Upgrade, or a new rig altogether?

rainbow kirby

I'm starting to get tired of my machine and its crappy specs, so I'm trying to decide whether an upgrade is worthwhile.
I've got a Pentium 4, 2GHz
192MB RAM
40GB hard drive
Columbia motherboard
Running Windows XP home edition.
I'm thinking get another 512MB RAM, a new graphics card (preferably 128MB), and a 120GB hard drive. I'll probably need a new motherboard for that too. I'd also eventually like to partition the hard drive for a dual boot with Windows XP and some version of Linux (if that's possible...).
Any suggestions?

Ciaran500

Did you build it your self?

aaf

If you're upgrading your RAM, I've a few sticks FS here

jessy

rainbow kirby wrote:

I'm starting to get tired of my machine and its crappy specs, so I'm trying to decide whether an upgrade is worthwhile.
I've got a Pentium 4, 2GHz
192MB RAM
40GB hard drive
Columbia motherboard
Running Windows XP home edition.
I'm thinking get another 512MB RAM, a new graphics card (preferably 128MB), and a 120GB hard drive. I'll probably need a new motherboard for that too. I'd also eventually like to partition the hard drive for a dual boot with Windows XP and some version of Linux (if that's possible...).
Any suggestions?

You don’t need to build a new computer unless you want to, i recommend an upgrade, min 512MB RAM will give your computer a new lease of life. add a second HD is you feel you need more space they wont break the bank there very cheap now. another piece of advice, when buying a Graphics card,128Mb is fine but don’t judge the card by the amount of memory in it, cos that has very little to do with performance (i.e. a 128mb card could be 10 times more powerful than a 512mb card).

bringitdown

Firstly what do you use it for / want to use it for...? as is your rig is fine for doing everything but high-volume / high-speed encoding and playing the latest games.

Apart from that the only advice is that it can't hurt and is a relatively cheap upgrade to get some more RAM.

So many people upgrade their systems year on year in order to run the same fupping software (M$ Office, Internet et al.) countless times I have disuaded my Da from doing same.

forbairt

upgrade to 512mbs of ram ...


120gb hard disk 84 EUR
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118031&cks=PRL

512mbs ram 87 EUR
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=112684&cks=PRL

128mb 9800 ... ~240 EUR
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=119628&cks=PRL

as the others said .. it all depends on what you want ...

go for the 120 gb disk .. its always useful on whatever system ... get an extra 256 mbs of ram at least .. and your pc's gonna fly ...

graphics card .. you could get something ~100Eur mark that'll be great ..depends if you're a gamer or not ..

*drops two donuts on the matter*

zilog_jones

I'd also highly recommend some place like Komplett to get this kinda stuff if you have use of a credit card, unless your local PC World has messed up their prices, which seems to happen frequently - I know someone who got an 80GB hard disk there for €70 last week, which was disturbing as it was an actual *reasonable* price. Now the same drive's €130! And let's not forget that month when Battlefield: Vietnam came out, and they were selling it for €15!!

You should have no problems using that stuff on your current motherbaord. Though try and find out what type of RAM it uses - error9 assumes it is DDR-RAM, but that may not be true. A P4 system from that era is more likely to use SD-RAM, or even (unfortunately) Rambus RDR-RAM - "unfortunately" I say because it's quite hard to come by these days and is significantly more expensive than the other two types (though it is significantly better than DDR in some ways) - http://www.shop4memory.com/products/rdram.asp is probably the best place for that, as Komplett don't seem to even stock it any more.

The manual for your PC or motherboard should say what kind of RAM it uses. And if it's a Dell, it's most definately RDR-RAM!

Also, doing a Linux dual boot is piss easy. Though I would recommend leaving some unpartitioned space for it on your new hard disk (about 10GB min.), and install your other OS first. If you're a noob to Linux I'd probably recommend Mandrake - it's just as easy to install as Windows, amazingly. Time to abuse your college's super-fast internet!

rainbow kirby

Thanks lads, now to get the thing open and see exacly what I can do with it! I'd like it to be able to run pretty recent games. HL2 would rock. Also stuff like UT2003/2004. And Command and Conquer: Generals.

forbairt

zilog_jones wrote:

You should have no problems using that stuff on your current motherbaord. Though try and find out what type of RAM it uses - error9 assumes it is DDR-RAM, but that may not be true. A P4 system from that era is more likely to use SD-RAM, or even (unfortunately) Rambus RDR-RAM - "unfortunately" I say because it's quite hard to come by these days and is significantly more expensive than the other two types (though it is significantly better than DDR in some ways) - http://www.shop4memory.com/products/rdram.asp is probably the best place for that, as Komplett don't seem to even stock it any more.

sorry wasn't actually assuming ddr ram .. was just giving a rough cost based on midish range memory ...

UT2004 and C&C Generals runs grand on my 1.33 thunderbird ... 768 mb ram and a 64 mb ti4200 card ... it runs a dream that said its not cranked up for max res ....

al depends on your budget .. [:)] ...

hl2 .. not sure what kinda spec you're talking there ... but I'd assume with the 9800 and 512 mb ram ... your processor would handle it ... I think it'd struggle a bit with doom 3 ...