Im good when it comes to computers but once it comes to the inside parts im not so good. I have win xp 1ghz pentium 3 with 256mb ram. I usually notice that when i use games that require high requirements the game gets a bit choppy or slow. I was wondering what part of the computer i should ask to upgrade if i take it to a shop.
Well you might ask for more RAM or a Graphics Card or even a new processor Take Your Motherboard book with you if you have it.
Pretty much a complete upgrade really..... P3 will be using SDRAM I assume. What you need is DDR ram, therefore you will need to upgrade your CPU. And your Motherboard probably will not accept a P4 or AMD or DDR ram, so therefore a motherboard upgrade aswell..... This will give you a responsive machine, but for gaming a minimum of 128Mb AGP Graphics card is usually recommended and may just be ALL you need, as long as you have an AGP slot, which I presume you will have but it maybe be 4x at best, which is not a big problem. In brief: AMD CPU, possibly an Athlon 200XP DDR Ram, PC2100 minimum, 256Mb minimum Motherboard - any which are compatible with the above Graphics card AGP 4x min- 128Mb Nvidia or Radeon are the cheapest.
You'll have a job getting Athlon processors now. I wrote a couple of threads somewhere about the new Semprons. The Sempron 2400 only costs about fifty quid and with the right motherboard can be overclocked straight up to the sempron 2800 specs which is £40 dearer. Of course, to overclock the Sempron your going to need pc3200 at the very least. But the price difference between memory these days is negligible. The Asus A7N8X-X is ideal for the above applications and costs about £45.00 nowadays. It's overclockable and has the N-force2 chipset.
Hmmm, I think I will have to do some reading, as I am falling behind a little.................. Cheers agent-k.......... And prices included............
Nice one baabaa, glad you took my post in the way it was meant. After I posted it I thought it may look like I was criticising your suggestions.
Not at all.......always open to suggestions, makes me a more knowledgable sheep............. Just had a read through some of your posts and the net regarding the XP CPU's, and it was something I didn't realise. So thanks for the heads up...... Are these Semprons backwards compatible with XP based motherboards, or is it a case of new motherboard?
Yes, it is the same socket as the Athlon xp's. The Sempron was supposed to be the replacement for the Duron. It was meant to compete with the Intel Celeron D processor. In my oninion the Semprons are faster than most of the Athlons were.
Athlon XPs @ 133/266 are officially deceased. The Semprons are the same as a Barton (166/333FSB), however they have only a 256k cache. I can tell you that the lowest multipliers (ie. Sempron 2400+) boot right up @ 200/400FSB @ krufto That's a nice older rig you've got there. Buy yourself a 128MB nVidia FX5200 (or something not real expensive). That would really be your biggest improvement and not be a bad investment for your rig... (A little bit of memory, to total 512MB, would also be nice, and not inappropriate) But don't go nuts; try and keep the old rig together Everybody wants a new motherboard, but right away you're basically buying a new computer - you'll need a new CPU, and new memory for it... Hell, might as well buy a new case while you're at it, and keep the old PC together! Regards
The_OGS I already have a nvidia card that i think is pretty good it has 128mb. As for everyone else its nice that your all millionares but I just need to know what needs upgrading in specific. The way you all wrote it is like my computer is garbage when i just bought it like last year.
I know - I agree with you If you want to improve it, all you can do is run the best video board you can afford, and increase your RAM to 512MB. This memory will really help you out. You can set 128MB for your AGP aperture, Windows can use 128MB easy, and you will still have 256MB available for programs (games!) You will also be able to run 1GB swapfile. 256MB is really not enough for a gamer using WindowsXP... Are you running PC133? It is pretty affordable @ CDN $75 for a stick of 256 ($60 US) or 33 Pounds Sterling. L8R _X_X_X_X_X_[small] ABIT AN7 nForce2 Ultra 400 XP2500+ Barton @ 3200+ 2 x 512MB PC3200[/small]
