I need some advice on a very poor man's upgrade. Please read this (I know it is long...sorry) and offer some helpful advice (other than 'get a better job than the one you have, forget your family's needs and spend $2000 on a new computer). Okay, so here is my story in a nut shell. I had a bunch of money saved up for a new PC a while ago, but my whole family, inluding myself, ran into really bad money troubles. So now my savings and a big chunk of my earnings is going to help out. It is going to be a while before I can ever save up enough money to be spending $2,000 on a computer again, and while I would normally not consider just upgrading my old computer on a budget as it would be a waste of money, I have to do something because my PC is really obsolete. I cannot wait to save up the money to buy an all new machine. I've decided I wan't to spend a few hundred dollars to upgrade my machine and make it a slightly less obsolete computer. I know I'll never be playing Bioshock or Crysis on it, but that is okay...I'm not even really itching to play those games anyway. I just want to improve my performance in RO and be able to play the Half-Life 2 Orange Box when it comes out next month. Sytem specs for the Orange Box are here.
I can already meet the minimum system specs with my computer by the looks of it. Here is my machine:
Asus A7N 8X motherboard (socket 754 - DDR 1 Ram - AGP 8X vid card)
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ CPU (I'm not sure how many Gigahertz it is)
1 Gig Ram (half DDR 400mhz, other half is like only 133 mhz or something)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT with 256mb memory (a directX 9 card)
WD 120Gig 7200rpm IDE HDD
LG DVD-Rom/CD-RW combo drive
Onboard sound built into motherboard.
I can already play RO, albeit not as well as most of you. I can also presumably play HL2:Ep2/Portal/TF2, but probably not too well.
I'm not a computer expert, so please bare with. I'd like to upgrade my CPU, but I don't think they made much of anything for the old 754 socket that would be better than the CPU I have now. (even older than 939 socket...that is old as ****). If I were to upgrade the CPU, I'd probably have to upgrade the Motherboard as well, and that would just bring the price up too high for what I can afford, because I'd be stuck buying all new parts for a new motherboard. I'd have to buy new ram, a new vid card, new cpu, new powersupply, new everything. Maybe I'd be better off just leaving it alone and concentrate on the other weak links in my system, the old slow ram, and my old video card. Remember, I only want to play RO and play the Orange Box...I don't have to play Crysis. I took the 'Game-o-meter' test in the link to the Orange Box system requirements link above, and it seemed to indicate that my old DX9 card was the weakest link. So maybe the cheapest and best upgrade for very little money would be a memory upgrade and a new vid card.
My memory is dived into two ram sticks...one old, the other paleolithic. My understanding is that because I've mixed to different speeds of ram, the 400 Mhz ram is being slowed down to match the older stuff. It's still one Gig of ram...just slow. For $75 I could get this 1Gig Kingston DDR 400Mhz ram. I was thinking I could throw out the really old 512Mb of slow ram, and pair up the other 512Mb of DDR 400 with the new 1 Gig stick. That would give me 1.5 Gigs of ram. Would a 512 and a 1 Gig stick pair up properly without a conflict?
The next problem to fix would be the video card. PCI-E is the way to go with video cards, but I cannot spend the money on a new Motherboard and end up getting a whole new computer. They still make a few video cards for AGP, and I was thinking about going with the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1650Pro with 512mb of memory. It may not be great, but it sure would be better than what I have now. Remember, accordin to these guys, my vid card was the weakest link in my computer. The only problem that I can think of with my getting an X1650Pro, is that my power supply unit would probably have to be upgraded. What would you suggest? Keeping in mind that I wan't to save money, but also not by a PSU that will burst into flames because it was too darned cheap. Would this work okay?
So that sums it up...I'm thinking some "new" ram, "new" vid card, and a new power supply to power the new vid card. After taxes and installation I think it would cost just a little over $300. What do you think? Would I notice any improvement in performance to Red Orchestra with an upgrade like that? Would I get better performance in Half-Life 2: Episode 2? I know it is a really pathetic upgrade, but I really don't want to wait for a year before I can buy a new PC. I'd kinda like to have a computer capable of playing Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 when they come out next month.
