Hello there fellow afterdawners. I took a look into all of these threads here, and I instantly became overwhelmed at the vast amount of info I stumbled upon. Well I shall get to my point now. . .
I have a pretty decent PC, here are the specs:
OS: XP Home Edition
CPU: Pent 4 3.2GHZ
Main Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Grouper 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.06 08/27/2004
Vid Card: ATI Radeon X600
160GB Memory
2x 512 sticks (1 gig) of RAM
I bought this PC with the intention of being able to play games on it, since I am quite the gamer, however recommendations are getting higher and higher, and I am trying to find a place that installs/upgrades these sort of things since I don't know jack sh*t about upgrading hardware. The main parts I want to upgrade is the ram (max it out to 2 gigs) and the video card. However I'm not sure where to go to find out compatiability issues, etc.
And if you're wondering, yes. I am a complete f***ing moron when it comes to this sort of thing. lol. Thanks in advance.
any small computer store should be glad to install parts for you. but it really is simple to do it yourself though. computer parts will only ever go into a slot 1 way round and they will only fit into the correct slots. just think of it as expensive lego with the fun taken out lol.
Studio Comp: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ OC ~ 2.35GHz runs at 40 celcius idle and 48 under stress (aerocool GT1000 really works!), Asrock K7VT4A , 1024MB Dual Channel DDR 400, MSI Nvidia FX5200 128MB OC ~ 600MHz mem 350MHz core,80GB SATA + 200GB SATA + 120GB IDE, 7.1 Channel Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum EX sound and midi interface. 19" Sony SDM-HS95 TFT monitor - sweeet
Comp2: AMD Sempron 2400+ OC ~ 2.0GHz (Stable), Asrock K7S41GX, 512MB DDR 333, Onboard Graphics, 40GB Maxtor IDE
set of monitors on the way soon :P
Google is your friend... WorkComp: LAPTOP, intel celeron D 2.4GHz, 256MB DDR, 20GB hd. NO SCREEN IT WAS SAWN OFF :S (bag of crap)
Upgrading ram is very simple, just slap it in and your all done basically.
Newegg.com is a nice site for almost all your computer needs and has great pricing.
Also if you like crucial ram you can go to there site and follow a few simple instructions or do a system scan on the site and it will bring up a list of ram upgrades compatible with your computer. You can purchase from them or Newegg (Cheaper).
I just purchased some ram from Newegg, got it and installed in my system literally in less than the time it took to take the side of the case off, put the case back together and up and running. Your computer will recognize the new ram and your good to go. As simple as that.
Newegg and Zipzoomfly are the two premier US component sites, so comb them both, ZZF has slightly dearer components but cheaper delivery (I think it may even be free). The X600 graphics card may prove restrictive for gaming, so that might be one to focus on. If you're running PCI express, then X800GTO is the best value intermediate card, the X850XT the best higher-end one, the X1800XL the best unless you have too much money.
To be honest, your processor is fine, so I'd leave that. In fact, most is OK bar the GPU. You may do better with more RAM though. If you do add more, keep the number of sticks you have even (2 or 4) s this allows the memory to run in dual channel mode (twice the speed -400mhzx2 instead of 200mhzx2). Unless you game a lot though (FEAR, Quake 4 etc are two of the main culprits) 1GB is adequate, as is your hard disk.
I'm going against price, not all out power. The 7800GT is a fair bit more expensive than the X850XT, about 25%. The current card that's the most powerful is the X1900XTX, but value-wise it's quite poor since it costs twice as much as the 7800GT and yet probably gets no more than 40% more speed if that.
