Upgrade PC to gaming machine

[Tanmay Zambavlikar]

My PC stopped working so found an excuse to upgrade my machine entirely...

i consulted one of the hardware vendors in mumbai and asked him best mother board for Pentium D 820. He handed over a Gigabyte G41 combo (the one which supports DDR2 or DDR3) Bios Rev 2. However i found that Pentium D 820 is not compatible with Gigabyte G41 as listed no Gigabyte's web page.

so now i am of the opinion to buy a new processor since Pentium D is now obsolete and to ask a replacement for mother board best suited for gaming.
My budget is around 7000 INR.

Following is my configuration (excl cpu mobo)

PSU: Bestec 300w(max)

RAM: 1) 2gb ddr2 transend.
2) 1gb ddr2 transend.

Hard Drive: Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200 rpm.

Graphics Card: Zotac 1GB nvidia 8400GS

Also i would like to have a configuration that can hold DDR2 i have, since i bought those a couple of month earlier and they are new. And board that supports dual video card as well (SLI as i have learned.)

Kindly advise.

Thanks

 

[hang-the-9]

That setup is in no way a "gaming" machine. 300 watts is not enough to power any gaming SLI cards, and non gaming SLI cards would be a waste to setup.

For DDR2 support you are looking at a Core 2 Duo CPU, to run any type of decent games you would want at least a 2.6ghz model.
I suggest buying a used Dell XPS or Lenovo tower system and installing a faster video card. I've done that several times, and the better Lenovo models come with a power supply good enough to run a low end gaming card.

 

[Tanmay Zambavlikar]

That setup is in no way a "gaming" machine. 300 watts is not enough to power any gaming SLI cards, and non gaming SLI cards would be a waste to setup.

For DDR2 support you are looking at a Core 2 Duo CPU, to run any type of decent games you would want at least a 2.6ghz model.
I suggest buying a used Dell XPS or Lenovo tower system and installing a faster video card. I've done that several times, and the better Lenovo models come with a power supply good enough to run a low end gaming card.

thanks for your reply.

I was planning to invest in small increments. To be specific i was more interested in good motherboard that supports SLI (since i have one with me which is a low end card) and ddr2 ram combination and a good CPU.

 

[hang-the-9]

It is a waste to purchase a new motherboard for DDR2 because they won't support any of the new CPUs. You need a full upgrade unless you are OK with being stuck with a Core 2 Duo as the max CPU. Just buy a whole used system with a 3 gig dual-core CPU and buy a $60-100 low end gaming video card, then you can use your DDR2 RAM for a while. If you look around for a bit, you can get a system and a video card for not mure more than $150 or so. A Radeon 6750 will be a HUGE upgrade to your old video card and is about $90, you can find a Core 2 Duo 2.6+ GHz system for under $100 also. You can get a 6670 for about $20-30 less but it will limit your more for quality and resolution. When you are ready for an upgrade, you need to buy a motherboard, CPU and DDR3 RAM in one order.

 

[Tanmay Zambavlikar]

It is a waste to purchase a new motherboard for DDR2 because they won't support any of the new CPUs. You need a full upgrade unless you are OK with being stuck with a Core 2 Duo as the max CPU. Just buy a whole used system with a 3 gig dual-core CPU and buy a $60-100 low end gaming video card, then you can use your DDR2 RAM for a while. If you look around for a bit, you can get a system and a video card for not mure more than $150 or so. A Radeon 6750 will be a HUGE upgrade to your old video card and is about $90, you can find a Core 2 Duo 2.6+ GHz system for under $100 also. You can get a 6670 for about $20-30 less but it will limit your more for quality and resolution. When you are ready for an upgrade, you need to buy a motherboard, CPU and DDR3 RAM in one order.

hi again...and thx for the reply

consulted my friends here as well..and i switched over to AMD FX 4100, 990fxa-GD65, 2*2gb dd3 ram and 500W smps all at 21500 INR minus 2000 INR for my old 1gb ddr2 and 2gb ddr2.

so i landed up spending around 19500 INR. Wasnt my budget though...but was nt able hold back when i saw all the bells and whistles on the box

i was said this mobo can "over clock" the cpu and so improve FPS and quality.
though honestly have no idea what and how much over clocking will contribute to this.

i have a retained my old zotac 8400gs card and will replace it in next 6 to 8 months.

kindly comment on your thoughts