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My computer is pretty crappy, plainly put. I am wondering what should I upgrade, to help speed it up when playing CS and just browsing the internet, and around how much it would cost me. Here is what I have:
Hardware
Base processor
Celeron 340 (P) 2.93 GHz:
533 MHz Front side bus
Socket 478
Chipset
Intel 845GV
Motherboard
Manufacturer: Asus
Motherboard Name: P4GV-LA
HP motherboard name: Guppy-GL6E
Memory Component Attributes
Memory Installed 512 MB (1 x 512)
Maximum allowed 2.0 GB (2 X 1 GB) requires the replacement of the installed 512 MB DIMM
Speed supported PC2700 MB/sec
Type 184 pin, DDR SDRAM
DIMM slots Two
Open DIMM slots One
Hard drive
160 GB
7200 rpm
16x DVD(+/-)R/RW DL drive
(must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology)type Attributes
DVD+R DL Write Once 2.4X
DVD+R Write Once 16X
DVD+RW Rewritable 4X
DVD-R Write Once 8X
DVD-RW Rewritable 4X
DVD ROM Read 16X
CD-R Write Once 40X
CD-RW Rewritable 24X
CD-ROM Read 40X
CD-ROM drive
Maximum speed: 48X
Modem
PCI K56flex data/fax modem
Video graphics
Integrated with up to 64 MB allocated video memory
Sound/audio
Controller: AC97 audio
Location: Integrated
Network (LAN)
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
USB interface
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
SmartMedia
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
MultiMediaCard
Secure Digital (SD)
Micro Drive
XD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panelPort type Quantity
9-in-1 (4 slot) + 1 USB One
IEEE 1394 One
Headphone One
Line-in One
Microphone One
I/O ports on the back panelPort type Quantity
PS/2 (keyboard, mouse) Two (one each)
VGA (monitor) One
Parallel One
Serial One
USB (2.0) Four
IEEE 1394 One
LAN One
Audio One each (line-in, line-out, microphone)
Expansion slots (total) Slot type Quantity
PCI Three (two available)
DIMM Two (one available)
Drive bays (total) Bay type Quantity
5.25-inch, external Two (occupied)
3.5-inch, external Two (one available)
3.5-inch, internal One (occupied)
I have put in another GB of ram but that’s all I’ve put in. Any other questions please let me know.
well i dont wanna spend like $200 per piece of equipment id rather buy relatively cheap stuff but i dont wanna sacrifice a ton of quality for money.
iKnife said:
well i dont wanna spend like $200 per piece of equipment id rather buy relatively cheap stuff but i dont wanna sacrifice a ton of quality for money.That doesn’t come close to answering my previous question <_>
RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM
in other words…. upgrade your ram first. If you want to do more gaming besides CS 1.6, you will need to buy a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card.
Video card is most important for gaming. RAM needs to be at least 2gb. if you need to save money on something, buy a cheap CPU and upgrade it later.
With what you have now you won’t get anything decent at gaming for less than $800.
You’re looking at a power supply, motherboard, processor, RAM, and video card at the absolute minimum. It looks like you’ve got a half-tower case so you’ll probably need a new case as well to fit the newer video cards.
If your hard drive is over 2 years old you’ll want to replace it with a newer SATAII just for the speed, reliability and space needed for modern games.
You might get away with it at $600 but it would be using older generation parts and when you wanted to upgrade again in a year or two you’d have to rebuild the whole thing again.
MasterP said:
With what you have now you won’t get anything decent at gaming for less than $800.You’re looking at a power supply, motherboard, processor, RAM, and video card at the absolute minimum. It looks like you’ve got a half-tower case so you’ll probably need a new case as well to fit the newer video cards.
If your hard drive is over 2 years old you’ll want to replace it with a newer SATAII just for the speed, reliability and space needed for modern games.
You might get away with it at $600 but it would be using older generation parts and when you wanted to upgrade again in a year or two you’d have to rebuild the whole thing again.
I disagree. I could build him a NICE rig for 450-500.
