Opinion on Friends PC

[bosshoss]

Hey guys. My buddy currently has a pre-fabbed compaq computer here is the specs:
Mobo I am unsure of but it does have 4x AGP
AMD 2000+
512mb pc2100
GEFORCE 5200fx

Now would he be better off starting with a mobo upgrade and then build from there or get a better vid card? (He doesnt have very much money at all, maybe about 120bux a month for pc upgrade)And also, is there anyway I can flash his BIOS from the compaq BIOS it came loaded with?

<i> If the creator of the human body is "The Ultimate Engineer", why did he put a recreation site right next to a waste treatment area? </i>

 

[Mr5oh]

What kind of stuff is he planning on doing with it? If playing stuff like Doom3 and HL2 are in that list, he is just going to have upgrade the whole thing eventually, even if it is at a slow pace. A video card would help, but a video card that would make a difference is going to be more than his budget realistically. A new CPU would probably give more bang for the buck at the moment, especially if followed by new RAM.

However you will have to figure out what that compaq board will handle?

What do you mean flash the BIOS, like to get rid of the compaq stuff? There are some custom BIOSs out there, but finding one for a compaq like that would be pretty difficult, some how I don't think you have anything to gain from flashing the BIOS.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>
Overclocking Results: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc2.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc2.html</A>

 

[bosshoss]

He wants to play games like Farcry,HL2,and He already does play doom3. He just has to play them at low settings to get any decent framerate at all. And yeah he did want to get rid of the compaq boot screen that loads up so I figured I would try and find a BIOS to flash but that proved more easier said than done. He realistically cant afford to go 64bit with cpu, so I figured a good sempron setup would probably be in his price range, but do you think that a sempron 2800+ can handle new games?

<i> If the creator of the human body is "The Ultimate Engineer", why did he put a recreation site right next to a waste treatment area? </i>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

No need to upgrade CPU. He needs a better video card like Radeon 9800 Pro.

------------
<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A>

<A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig</A> & <A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/benchmark.html" target="_new">3DMark score</A>

 

[endyen]

Compaq does not make boards, they buy them. Find the manufacturer, and model, then see if the manufacturer's bios is any better.
A caution, if the board has been moded to Compaq specs, the mobo maker's bios wont work.
Another vote for getting a better graphics card.
When he does get a new chip (and only with a new bios) look at getting an xp-m chip.