Hello! I am thinking it is time to upgrade my computer due to the fact that not all games are able to run on highest settings anymore :P
The PC I am running on is a HP Pavilion a1547c. I have upgraded all 4 of the RAM slots so I have 3.0GB of RAM.
Here are some of the system stats:
AMD Athlon (tm) 64 Processor 4000+
2.41 GHz
3.0GB of Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS Windows XP Home Edition
I'd say my knowledge is above average about computers compared to a normal person, but I am defiantly not literate enough to know all the information I need to give in order to know what I need. I ask if you all could please help me pick the right hardware, as well as help me with some advice to better enhance my gaming performance.
Building a computer thats factory made by dell, emachines, acer, etc is not the best way to go, but workable.
If what I found is right your using a Asus A8N-LA motherboard which is socket 939 and supports a max of X2 4800+, so not much upgrade room there.
It can also only run pc3200 max which isn't that great.
You want to play games on max settings, what games do you play? that way we know what you need.
But right off the bat I think you might need to upgrade your motherboard, CPU, Ram and CPU to have a high settings gamer. You might be better selling the comp and buying all new. But again, we need to see what kind of budget you have before we go pushing you in any direction.
I'd say my budget is about 300-500 USD max. With my current set up, games that have come out in the past (like EVE Online, Guild Wars, any game on the Source Engine) can work wonderful on highest graphic settings. On more recent games, its a bit different though.
For Borderlands, I run it on 800 x 600 resolution and low graphics in order to play smoothly
GTA IV just doesn't play smooth at all.
And Prototype is on lower settings, but the lag is tolerable rather than unbearable.
GTA4 will never play smoothly unless you upgrade the entire system as it requires masses of processor power, which Socket 939 simply can't offer, as the last CPUs were designed for it back in late 2005.
If your PC has standard connections for the motherboard, then you can replace the board, CPU and RAM with newer ones so you can play games like GTA4 well. However, given the cramped space and lack of cooling inside stock HP cases, you'd be best replacing the entire system except the hard drives.
How much are you willing to spend on the upgrade? If you have a reasonable budget, you can build a decent new system without any problems.
I've been running my pc without a side cover in fear of overheating. I had mentioned before that my budget was around 300-500 USD, but what would you say is a "inexpensive" (I can work towards the money), but above average gaming computer?
You won't be getting 'above average' for $500. A system I regard as 'above average' would cost around $1000-$1200.
Realistically, you aren't going to be getting that much extra graphics performance than the 8800GTS on that budget, if any, so what I would suggest is building a system and keeping your current graphics card, and then saving to upgrade that later. The limit on how high you can turn up games settings is mostly controlled by the graphics card, however, so you won't be able to play new games on high settings even after the upgrade until you replace the graphics card as well.
You would think perhaps just update the graphics card, but realistically your CPU is much weaker than your graphics card and is going to be the biggest cause of lag in a lot of recent titles.
This list of components is the backbone for a midrange gaming PC, but minus the graphics card and drives. You will almost certainly need to reinstall windows on the new system, and should ideally have a new clean drive to do it with. However, the budget would have to be expanded beyond $500 to do this.
