Buying a video card

[degredation]

I have a budget of $400 and less and i want to upgrade my PC to run Fallout 3. I have Compaq celeron d 3.3ghz, vista, PSU 250 watt max, ATI XPRESS 1100 videocard onboard, 1.4GB ram. Can I buy a decent video card that could last me at least 2 years of new games or I need to buy more than just a video card?

 

[jaguarskx]

You need an all new PC.

The Celeron D is a bit obsolete and will be a performance bottleneck. The 250w PSU limits your best GPU selection to the HD 4670. It's a good mainstream card, but depending on how high you set your gaming standards, it may not last 2 years.

Unfortunately $400 does buy you much of a PC so my recommendation is to hang tight and save some more money. Another $200 will allow you to buy a decent $500 with $100 for a decent video card.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Probably more than just the video dude.

That said....Do you already own a retail copy of xp or vista?

If so good.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240174&CatId=2629

This is 300 bucks, not a real quick processor, but if the power supply is decent, toss in an ATI 4830, or grab a 4670, which would put you right at 400 if you have a legit retail OS already, then you could probably get by until you could do a better upgrade later.

 

[rewindlabs]

Try to sell that pos you have locally....you should be able to get a few bucks for it...find someone stupid enough to give you alot

And save up

 

[degredation]

You need an all new PC.

The Celeron D is a bit obsolete and will be a performance bottleneck. The 250w PSU limits your best GPU selection to the HD 4670. It's a good mainstream card, but depending on how high you set your gaming standards, it may not last 2 years.

Unfortunately $400 does buy you much of a PC so my recommendation is to hang tight and save some more money. Another $200 will allow you to buy a decent $500 with $100 for a decent video card.

On games term if I try to buy the best video card my PC can handle what would be the best game i could play with it? HL2, TF2, Battlefield, Crysis, etc? I don't have high expectation on graphics, I will play Fallout 3 on HL2 quality as long as the FPS(?) is good (ei. don't lag).

 

[rewindlabs]

You could get a lot better of a pc if you waited...you could probably get in on a Phenom 2 X4 or X3 and with that cpu you would have a pc to last atleast 3 years cpu wise and you could get a decent graphics card as well....you are best off to wait and not blow what little you have now on a system that will only game in already released titles...etc


Link to your pc? do you even know if it has pcie? or just agp?

Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107288R

That is your pc...ewww


And you could run HL2 TF2 and Battlefield...NO CRYSIS...but that is it...you would probably be hard stressed to run cod and any new games on the horizon...save your money and make a lasting purchase..

 

[degredation]

Link to your pc? do you even know if it has pcie? or just agp?


Edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 883107288R


That is your pc...ewww

That's exactly it!! Actually I could extend my budget to up to $1000 but I need to be sure that I wouldn't have to upgrade a $1000 PC UNTIL after 2yrs. Yes, I have retail of XP pro.

If I were to buy a new machine dedicated for gaming up to at least 2yrs without upgrade what should I keep an eye for? Video card, Intel core 2 duo, RAM? Can I also add my 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 from my computer now to a new machine or its a hard search?

 

[rewindlabs]

YES that is exactly what we can do for you....

Im not the best at recommending hardware because i like to do alot of research before i buy....you want a phenom!

Il let someone pick the best parts for you depending on your resolution etc

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.183504

The 920 would be pretty good...someone can chime in on if that board is the best...

Here are the list of combos for that cpu...or you could find a better board alone maybe

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472&SubCategory=343&SortField=0&PageSize=10&page=1

You need to post the resolution you will be gaming at...you will want to get new ram for your new machine don't worry its cheap as can be these days



You should be able to even keep your pc under 1000$ and still get a bitching machine setup

 

[degredation]

Thanks for the help guys and rewindlabs!

I only have a 17" CRT monitor. I don't know the resolution but I think 1200X800 is the resolution i played with HL2. I'm not into best graphics, anything better than HL2 is fine.

I just want to make sure what you're suggesting, I will buy a motherboard with phenom processor to start and look for RAM, videocard and Power supply. >wouldn't it cost me more than $1000 to buy it separately?

 

[rewindlabs]

Don't buy anything yet...im just suggesting the phenom as it will get you pretty far without upgrading

Wait for someone to pop in here and make suggestions as iv not read up alot on the best combinations of the phenom

If we can we should see if we can't get you a new monitor in this build as well...i recommend going with a nice 22" 16xx/1xxx monitor and that will get you a pretty nice setup

If we can't fit the monitor in the budget right away i recommend you get a gpu to power that 22" and wait a week or two to get you a nice monitor as there getting pretty cheap and a 16xx/1xxx monitor doesn't cost alot gpu wise to run so you save a few bucks instead of going with 19xx/10xx

 

[degredation]

Oh ok thanks! I will also try to post this on a the home built category. Thank you really for the help! please still comment.

I will post a link after I put it on the Homebuild category.

Updated: Here is the link for the thread I made on Homebuilt:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264321-31-less-budget-gaming-machine