pc upgrade advice needed for kids games

[sarahandchris]

Hi

Ive got 2 PC's at home i need to upgrade to allow my kids to LAN play 1942:
Battlefield (a game they both love and all their friends play)

The games minimum requirements are:
pentium3 500mhz. (My kids PC is an intel pentium3 450 mhz and Pentium 2 and
the game wont run)

Therefore i wish to upgrade 2 computers to be able to cope with the latest
games (but dont want to shell out for top end stuff)


Could someone please help me as I want to do it quite cheaply. I will
probably buy from somewhere like ebuyer or special-reserve.co.uk where
delivery is fast and prices are meant to be reasonable?

I need to know what processor + motherboard to buy for both PC's that would
make them pentium4/equivelent as there are so many to choose from.
Will i need new cases? and will their existing memory slot onto the new
pentium 4 (or equivelent) motherboard or will that have to be upgraded too?

What graphics card should i buy that can cope with these games? (something
good that will do the job but not THE very latest expensive ones)
I think the one in there pc is a voodoo 3 and voodoo 2 but not sure if those
would handle the game or not.

Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good
graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory.
I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new
systems, will save alot of expense. I just dont have a clue at what to buy
as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could
go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive,
so I thought I'd ask around on the groups.

Many thanks
Chris

 

[Muttly]

Hey.
Sites I would recommend are http://www.cpc.co.uk and http://www.komplett.ie

I need to know what processor + motherboard to buy for both PC's that would
make them pentium4/equivelent as there are so many to choose from.
Will i need new cases? and will their existing memory slot onto the new
pentium 4 (or equivelent) motherboard or will that have to be upgraded

too?

It depends on what type of cases you have wheather you'll need new ones. If
they're ATX case you should be fine but if not you caold probably pick up
cheep cases for about £30 each. If you can afford to spend a little extra
try and go for a Pentium 4, or even a Celeron, (I run a 2.4ghz £53.18 +
delivery from Komplett, its not the best but it'll be well able to do what
you want). A good motherboard and chip combo would be

What graphics card should i buy that can cope with these games? (something
good that will do the job but not THE very latest expensive ones)
I think the one in there pc is a voodoo 3 and voodoo 2 but not sure if those
would handle the game or not.

You'll have to get new graphics cards. Wheather you want to spend a lot or
not just make sure you get DirectX 9.0 compatible cards. Basically that
means no nVidia Geforce 4, only GeForce FX 5200 and above or ATi Radeon 9600
or above.

Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good
graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory.
I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new
systems, will save alot of expense. I just dont have a clue at what to buy
as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could
go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive,
so I thought I'd ask around on the groups.

The worst thing anyone can do is go to a computer chainstore like that for
advice. Generally the people there don't know as much as people in nwes
groups like this, they will try and get you to buy from the stock they have
in and will try to give you old stock. Thats just my personal experience but
anyway the best thing you could've done was ask for adive here first.

A nice set up that wouldn't cost too much and are good components made by a
good company would be (All products priced from http://www.komplett.co.uk):
Motherboard:
Asus P4V800-X this is a very good budget board. £59.01

Processor:
You've got 2 choices here. It all depends on how much you want to spend. If
you want to stay cheap I would recommend a Celeron 2.8ghz (£90.72) or the
best performance a Pentium 4 2.6ghz 800mhz (£133.00). It sounds slower but
its actually faster.

Case (If needed):
A cheap case would be "Q-Tec Midi tower ATX 6021CMD" £22.80. Not the
greatest case in the world but not the worst either. Only catch is you may
have to upgrade the PSU so theres the extra cost. Q-Tec PSU 400w £22.78.

Graphics Card:
A Radeon 9600 would give good quality and relatively goos value. A
PowerColor Radeon 9200 is £67.05

Memory:
Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB at £36.26.

The total cost of the 2 systems as I've built there using the Pentium 4's
would be £677.80 + delivery. Or £593.24 + delivery for the celeron version.

Hope it helps some bit.
Martin.