Thank you in advance for your help, and I'm sorry this was such a long post. Most forums out there would probably be full of people offering no advice and stupid critisism. People tend to complain whenever I post a message more than a few sentances long. I think that the people here are more helpful and mature though. Thanks again for your help.
-Monkeyfarmer
I can already meet the minimum system specs with my computer by the looks of it. Here is my machine:
Asus A7N 8X motherboard (socket 754 - DDR 1 Ram - AGP 8X vid card)
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ CPU (I'm not sure how many Gigahertz it is)
1 Gig Ram (half DDR 400mhz, other half is like only 133 mhz or something)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT with 256mb memory (a directX 9 card)
WD 120Gig 7200rpm IDE HDD
LG DVD-Rom/CD-RW combo drive
Onboard sound built into motherboard.
I can already play RO, albeit not as well as most of you. I can also presumably play HL2:Ep2/Portal/TF2, but probably not too well.
I'm not a computer expert, so please bare with. I'd like to upgrade my CPU, but I don't think they made much of anything for the old 754 socket that would be better than the CPU I have now. (even older than 939 socket...that is old as ****). If I were to upgrade the CPU, I'd probably have to upgrade the Motherboard as well, and that would just bring the price up too high for what I can afford, because I'd be stuck buying all new parts for a new motherboard. I'd have to buy new ram, a new vid card, new cpu, new powersupply, new everything. Maybe I'd be better off just leaving it alone and concentrate on the other weak links in my system, the old slow ram, and my old video card. Remember, I only want to play RO and play the Orange Box...I don't have to play Crysis. I took the 'Game-o-meter' test in the link to the Orange Box system requirements link above, and it seemed to indicate that my old DX9 card was the weakest link. So maybe the cheapest and best upgrade for very little money would be a memory upgrade and a new vid card.
My memory is dived into two ram sticks...one old, the other paleolithic. My understanding is that because I've mixed to different speeds of ram, the 400 Mhz ram is being slowed down to match the older stuff. It's still one Gig of ram...just slow. For $75 I could get this 1Gig Kingston DDR 400Mhz ram. I was thinking I could throw out the really old 512Mb of slow ram, and pair up the other 512Mb of DDR 400 with the new 1 Gig stick. That would give me 1.5 Gigs of ram. Would a 512 and a 1 Gig stick pair up properly without a conflict?
The next problem to fix would be the video card. PCI-E is the way to go with video cards, but I cannot spend the money on a new Motherboard and end up getting a whole new computer. They still make a few video cards for AGP, and I was thinking about going with the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1650Pro with 512mb of memory. It may not be great, but it sure would be better than what I have now. Remember, accordin to these guys, my vid card was the weakest link in my computer. The only problem that I can think of with my getting an X1650Pro, is that my power supply unit would probably have to be upgraded. What would you suggest? Keeping in mind that I wan't to save money, but also not by a PSU that will burst into flames because it was too darned cheap. Would this work okay?
So that sums it up...I'm thinking some "new" ram, "new" vid card, and a new power supply to power the new vid card. After taxes and installation I think it would cost just a little over $300. What do you think? Would I notice any improvement in performance to Red Orchestra with an upgrade like that? Would I get better performance in Half-Life 2: Episode 2? I know it is a really pathetic upgrade, but I really don't want to wait for a year before I can buy a new PC. I'd kinda like to have a computer capable of playing Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 when they come out next month.
Thank you in advance for your help, and I'm sorry this was such a long post. Most forums out there would probably be full of people offering no advice and stupid critisism. People tend to complain whenever I post a message more than a few sentances long. I think that the people here are more helpful and mature though. Thanks again for your help.
-Monkeyfarmer
