computer lab upgrades

[Factorxfiles]

I had a very interesting idea yesterday. The computer labs at my college could be transformed into a lan gaming center! With a bit of spinning it could be played off as for a social club or something. I'm still working on that.

Here's the specs for the machines
P4 2.8 ghz w/stock cooling
512meg unknown ram ddr333
integrated video
30gig HD's
17" crt's
decent two-button + wheel mouse

Now, these are obviously pretty basic standard machines as-is, but I don't think it would be terribly expensive per-machine to make them game-worthy. Here's my plan.

1. Get a reasonably good hs/f and overclock the p4's, should have a bit of headroom. -$30
2. Upgrade ram to 1 gig (get a second 512 on the cheap) -$55
3. pick up a basic but acceptable video card for under $150. Something like a 7600GS or 6800xt, maybe x800gto

so for roughly $180-200 per computer they could be made very gameable. Any better (read: cheaper) suggestions?

 

[SC385]

you most likely wont be able to overclock the computers since schools usually use prebuilt computers with locked bios settings

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

great idea, but I don't you'd get away with ocing.. but othwerwise - vid card (I'd suggest picking up a 7300GT with good ocing potential..) and ram upgrade and you're set...

 

[nekrosoft13]

plus i don't think school would go for it