Kuros said:
I disagree. I could build him a NICE rig for 450-500.Have you built a $500 machine lately? I have. They make great office machines but are absolutely terrible at gaming. As in it wouldn’t even be able to play CoD4 at enjoyable settings.
Notice he’s using a socket478 celeron in an old mini/half tower. He wants to be able to play games. You can’t do a near total rebuild and get something that’ll last. You’d have to severely sacrifice performance and long-term viability. Then again if you think “NICE” means using cheap, *edited*-poor, off-brand, or used parts to meet the $400 requirement then by all means…
iknife: If all you want is to simply upgrade then go with the most RAM your motherboard can accept (2x1GB). There’s literally nothing else you can do with that motherboard that would help.
Seriously though, that HP is at least 4 years old and it wasn’t exactly one of the more expensive models either. It’s time to get a new computer.
It doesn’t have to be exactly $400 and I’m not looking to upgrade EVERY SINGLE PART. I’m just looking for what is really important for me to buy to help my computer become faster.
MasterP said:
iknife: If all you want is to simply upgrade then go with the most RAM your motherboard can accept (2x1GB). There’s literally nothing else you can do with that motherboard that would help.Seriously though, that HP is at least 4 years old and it wasn’t exactly one of the more expensive models either. It’s time to get a new computer.
MasterP said:
Then again if you think “NICE” means using cheap, *edited*-poor, off-brand, or used parts to meet the $400 requirement then by all means…I just built one with a 4870 graphics card, core2 quad, decent power supply from thermaltake, 4 gigs of corsair ram, gigabyte mainboard and even with a $200 monitor it was around 900 bucks. NONE of that is *edited*poor or offbrand. I don’t build *edited*ty computers and I’m offended that you would imply that I do. It would be easy to shave off some excess money from that build to get something decent that would last 2 years or so. Long term no way…but something to game with for a bit, sure.
Go price a $450 gaming computer that’d you’d be proud to stand behind for 2 years. It’s hard.
Btw, lol @ gigabyte.
iKnife, good info here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-2…clock,2310.html
I will take my stab at this…
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model SH-S222A – OEM
Item #: N82E16827151175
$25.99
Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply – Retail
Item #: N82E16811129065
$89.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive – OEM
Item #: N82E16822136074
$49.99
SAPPHIRE 100255HDMI Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card – Retail
Item #: N82E16814102820
$64.99
OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N800SR4GK – Retail
Item #: N82E16820227269
$45.99 – $10 MIR
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX – Retail
Item #: N82E16819103649
ASUS M4A78 PRO AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
Item #: N82E16813131362
$198.99 Combo
Subtotal: $475.94
Shipping: $10.57
Grand Total: $486.51
Now I know this isn’t high-end and MasterP will find reasons to complain as he always does but that computer will play every game out using at least medium settings and is the best you can do for that price. I would recommend spending an extra ~$70 on top of that though and upgrading to a phenom II x4 920 and a radeon 4850 but still for under $500, a decent gaming computer is within grasp.
Also for MasterP who doesn’t know, the radeon 4670 is basically the same as the 3850, which was a pretty decent card and actually can play games at a budget price.
You about have to go Phenom to meet that price and the majority of the Phenom IIs are still slower than the Q6600. If the goal is medium settings you’d do fine with an Nvidia 7600
Also, did I read that right? Did AMD pull an Nvidia and recycle older cards into the new family
Here’s my shot. Little more but it’s also more powerful.
Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail
Item #: N82E16811133058
$59.88 – $10 MIR
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply – Retail
Item #: N82E16817153052
$54.99 – $22 MIR
ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail
Item #: N82E16813131329
$86.99
Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9400 – Retail
Item #: N82E16819115131
$189.99
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5C – Retail
Item #: N82E16820145241
$54.99 – $20 MIR
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive – OEM
Item #: N82E16822136074
$49.99
XFX PVT96OZDFU GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail
Item #: N82E16814150340
$79.99 – $20 MIR
FREE – Call of Duty World at War
Use existing 16x DVDRW drive
Cost: $576.82
MIR: $72
Final Cost: $504.82
using a build that gets to a price point based on mail in rebates is… obnoxious.
