What can I do to this pc?

mwl5apv

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Feb 18, 2011
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Hey guys... well since I have recently built my new rig it was time to had my old pc to my younger brother. The computer is an HP A1130n desktop, and, although old, still runs perfectly fine. Even though the computer can't handle and keep up with what I do on a pc it will suit my younger brother and his habbits just fine.

My question is... I want to get some more RAM and a new graphics card for the pc and I am unsure of what to get graphics card wise. It currently has the ATI xpress 200 series integrated graphics and supports PCI-E x16 cards. here is a link to the motherboard specs.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00361528&locale=en_US

My brother only needs it to play oldschool games like warcraft 3. The newest game he has is guild wars. What would you suggest I get for a gpu? Please help!
 
DDR2 is expensive, I wouldn't invest too much on that system..

Even if you get a good video card, your cpu will be the bottleneck.
 
Considering the age of that prebuilt PC, you're looking at a new PSU as well. So I recommend the following:
$67 - PowerColor AX4830 512MD3 Radeon HD 4830 512MB PCI-E Video Card
$40 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU
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Total: $107 shipped

Yes the video card is a overkill due to the CPU you have but I could not find a cheaper card that had an equal or better bang for the buck value.
 
the PSU was replaced less than a year ago with a 400w ultra. no its not the best out there and not many like ultras but it gave me the best bang for the buck back when I bought it and its still running strong.

And i agree, DDR RAM is expensive. It looks like about $50 for 1Gb? Holy Crap Batman!

Im going to be letting my brother run the computer for a week or two though before I actually buy anything. Mainly to see how he likes it and how it performs. If I see it it struggling or if he begins to complain a bit then ill upgrade.

With cards though. will any PCI-E slot card work with the motherboard? even the 2.0 and 2.1? I know that the system will be a bottleneck but it will mainly be to jsut put something better than the integrated graphics in the thing as 128mb shared memory doesn;t want to run much.
 
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