 

[Bastet]

Hi

Ive got 2 PC's at home i need to upgrade to allow my kids to LAN play
1942: Battlefield (a game they both love and all their friends play)

The games minimum requirements are:
pentium3 500mhz. (My kids PC is an intel pentium3 450 mhz and
Pentium 2 and the game wont run)

Therefore i wish to upgrade 2 computers to be able to cope with the
latest games (but dont want to shell out for top end stuff)

I don't usually recommend this but it would be cheaper to purchase a couple
of bespoke systems from somewhere like Dell or HP. I am not a huge fan of
either, but my recent experience of Dell's support service has been
positive.

You can purchase a Dell Dimension 2400 for £555 including VAT and delivery
and they are currently offering to double the RAM for free. You will not be
able to build a system for that.

Could someone please help me as I want to do it quite cheaply. I will
probably buy from somewhere like ebuyer or special-reserve.co.uk where
delivery is fast and prices are meant to be reasonable?

Avoid both like the plague - Ebuyer hasn't be dubbed 'ebuyer.con' for
nothing. There used to be an ebuyer.con website, but ebuyer forced the
designer to take it down - guess the truth hurts. Special Reserve charge
over the odds - £70 for an 80GB hard drive when you can easily pick it up in
most other places for £50. I have dealt with Watford Computers (aka
Savastore.com) for years and have had one problem in all that time - they're
very reasonable, but it would still be cheaper to purchase an 'off the peg'
system.

I need to know what processor + motherboard to buy for both PC's that
would make them pentium4/equivelent as there are so many to choose
from.
Will i need new cases? and will their existing memory slot onto the
new pentium 4 (or equivelent) motherboard or will that have to be
upgraded too?

Yes you will and no it won't. P4s require new memory.

What graphics card should i buy that can cope with these games?
(something good that will do the job but not THE very latest
expensive ones)
I think the one in there pc is a voodoo 3 and voodoo 2 but not sure
if those would handle the game or not.

Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly
good graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory.
I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new
systems, will save alot of expense.

That's where you're mistaken - as you will need to upgrade everything - and
I do mean *EVERYTHING*, buying two new systems will be considerably
cheaper - and much less hassle as you appear to be clueless and you need
some nouse to put a system together. If you break something - you'll have
to buy a replacement.

I just dont have a clue at what

to buy as their are so many different types of everything to choose
from. I could go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are
useless and expensive, so I thought I'd ask around on the groups.

Avoid PC World - give my mate Ben a call on 0208 892 7555 or visit his
website at www.chillblast.com. Although he runs a company, he's good for
simple, impartial, advice too. He'll set you straight.

 

[kony]

Hi

Ive got 2 PC's at home i need to upgrade to allow my kids to LAN play 1942:
Battlefield (a game they both love and all their friends play)

The games minimum requirements are:
pentium3 500mhz. (My kids PC is an intel pentium3 450 mhz and Pentium 2 and
the game wont run)

Therefore i wish to upgrade 2 computers to be able to cope with the latest
games (but dont want to shell out for top end stuff)


Could someone please help me as I want to do it quite cheaply.

<snip>

You're searching for the holy grail of PC upgrade... modern games are
demanding, a "partial" upgrade from something that old is going to
require replacing practically everything, possibly with exception to
the modem, sound, and hard drive. Your current cases may work but
likely have inadequate airflow, so they need upgraded or modified to
increase airflow. If you wanted to take your time and buy parts when
they're on sale or rebated you may save a bit of $, but that turns
this into a longer-term project which means your time, the value of
it, is the real issue.

To reuse your existing memory, power supply, case as-is, the minimal
expense upgrade, use the following:

Via 694T chipset motherboard, Tualatin Celeron 1.4GHz, and Radeon
9100. You might want or need to upgrade the memory too, the Tualatin
Celeron can use PC100 memory but for optimal performance you'd want
minimum of 256MB per system.

Your current power supply(s) may power this fine or you might need a
mid-grade 250-300W power supply, depending on exactly what power
supplies are currently in the system(s). That's the lowest reasonable
value upgrade at around ~$170 ea. depending on whether you need power
supplies and/or more memory, but it's not "P4 equivalent" performance.
If you really need P4 performance then figure closer to $300 each
system.


Dave

 

[Lane Lewis]

Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good
graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory.
I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new
systems, will save alot of expense. I just dont have a clue at what to buy
as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could
go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive,
so I thought I'd ask around on the groups.

Many thanks
Chris

Soyo board and 1.4 celeron CPU 128 USD

If your case is standard ATX (clone) it should fit.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q1A724686

Lane