Need an upgrade

[OCISOC]

Sup all,

My gf wants to upgrade her computer but not sure how. Her computer specs are:

P4 1.6
768mb PC2100 ram
GeForce FX5200
Not sure what motherboard, psu
Some generic 80gb hdd

She doesn't use her system for much other then browsing and play world of warcraft and she wanted to know if she could upgrade for as little as possible money wise ($100-200 max) to play with less lag and also for the computer to load stuff quicker lol. Any advice is appreciated thx

I was thinkin of just upgrading her ram to 1gb total, her vid card to something like 6600gt and also getting a faster hdd? Thx

 

[yas]

I would say your processor is whats holding you back yet im not sure. The ram isnt that bad. If she plays games then you might wanna get a new gfx card too

 

[OCISOC]

lol damn i was afraid someone might say that ...so what would you recommend? A whole new system?

 

[skyguy]

Forget the hard drive, it won't help much for the money spent....it would be a waste.

Vid card will help the most with games, and RAM to some degree, but it won't help her computer run any faster in other programs or overall. Overall system performance would help with a better processor. The P4 1.6 you mention is *probably* a Socket 478 motherboard/CPU, so upgrading the CPU at this point might or might not be worth it. Best you can do is then probably this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116175

768 RAM is ok, but not spectacular.....sounds like you have a stick each of 512 and 256......so depending on how many DIMM slots she has on her mobo (2 or 4?), you may have to ditch the 256 and get 1 stick of 1 gig instead. That would give her double what she has, up to 1.5 gigs.

However, a 5200 vid card is pretty crap, sorry. If you get her a 6600 that could work (I assume she has an AGP slot in her mobo?). IF she has a PCI-e (I doubt it), then get a 7600GT, it'll spank the 6600.

Either way, I would recommend getting a new vid card first to improve performance, then RAM second. If you get really lucky and have 4 DIMM slots in her mobo, then look at getting a 6600 and another 512 stick of RAM, that combination will be fairly cheap and should give quite a performance boost compared to what she has now. Beyond that, you're looking at big bucks to upgrade. This is probably your best option on the cheap.

So, if you're feeling adventurous you can get a new CPU and 6600 vid card for about $200. Spending more than that is a waste really. Or you could get a vid card and some more RAM as a cheaper solution. Depends on your budget.

Consider a 6600GT or a 7600GS for the same price range. Grab a P4 2.6 or 3.0 if you're lucky OEM for $90 and you get a big upgrade for $200

 

[OCISOC]

Sorry oops forgot to mention it. Yup she is using an agp vid card and has only 2 slots for memory. Right now it is a 512 and a 256 sticks. So i guess i'll start w/ the vid card like u suggested and then ram but i wasn't sure if it was worth spending 'bout 70 bucks for 1gb vs 30-40 for a 512 stick.

 

[skyguy]

6600GT and P4 2.6 (3.0 if you're lucky at a good price) should run you $200. New vid card and CPU is a good upgrade, best bang for your buck at this point.

 

[OCISOC]

Hmm...now she's telling me she only wants to spend 'bout $150 max but she would rather keep it at 100 if possible. What you guys think? i know she can't expect much since she's not able at this time to shell out enough....

Which CPU is right here?

http://www.pricewatch.com/cpu/pentium_4_2.8ghz.htm

 

[OCISOC]

Sorry still learning about computer stuff. I was doing some research on the video cards based on http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/05/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/page5.html#best_agp_card_for_125_tie

Is it true that some of AGP vid cards can be used w/ PCI Express?

 

[skyguy]

1) I *think* she has a Socket 478, but you need to verify somehow. Open up the case, look at the mobo is your best bet. You show some Socket 775 CPUs in that list, which won't work if she has 478 mobo. If it's 478 mobo, then pick one from that list, they appear to be the same, and around the same price range. So a CPU upgrade will help overall with her system, but it won't help her lag much in WoW.

2) A vid card upgrade is needed if she wants better performance in WoW. The 5200 is definitely crippling the gaming experience there.

So I suppose she could upgrade the CPU now and the vid card later when she has another $100. But as long as she understands that just a CPU upgrade won't translate into some new superfast system

 

[OCISOC]

Yea i will definitely open up her case when she's ready to order. As of now she's mainly sick of the WoW lag so do you think upgrading her vid card would help now even if she doesn't upgrade her cpu yet? thx

 

[skyguy]

Virtually all games are GPU-bound (vid card), not CPU-bound at normal resolutions. So all things being equal, she will benefit more from a vid card upgrade rather than a CPU upgrade.

I don't play WoW, but my buddy does, and he has a single-core AMD and a 6600GT......so similar setup in this case, so I'll ask him and report back tomorrow with his observations and thoughts.

Gotta bail now.

 

[OCISOC]

Cool thx appreciate it

 

[skyguy]

Ok, talked to my buddy, and his wife's system is similar to your gf's situation.

His recommendation echoed what I figured, so here it is:

Your gf's RAM is enough to run WoW decently. And the CPU isn't really holding her back much, although it WILL help if she turns off some background processes when she runs the game......things that aren't needed, etc to free up some CPU resources. Your best bet is to upgrade the vid card......a 6600GT will do fine for WoW. It's not a complete resource hog like some of the new FPS games, so she should experience a noticeable increase in framerate and reduced lag. Obviously make sure, however, that your net connection is decent (not on dialup LOL) to ensure that's not causing Ping lag, etc.

To be honest, there's not much point to upgrading the CPU at all. Getting a new vid card will last her WoW for at least another year, maybe 2 if she gets the upcoming expansion pack to keep her busy At that point, then she'll need a system upgrade. You'd be able to build a decent dual core system, mobo, 1 gig RAM, and decent vid card at that point for $500 no problem. Upgrading the CPU on a dead socket at that time is an utter waste of money. Just move to the modern era then, and she'll be happy for quite some time.

She has enough RAM for WoW, CPU is ok, but vid card is the weak link. Spending $100 for a vid card is the best idea. Save the money for anything else and then just upgrade the system in a year or two, and that'll give a big jump up at an affordable price.

So on a tight budget, get the best vid card you can, a 6600GT should do just fine and won't break the bank.

And when she's playing WoW and all happy, you'll look like the hero, so just make darn sure you cash in those Bonus Boyfriend Bucks for helping her out