Also, your build will be virtually the same speed as mine in game, and no, a geforce 7600 will NOT play NEW games at medium settings.
MasterP said:
You about have to go Phenom to meet that price and the majority of the Phenom IIs are still slower than the Q6600. If the goal is medium settings you’d do fine with an Nvidia 7600
Also, did I read that right? Did AMD pull an Nvidia and recycle older cards into the new family
Here’s my shot. Little more but it’s also more powerful.
Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail
Item #: N82E16811133058
$59.88 – $10 MIR
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply – Retail
Item #: N82E16817153052
$54.99 – $22 MIR
ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail
Item #: N82E16813131329
$86.99
Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9400 – Retail
Item #: N82E16819115131
$189.99
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5C – Retail
Item #: N82E16820145241
$54.99 – $20 MIR
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive – OEM
Item #: N82E16822136074
$49.99
XFX PVT96OZDFU GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail
Item #: N82E16814150340
$79.99 – $20 MIR
FREE – Call of Duty World at War
Use existing 16x DVDRW drive
Cost: $576.82
MIR: $72
Final Cost: $504.82
Looks like even you can get one in the 450-500 range. And you said it was impossible. GG proving yourself wrong.
MasterP said:
You might get away with it at $600 but it would be using older generation parts and when you wanted to upgrade again in a year or two you’d have to rebuild the whole thing again.Actually I believed I proved this earlier statement but whatever. I still wouldn’t stand behind any build that attempted to game at this price range. It’s just a waste to spend so much money and still fall short of what’s needed to play tomorrow’s games at decent framerates.
I still stand behind my earlier statement that anything less than $800 will leave you wanting more performance with new or upcoming games and make you wish you had spent more when you try to upgrade in a year and discover you can’t without spending another $400.
Nickname: The 7600 would play L4D and CoD4 at medium. If we’re using something like Crysis as the baseline for NEW then nothing we can price him will meet that short of spending money on a NEW video card. NEW card to play NEW games, old (cheap) card to play old games. You just can’t get around the whole “get what you paid for” thing.
The 9600 I posted averages 20-30% better in benchmarks and the CPU is roughly 25% faster. Other than that I guess they’re virtually the same speed.
The Phenom’s performance doesn’t necessarily have to make sense. Remember we’re talking about the company that had their 3-core processors outperforming their 4-core processors at the same speeds.
MasterP said:
Nickname: The 7600 would play L4D and CoD4 at medium. If we’re using something like Crysis as the baseline for NEW then nothing we can price him will meet that short of spending money on a NEW video card. NEW card to play NEW games, old (cheap) card to play old games. You just can’t get around the whole “get what you paid for” thing.The 9600 I posted averages 20-30% better in benchmarks and the CPU is roughly 25% faster. Other than that I guess they’re virtually the same speed.
My laptop’s 8600 can barely play l4d at medium…. and major’s new laptop has a 9600 and can barely play l4d at medium so yeah, I’m gonna stick with my statement about the 7600 not being capable of playing newer games at medium settings.
And LOL have you even looked at benchmarks of the 9600gso vs the radeon 4670? or gaming benchmarks of the q9400 vs x3 720?? Maybe next time do your homework but since you are incapable I will do it for you…
radeon 4670 vs geforce 9600 gso:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2330188,00.asp
extremetech said:
When judging the performance of these cards, two main points come to mind. First, they’re remarkably evenly matched. There are some games and settings where either ATI or Nvidia runs quite a bit faster, but on the whole we’d call it a draw. Only when you enable anti-aliasing does the ATI card regularly run most games fasterhttp://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=7
anandtech said:
the 4670 outperforms the 9500 GT, and where it doesn’t out perform the 9600 GSO it is competitive.q9400 vs x3 720:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showd…?i=3512&p=8
the only GAMING benchmark where the 720 really loses is far cry 2, in the other 3 they are virtually equal
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showd…?i=3512&p=8
forgive the fact that its the q9450 instead of the q9400 (the 9450 is faster), but the x3 720 clearly wins in farcry 2 and l4d, clearly loses in bioshock, and is fairly even in the other gaming benchmarks.
so basically I would like to see where the “9600 I posted averages 20-30% better in benchmarks and the CPU is roughly 25% faster” comes from. quick edit: my statements are assuming gaming only. Clearly the q9400 has advantages for other applications.
