Upgrading my old computer.

[VinceAK04]

I have a 2002 gateway with a pentium 4 processor. No PCI Express, 2 hard drives that total 100 gb, a radeon 9500 series, and 1.5 gb of ram. I have it up at work where i live half the year and it lags terribly in games. Any suggestions on what i can do? I am willing to spend anywhere under $450, and I have a nvidia geforce 7900 GS not being used right now. Thanks for the help.

 

[qwazzy]

Get a new mobo/processor. An E6300 or 6400 with a nice $150 motherboard. Put that 7900GS to work

 

[VinceAK04]

Thanks for the advice. I thought about doing that but wasn't sure if the rest of the parts in my computer will work with a new mobo/processor.

EDIT: Will they work with my old HD and everything else?

 

[alcattle]

You are in a hard place. You need PCI-e, 3-4 IDE ports at best support for DDR RAM. You won't find the new MB with those things.
looking quickly on Newegg I found 1 and it is a mATX which probably won't fit your case.
Abit mATX Intel MB

 

[g-paw]

Something like this would work and be within your budget and could be ugraded later.

Mobo http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813136015
Video Card http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130075
CPU http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103735
RAM http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820134114

Make sure any mobo you get will work with the case and power supply. I don't know how proprietary Gateway is

 

[deusex]

If you have anymore to spend, (~$5XX) I suggest ditching the Gateway Case, and getting new parts, keeping only hd and ram. Again, be sure to get a board supporting uATA and DDR.