!

So - bearing in mind that I've not hit any real performance
issues YET, but that I would like to make sure that I have a
useable PC for newer games, what would you recomend as upgrades
to this:

m/board: Intel IM845GL
processor: Intel Celeron 2.2Ghz
memory: 512KB (couldn't tell you what kind it is exactly....
how do I find out?)
graphics: Sapphire Radeon 9000 Atlantis (128MB)
sound: On-board
hard drive controller: Intel 8280 1DB Ultra ATA
hard drive(s): Maxtor 4R060L0 (60GB) and Maxtor 6Y080L0 (80GB)

Many thanks,
Click to expand...

Your video card is the current bottleneck in all but the most
CPU-intensive games, so it'd be the first thing to replace.

Your system should've came with a spec sheet detailing the type of
memory installed. If not contact the builder or use Google to find
some pictures of the major memory types and compare to what's in the
system. Also Sisoft Sandra should be able to tell you that:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/


Dave
 
kony said:
Your video card is the current bottleneck in all but the most
CPU-intensive games, so it'd be the first thing to replace.

Your system should've came with a spec sheet detailing the type of
memory installed. If not contact the builder or use Google to find
some pictures of the major memory types and compare to what's in the
system. Also Sisoft Sandra should be able to tell you that:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Or Aida32 Enterprise edition:

http://www.aida32.hu/aida-download.php?bit=32
 
On Thursday, Chris Stolworthy wrote:

(Thanks for the suggestion....)
Though I would look into the possibility of changing that celeron
to a P4. Lots more power, and usability.
Click to expand...

Okay - I'm not a hardware guru at all, so can I take out my Celeron
and simply plug in a Pentium 4 and expect everything to just carry on
working?

The spec of the board says it supports "Intel Pentium 4 in the mPGA
478 pin package" and the Intel web site says "Support for 400MHz FSB
Intel® Celeron® processors. Will also support 400MHz Intel® Pentium®
4 processors.". I assume then that:

http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=23901

.....would work? What about AMD processors? Those that I have seen do
not seem to mention this "478 pin package".

Also - would going from a 2.2Ghx Celeron to a 2.4Ghz P4 really make
that much of a difference, or should I wait six months/year and save
up for a 3Ghz or over?

Excuse me for sounding completely clueless, but all help is greatly
appreciated.
 
On Thursday, Chris Stolworthy wrote:

(Thanks for the suggestion....)


Okay - I'm not a hardware guru at all, so can I take out my Celeron
and simply plug in a Pentium 4 and expect everything to just carry on
working?

The spec of the board says it supports "Intel Pentium 4 in the mPGA
478 pin package" and the Intel web site says "Support for 400MHz FSB
Intel® Celeron® processors. Will also support 400MHz Intel® Pentium®
4 processors.". I assume then that:

http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=23901

....would work? What about AMD processors? Those that I have seen do
not seem to mention this "478 pin package".

Also - would going from a 2.2Ghx Celeron to a 2.4Ghz P4 really make
that much of a difference, or should I wait six months/year and save
up for a 3Ghz or over?
Click to expand...

You can do the upgrade, but you're limited to around 2.4-2.6 GHz due
to the 400MHz FSB of the motherboard. It isn't that much of an
upgrade, certainly not cost effective. You need a new motherboard to
get significant bang-for-buck performance increase (and probably new
memory too).


Dave
 
You can do the upgrade, but you're limited to around 2.4-2.6 GHz
due to the 400MHz FSB of the motherboard. It isn't that much of
an upgrade, certainly not cost effective.
Click to expand...

Thanks - that's the exact kind of answer I needed. Now I'll just put
the cash aside and add some for the next few months and go for the
motherboard/processor upgrade option then.
 
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