Best way to upgrade computer?

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winuser2000

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 20, 2001
Messages
299
I have a computer I put together from scraps and I'm not happy with gaming on it. I was trying to run warhammer online and it was not good. I have a KG7 motherboard with 1 GB ram in it, a 2800 @3200, and an x1950 pro AGP. I'm running vista which might be why gaming isn't working but I didn't have a choice when I formatted it. What would be the best possible upgrade for it? Is it the processor? CPU? or RAM? Vista? I would like to put 100 dollars into it and try to make it decent at gaming.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
 
Sadly, you may want to save up your money for a new system. As a stopgap, try to get another 1GB of RAM (though you may want to get it at the FS forum here to save yourself some money), as Vista uses resources differently than XP.
 
You'll need at least $350 to do a major upgrade, actually more since you need a graphics card too.

Go for more RAM, it will help in the short term. DDR is pretty overpriced though...
 
I concur: just go for a RAM upgrade. Hit up the For-Sale and For Trade subforum. Try to spend about $20 for 1GB of DDR333 or DDR400 RAM.

Then save up your money for a new system. Beyond a RAM upgrade, it is simply not worth spending on an old system like that.
 
I have a brand new computer and just built this one from scraps to see if I can have a machine that I can play games that don't require new hardware. It seems like the specs of the computer are not that bad. I have talked to people who have played warhammer online with less than an x1950, granted mine is AGP. The card shouldn't be that bad right? I want to try putting XP on it to see if there is a noticeable difference. These are the reqs for warhammer, shouldn't I be able to play this game?

Windows 2000/XP
2.4Ghz Intel Processor or 2400+ or higher model AMD processor
1GB RAM (Almost went 512 MB here, but it won’t work)
100% DirectX 9.0 compatible computer. 100% DirectX compatible keyboard or input device. Vertex and Pixel shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 128MB of texture memory.
100% DirectX compatible sound card
56k+ Internet Connection
16X Speed DVD-ROM
20Gigabytes Hard Drive Space
 
winuser2000 said:
I have a brand new computer and just built this one from scraps to see if I can have a machine that I can play games that don't require new hardware. It seems like the specs of the computer are not that bad. I have talked to people who have played warhammer online with less than an x1950, granted mine is AGP. The card shouldn't be that bad right? I want to try putting XP on it to see if there is a noticeable difference. These are the reqs for warhammer, shouldn't I be able to play this game?

Windows 2000/XP
2.4Ghz Intel Processor or 2400+ or higher model AMD processor
1GB RAM (Almost went 512 MB here, but it won’t work)
100% DirectX 9.0 compatible computer. 100% DirectX compatible keyboard or input device. Vertex and Pixel shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 128MB of texture memory.
100% DirectX compatible sound card
56k+ Internet Connection
16X Speed DVD-ROM
20Gigabytes Hard Drive Space
Click to expand...

Why don't you play warhammer on your new rig?
You can and should throw another gig at the older rig especially for warhammer.
 
I found youre problem

winuser2000 said:
... just built this one from scraps ...
Click to expand...

Warhammer may "run" on those minimal specs listed, but wont be a very good experience. I say you delegate that one to something like a file server or something less taxing.

And FWIW I have XP Pro SP3 on a 250 mhz machine. Yes, thats Mhz. I did it for giggles, and it actually will boot and work, although its slow....
 
I'm just trying to see what I can get out of the old one. I'm at school with my new rig and I thought it would be nice to have some gaming options when I drop in at home where my older machine is.
 
If you can't afford a new system just double the ram to 2GB and the fastest AGP video card on the market. What that is I don't know...
 
I would also consider switching from Vista to XP. I've found Vista to be rather unpleasant with under 2gig of RAM.
 
Since my problem falls under the same subject that I need to run Warhammer Online but my computer is way too out of date. I built this computer myself so I have a case to upgrade with.

Here are my spec:
AMD Athlon 3200+
my motherboard supports AMD and AGP x8 (biggest problem for me)
XFX GeForce 7600 GT
2gb DDR RAM
400w PW supply

I was thinking about updating my motherboard, CPU, RAM, and vid card. What do u guys think?

Was looking at these four products:
Vid card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127387
RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

Should I just jump to quad core and pay a bit more or is dual core fine for running a game like warhammer?
 
Vista doesn't like the hardware you have. If you have XP laying around, you could try that as a free fix to see if you get another 5-10 FPS (quite possibly can happen). Vista really doesn't like anything less than 2GB of ram, but even with 2GB, you still have a slower CPU and GPU. A newer 3GHZ cpu is easily 2-3x faster than the one you have.
 
gamerx11 said:
Since my problem falls under the same subject that I need to run Warhammer Online but my computer is way too out of date. I built this computer myself so I have a case to upgrade with.
Click to expand...

Same subject but different enough needs. Please make your own thread.

Oh and what model 400W PSU is that? Answer that question in your own thread.
 
In response to Winuser2000 build, I agree with what was mentioned previously. Up your RAM to 2gig of RAM. I'm assuming also that you have Win Vista 32bit installed? It can't be Win Vista 64 bit right? Up your RAM to 2gigs and I would downgrade to WinXP Pro.
 
This is another option. But, with RAM upgrade and a HD 3850 AGP upgrade, it will push his budget over $100 though. Unless he can get the HD 3850 AGP used at a very good price, or, he willing to pay more.

Just a side note though on Warhammer Online game, warhammer engine is quirky and some in-game settings just do not play well. You may have to mess with the settings a bit to get it to play at optimum level.

maleficarus said:
If you can't afford a new system just double the ram to 2GB and the fastest AGP video card on the market. What that is I don't know...
Click to expand...
 
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