Also I’d like to point out that not everyone has $800 to blow on a new pc. Some people have to do the best with what they have.
Kuros said:
Also I’d like to point out that not everyone has $800 to blow on a new pc. Some people have to do the best with what they have.yes. Hence the reason AMD, Intel, and nvidia, as well as EVERY OTHER COMPANY, sells “entry-level” and “midrange” parts. Not only does not everybody have $800 to spend, but not everybody NEEDS to spend $800, depending on what they want to do with the computer.
Nickname said:
My laptop’s 8600 can barely play l4d at medium…. and major’s new laptop has a 9600 and can barely play l4d at medium so yeah, I’m gonna stick with my statement about the 7600 not being capable of playing newer games at medium settings.So you’re using laptop cards as a basis for comparing desktop cards. You know *edited* well they’re never as fast as their desktop equivalent. Also, what resolution are you basing your poor performance on? I know you have a habit of playing everything at the laptop’s max which is where ALL low-end cards fail.
Nickname said:
And LOL have you even looked at benchmarks of the 9600gso vs the radeon 4670? or gaming benchmarks of the q9400 vs x3 720?? Maybe next time do your homework but since you are incapable I will do it for you…radeon 4670 vs geforce 9600 gso:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2330188,00.asp
We’ve been through this so many times it’s getting to be funny. Remember last time we did this in RL and I proved they were using different machines to test video cards? Look at the machine specs to that review and tell me that doesn’t look fishy.
Also worth mentioning, Extremetech disabled the Phyx processor for it’s testing to “compare apples to apples. That’s something that should give any Nvidia card at least a small bump. Andtech literally uses different driver version for each card they test and beta drivers for the 4670. Now why is that? All Nvidia cards use the same package of drivers and my understanding is that ATI is the same way. A fair comparison would have been to use the same drivers for everthing. Then again they bash the 9600GSO every chance they get for being “rebranded” so I’m sure the reviewer was unbaised
I know drivers can be finacky and finding one that performs well with the card in question is part of the challenge but drivers are a big deal when it comes to games and from what I’m seeing it looks like they played with drivers to get the results they wanted. Then again if they’re using updated drivers in a fair way to compare new cards to older ones already benchmarked then that also creates biased results because updated drivers might have also helped the older cards as well.
Nickname said:
q9400 vs x3 720:http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showd…?i=3512&p=8
the only GAMING benchmark where the 720 really loses is far cry 2, in the other 3 they are virtually equal
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showd…?i=3512&p=8
forgive the fact that its the q9450 instead of the q9400 (the 9450 is faster), but the x3 720 clearly wins in farcry 2 and l4d, clearly loses in bioshock, and is fairly even in the other gaming benchmarks.
Not sure what review you’re looking at but the two you linked are the same. Also, the longer bars mean BETTER performance. Using the “longer bar is better” technique, Fallout3 is dominated by a dualcore (we’ll throw that out), they have identical scores in L4D, and the Q9400 CLEARLY wins in Farcry2 and Crysis, although in Crysis an E8400 outperforms the Q9400 so it really shouldn’t be considered either.
Gaming benchmarks for processors is silly as most games usually favor one brand or type over the other. Some do really well with multicores but most games aren’t threaded well as seen by that one where the Core2Duo beats the Core i7. Thanks for the link though, been wanting definitive proof to that claim for a while.
Nickname said:
quick edit: my statements are assuming gaming only. Clearly the q9400 has advantages for other applications.Glad you clarified. When you look at the non-game applications the Q9400 creams the P2-720.
Also, the Q9400 and Q9450 are the same speed. The 9450 has more cache.
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