Best Bang for the Buck

hey all,

I am trying to put a bit more life into my compaq presario so i doing some minor upgrades.

I want to upgrade the video card because right now it is on intel integrated graphics..... it sucks

here is the computer
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] 97&lang=en

and here is what i want to get
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=1603

is this compatible?
I can put in one PCI and this is PCI so I wanted to know if this is a good deal or can I get something better for less money. Keep in mind it should have at least 256 MB of VRAM or more.

PS I actually have 512 megs of actual RAM

Thanks

I know, and I can't get one right know, besides, I will be building my next rig. For gaming which i just started getting into but i have to use this crappy one, so I got to get a Video card now or I won't be able to play CSS or other steam games like that.

Thanks, Eagles453809 I understand you.

Do i need to upgrade the processor?

no the problem is with the PCI bus its self, it cant supply enough band width for a graphics card to run properly, even the most up to date computer could not run a PCI graphics card and play a game without the picture sticking all the time

so you have no chance with ur old one, just save ur cash and put it towards ur next computer.

BTW you could get a cheap AMD motherboard with onboard graphics card, it will play all the games out at low res but thay will play, and that would be the cheapest option

Upgrading that presario will just be a waste of money. Even after adding that 8400GS card, the atom on ION will still be better than it and it still wont play mordern games
Just keep that pc somewhere as a file server or something and get a new pc. Dont waste your cash man. It will do you good with your new build.

That's totally not worth it. 1.2GHz Celeron, wow! How do you make do with that? You don't want to put "life" into your computer. Its life is over. I can't think of a worse CPU bottleneck. Perhaps a 500MHz Pentium x?

It has nothing to do with your processor, yeah right. all you need is a "descent" card and you are fine even with a say, 100Mhz CPU?

Thanks guys,

Your comments were fun to read especially the dinosaur one. So can i upgrade the mobo and processor on this for under 100 dollars and not end up w/ a celeron dual core etc.

I was on tigerdirect and the only thing under a 100 dollars was a celeron dual core, which I really don't want.

any replies are welcome

Thanks

Thanks Daship. i will look into that. i never thought of that

Plenty of Sub $50 mobos: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] rder=PRICE

Theres no reason to buy a more expensive motherboard unless you need more expansion or multi GPU's. MATX boards are just fine.


Today ram is gonna cost you about $20 for 2G, it changes all the time.

The e1400 is a allendale CPU, Same as the e6xxx series 1st generation core 2 duos. It just has smaller cache but it is still one hell of a good CPU and 1000% better then what the OP has.

Absolutely nothing and the e1400 is a great CPU as well. It aint no quad core or i7 but is leaps and bounds better then what you have, and it is in your budget.

I have built tons of budget rigs with these and they are great. Not to mention this will get you going now, and later you can drop a quad or a faster dual in when you get more money if you feel like you need to.

If you want to game AT ALL then this is the least you can do:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813135075

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227189

Roughly $150.

Thanks everyone. i got alot of good feedback from you guys