upgrade help.

aaronm13

Hi everyone.Ive been toying with the idea of finishing off upgrading my pc for a while now with a graphics card and new motherboard.I have a HP pavilion492.uk that I got about 3 years ago and still runs great,Ive never had a single problem with it.Over the last year Ive boosted the ram,added USB 2.0,dvd burner,sound card and ext hard drives so buying a new pc seems a waste,heres the specs

2.66ghz P4 processor (which I think is still powerfull enough for the time being,would you agree?)
1.5 GB RAM (Corsair Value Select)

I wouldnt be a serious pc gamer but am looking at playing FEAR and Quake 4 so Ive decided to go for XFX GeForce 6800 GS Extreme XXX card.Maybe a little over the top for my needs but at least it wont be out of date in 6 months time.

I wouldnt have a clue what motherboard to get so I really need advice here.Again nothing to fancy but something I wont have to replace in the not to distant future and is compatable with my other hard ware.So any help here is needed (€150 price range).will I also need a fan for this and a new power supply as I dont know which one is in it.

Is all PCI hardware compatable with PCI Ex (sorry if this seems a stupid question)

If theres anything Ive left out please let me know as this is all new to me,thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

aaronm13

So has anybody any imput for me?

Also just found this pc http://cgi.ebay.ie/Intel-3-2GHZ-512MB-160GB-R9250-LAN-DVD-Nemesis_W0QQitemZ8741618022QQcategoryZ46397QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

does it seem like a decent gaming pc,the casing is a bit mad looking and I would have to upgrade the graphics card,but would the motherboard be ok and is it worth the money

uberpixie

aaronm13 wrote:

So has anybody any imput for me?

Also just found this pc http://cgi.ebay.ie/Intel-3-2GHZ-512MB-160GB-R9250-LAN-DVD-Nemesis_W0QQitemZ8741618022QQcategoryZ46397QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

does it seem like a decent gaming pc,the casing is a bit mad looking and I would have to upgrade the graphics card,but would the motherboard be ok and is it worth the money

Your 2.66mhz pentium so chances are you are on socket478...

Which are as rare as hens teeth to pick up.

Also afaik PCI express is only out on the later intel socket 775 chips...

Option (1) Buy best AGP card you can get and be happy with what you got.
i.e. get a 6800GT,6800GS, X800XL, X800XT or X850XT in AGP and sit on what you have.

Maybe even pick up a 3 or a 3.2ghz P4 socket 478 on ebay. Your only other option would be a celeron CPU in socket 478 which is not a great choice tbh...


Option (2)Buy/build from scratch. Best bet AMD 64 socket 939 as you can reuse the 1.5 gig of ram you have (pc3200/400mhz ddr1 i hope!) plus your pci cards, harddrives etc....
And buy a new pci express gfx card...

The PC you posted has an agp slot which is not much use to you for future proofing..

gamer

i,b be simpler to get the fastest agp card u can afford ,that pc has 2 years life in it to play games.get graphics card with at least 128meg ram.

aaronm13

Thanks for all your imput.Ive given up on the idea of upgrading and was doing a bit more looking about and came across this which seems to be a great deal

http://cgi.ebay.ie/3500-AMD-Athlon64-ASRock-S56-M-PCI-e-250Go-SATA-HD_W0QQitemZ8740693860QQcategoryZ3741QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is his basic model but Im going to upgrade it as follows
-motherboard = ASUS A8N-SLI 939 ATX (nVidia nForce4 SLI) +€ 69

-graphics card = PCI-e NVidia 128Mo XFX GF6600GT Extreme + € 116

-Ram = Upgrade to Infineon brand RAM 1024MB 533MHz + €9

Do these upgrades seem ok or are there better selections available by this guy.All in all this should come to about €800 incl delivery.Have to say Im very tempted.

gamer

If u have 700e ,would it not be simpler to buy system unit with ur choice of motherboard from,komplett.ie or dell ireland , or,theres always pcs,2.4ghz up for sale on boards for sale/forum .it doesnt make sense to me to buy pc from germany ,if ur going to replace all the motherboard and memory components.jaguar pcs dublin have 3.oghz pentium 4 pcs 375euro excluding vat, and they will install 1gig memory and dvdrws, and hispec pci-e grahics card
as you specify,to your taste, so u would end up with a very fast pc say round 600euro or less with a full gaurantee ,thats 350watt power supply, i,d assume you already have a monitor from your old pc,,and u wont have to worry about customs or waiting for overseas,delivery or breakages from germany.look at jaguarcompsys.ie , they seem to be alot cheaper than dell ireland,i think.if i was buying pc from eu mid would get 1 from a private buyer,too complicated.risky.u can put a nvidia grfix card in that ,whatever 1 u want.

aaronm13

gamer wrote:

look at jaguarcompsys.ie , they seem to be alot cheaper than dell ireland,i think.if i was buying pc from eu mid would get 1 from a private buyer,too complicated.risky.u can put a nvidia grfix card in that ,whatever 1 u want.

Thanks gamer,you might be right and I'll look into it.That doesnt look to be a bad pc then getting a few upgrades might work out pretty cool,thanks.

gamer

Get fastest ddr2 memory u can afford ,u cud get bare bones jaguar pc ,and then install whatever graphics card or sound card u want,at least if u get 1gig memory from jaguar ,installed,it will be compatible with the motherbord.get mobo with 3pci,i pci-e graphics card slot at least.those pcs are cheap cos theres no os installed.get at least 128meg grahics card.

gamer

go to bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm then click link to datapol.de which will bring u to download link for a ntfs boot disk, 1meg size to download onto a bootfloppy, if u have 2floppys download win98se bootdisk too. there is also a bootable ntfs cdrom to download at bootdisk, but u,ll have to burn it at the netcafe to make it bootable on a cdr.u cud try loading win98 disk first,,then load NTFSFORDOS PROG, in order to see the ntfs drive c: hard drive.

gamer

sorry that reply above, was meant for pc wont boot thread,in this forum.