I need a budget pc, upgade parts or buy this clearance pc?

[solchitlins]

Is this a good PC for someone on a tight budget???

COMPAQ Presario Desktop CQ5110F
There's one on clearance near my house for $225

http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk/gr/PresarioCQ5110f.htm

just bought this monitor :
http://slickdeals.net/forums/show...?t=1649954

and before it arrived my PC totally broke.

I'm running win 7 with Amd Althlod 64 3400+, 2.21ghz, 1.5g older style ram and 200g older style hard drive.

as well as an old ati radeon 9500 pro 128m video card that might still work.
But that stuff is all old and outdated.

So now I'm thinking about upgrading my mother board, cpu, hard drive and ram.

here's a link to my case I found on the Internet: Antec PLUS 660AMG

http://www.lemcomputers.com/antec-pl.htm


It's still a pretty nice case although it's large and noisy with all those fans running.

Think I could get something nice going that would be a lot better than this for the same amount of money?

Or grab the compaq and get a cheep graphics card? I don't game much but would be nice to be able to play everquest again someday.

any suggestions? thanks

 

[ir_efrem]

If you dont game much, I say get the Compaq. Keep in mind that a power supply upgrade may be needed with that new graphics card. These systems usually have a VERY weak Power Supply in them - next question - will a standard power supply fit in that Compaq case? Do some research.

If you really want to build your own system, be prepared to spend more than $225. Honestly though $225 was never an amount you were going to spend if you wanted even semi-decent gaming graphics. Toss out your old Video card (period) it's not good for anything besides email, web browsing, and document creation (this is my opinion) and any low end video card will be much better than it. It has an AGP slot and no new motherboard will accept it anyway. Well maybe a couple of motherboards will accept an AGP card, why bother though....

This all depends on your budget. If you have a budget, tell us what it is and a few more people will be able to give recommendations. If you are not confident in your abilities to build a new system, that will factor in to suggestions as well.

A complete computer for $225 is going to be very difficult to beat, but you never mentioned how much you want to spend on graphics. A mid range video card will almost certain require a PS upgrade.. You have not provided enough details.

 

[batuchka]

Hmm i'd rather u reuse your working old hardware 1st and get a awesome multicore/DDR3 el cheapo set up and incrementally add on more current h/w later when u have more funds. IGP mobos ftw A quickie "warp speed" from the world of DDR to DDR3 is in order me thinks hehe In the low $2xx we have

 

[batuchka]

A rough idea how much more computing power u getting we have

brisbane < windsor < kuma (your proposed compaq) < E6300 < Athlon2 X2

Here we have an Athlon2 X3

 

[solchitlins]

sorry,
I'll look into finding out more info on the power supply. I know it's Antec and probably the one that came with the case, 350 watt I would guess. I might have upgraded when I built it, but it was years ago and can't remember.

Is there a way of getting ps specs through the pc, like you look at drives and such? I guess not.

I recently took apart my old emachine. Because it was freezing, crashing and blue screening.
http://www.e4me.com/products/products.html?prod=T6420

I guessed it might be a power supply problem so I put it back together in that old Antec case with the Antec power supply that had been sitting in my garage gathering dust for years.

I did a fresh 32bit windows 7 install and it's up and running but probably not for long.

So now I'm thinking about upgrading. I ran across that compac clearance pc listed above for $225 and figured it might be way better than what I have now.

there also this deal on woot :
eMachines ET1161-07 Desktop Computer

but wondered if I could just build something better for about the same price.
My budget is about $300-$350 total

 

[solchitlins]

update:

just looked inside and it's a antec true 33w
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Power-Supply-Units/Antec-True-Power-330W-PSU/

 

[captaincharisma]

330W PSU isn't much these days. if you decide to upgrade i think your best bet would be to get a mobo with integrated GPU on it so you can still use that PSU. other than that if you decide to get a new GPU for your upgrade that 330W PSU will not cut it.