Upgrading from a Geforce 5200 fc 128 mb to???

[StormFirestar]

I have a 2004 Gateway 510X with 512mb ram, 250 watt psu, P4 2.6 ghz cpu, GeForce 5200 fx 128 mb graphics card, and an 80 gb hard drive. What all should I upgrade to make it able to play games? ie Killing Floor, Command and Conquer 3 (without the game lagging so much as to be unplayable) and Minecraft. I don't have a lot of money, but I'd like to upgrade this pc just a little so that it will last a few more years at least. I want to keep any upgrades between $50 - $300. Any advice besides the "Get a DIY PC and build a new computer" comment I got elsewhere.

 

[omnisome]

What's your screen resolution, because you're quite trapped with a 250w PSU and Pentium 4.

 

[StormFirestar]

1024x768

I already plan to get at least 2 gb DDR ram. But I'm not sure what else I should focus on.

 

[hang-the-9]

The lower of the cards here "should" run on a 250 watt power supply, unless the manufacturer really played games with the power rating. Assuming you have a PCIe slot, with that P4 speed you could have AGP only.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-graphics-card-geforce-gtx-590-radeon-hd-6990,2879.html

 

[StormFirestar]

Only AGP and PCI no PCIe. I might try to find a 300W or 350W PSU since I don't know if a 400W PSU would fry the motherboard. I don't know if mobos have a max on PSUs they can use. I have seen Gateway 510 pcs listed with 300W before so I hope that will work.

 

[hang-the-9]

Power supply would not do any damage to the motherboard, any size will do.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125281

You will need a power supply with a proper power connector for the card.

Don't know why you don't want to build a new system, after you are done getting RAM, new power supply and a video card, you are probably over 50% of the cost of a new system. Any money you spend on this PC is wasted as you can't move anything over to a new build. You can get a decent used dual core off craigslist for the price of the upgrades you are going to do.

 

[stillerfan15]

Power supply would not do any damage to the motherboard, any size will do.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125281

You will need a power supply with a proper power connector for the card.

Don't know why you don't want to build a new system, after you are done getting RAM, new power supply and a video card, you are probably over 50% of the cost of a new system. Any money you spend on this PC is wasted as you can't move anything over to a new build. You can get a decent used dual core off craigslist for the price of the upgrades you are going to do.

Agreed - for $400 or so you could put together a new build with faster memory, video, and a better psu with a dual core proc.
dave

 

[Liu kang baking a pie]

Agp get the 4650 1gb agp version

 

[hang-the-9]

Agp get the 4650 1gb agp version

^ that is probably the best card that will run on your system, possibly even without a power supply upgrade. But between that and the RAM upgrade, it's wasted money that can go toward a full new system.