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HP Upgrade

S

Steve Crosby

n00b
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
11
My kids are driving me nuts, want to play Far-Cry. Only have PCI on the board, no AGP so bought the best PCI card CompUSA had (ATI Radeon 9250) and ungraded the SDRAM to 256 to make an attempt. It runs, but reeeaaaallll sloooowww!!! Sound lags bad. It does look like a fun game though. Got me interested now! These are the specs on the PC
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...94&locale=en_US
Need advice on a motherboard and VGA card. Want to try to use as many of my existing parts as possibly, like CPU, HD, RAM if possible (have access to alot more cheap). Thanks in advance, Steve.
 
o_O Wow that's old!

I'd look into getting one of the DFI Infinity motherboards or this and a Radeon 9550 256MB or a 9600Pro. This is a budget solution though :)

You won't be able to use your current RAM, but your CPU and HD will be fine.

That said, the game still won't run very well on your CPU.
 
Two years is old?? I guess so in PC land.... What do you mean by "not very well" ?
Will the sound still have a 10sec delay and walking in slo-mo?
 
A friend of my brothers exact same computer had a motherboard malfuntion (died) about a year ago. I replaced it with Gigabyte board and he used all his old stuff (he was a really cheap bastard ;) ) and it ran much better than the POS HP system ever did. I'm about to leave to take my daughter to gymnastics - I'll look up the model number of that motherboard when I get back and let you know.
 
Steve Crosby said:
Two years is old?? I guess so in PC land.... What do you mean by "not very well" ?
Will the sound still have a 10sec delay and walking in slo-mo?
Click to expand...

He means it will still lag as hell. Why? Because even with new board and new RAM the processor is still too slow and so is the video card, especially the video card. Your only hope is too get new a motherboard(AGP or PCI-E support and DDR or DDR2 support), new and more RAM (at least 512Mb of DDR or DDR2 memory), and a better video card (for Far Cry at least a 9600XT, but a 9800pro is much more recommended and it's not that much more expensive).
 
get a new mobo and ram, i have a 950mhz athlon here, and when i put it in a nforce2 chipseted mobo, it ran like a dream. not as good as my athlon XP obvoiusly, but the performance was amazing considering hte processor's age.

get 512mb DDR, a radeon 9600pro (ebay for it), and a mobo based on the nforce2 chipset, and youll be much better off than you were.

edit: get the 128mb versoin. the 256mb version is worthless, the 9600/9500 series arent powerful enough to take advantage of the extra RAM.
 
9550 will run Far Cry @ 800x600 at very playable framerates... the 9250 won't have playable framerates at any setting.

What confuses me even more is that HP sold you a PC using a CPU that runs on a 266mhz bus, and supplied 133mhz RAM,
 
Gillette said:
What confuses me even more is that HP sold you a PC using a CPU that runs on a 266mhz bus, and supplied 133mhz RAM,
Click to expand...
the FSB is independent of the RAM. you dont have to have DDR to run them.

this is why the p4's can have an 800mhz external bus and have hte DDR running at 400.
 
youre probably better off building a new machine, but if youre really tight on cash then i suppose you could use the old processor, hard drive, cd-rw drive, and floppy. i hope you returned the radeon card :)

if you tell me what you want to do, i can help spec a build for you.
 
Well I do have ~$300 credit a a local supply wholesale warehouse. Don't ask..... lol. If you go to http://www.asipartner.com/partneraccess/partner_frame3.asp and put in these SKU's
MoBo #23523 being discontinued but available
CPU #27219
Memory #20205 x2
VGA Card #33886
or
21685 both are being discontinued but still available
would rather have the Pro but it only had 3 more FPS @ 1024x768/32 bit
 
Do you feel that you can build it yourself? That will open up alot of options if you can.
If not, Monarch Computer has some complete systems that are pre built. This one in the above link isn't a power house but it should run Far Cry and other newer games if you added a decent video card (like a ATI 9600XT) at medium settings and resolution. You would be much better off if you could build it yourself as you could pick and choose the components and get the most bang for the buck. We will be glad to spec out a system for you if you'll give us a pricerange for the computer minus monitor and such accessories.


Also, I forgot in my earlier post about replacing your motherboard that the Gigabyte motherboard that I changed the original out with had onboard video and sound to save that guy some money. That wouldn't work for what your trying to do. If you need to go that route let me know and I'll find you a motherboard that will work.
 
My younger brother went to school for PC repair and etc. He thinks just because I have the ability to purchase all the hot new fast items that I should soo... I do not wish to buils a new PC from scratch, just bought this one not even two years ago and it runs fine other than the kids and there games. Trying to get out of this cheap.
This is what we came up with:
Gigabyte MG K8VT800M
AMD Athlon 64 3000
PowerColor Radeon 9800 AGP
Corsair 512MB DDR 400

Should do what I need, you think?
 
That sounds like a great 'lil gaming system and one that wouldn't break the bank. As cheap as the lower speed Athlon64 cpu's are getting it almost makes no sense to not go that route now. That way you have some upgrade room in the future.

Monarch also offers some pre-built and tested motherboard combos that you could just bolt it in the case of your choice, hook it up to your old drives and load windows. Almost anyone could do this - even a first timer.
 
those combos might make installtion easier but the choice of components isnt too great and you could save some money on the system by picking them out individually, that is if hes trying to be as cost effective as possible
 
Case at Newegg I've used this case several times on builds for friends and family and they worked great for a cheapo case and they look nice also. They must be selling great because Newegg keeps going up on price on them. :( The first one I bought about a year ago was about $32 shipped.

I just got this casehere at Ebuyer for about $14 shipped. Not a bad case for the money at all.
 
This is what we came up with:
Gigabyte MG K8VT800M
AMD Athlon 64 3000
PowerColor Radeon 9800 AGP
Corsair 512MB DDR 400
 
Great choices. But is there a possibility you can get a 9800pro instead of just a 9800? Check ebay.
 
You should be able to pick up a good used 9600XT here in the For-sale forums for $100 or less. I used to have one and it ran Far Cry just fine as long as I wasn't trying to run something crazy like 1600X1200 or max details on everything.
 
Steve Crosby said:
This is what we came up with:
Gigabyte MG K8VT800M
AMD Athlon 64 3000
PowerColor Radeon 9800 AGP
Corsair 512MB DDR 400
Click to expand...

That motherboard won't work with that CPU, the A64 line is S754 and S939 only, I don't have any budget recommendations for that off hand.

For the CPU make sure you get a Winchester Core (90nm), and I would recommend a 6600GT over a 9800 Pro.
 
No body ever mentioned that he needs a power supply. Won't do much good to upgrade if he's trying to reuse that HP power supply. Go with a brand name & at least a 350w or more PS.
 
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