Alright, so my goal is to get my computer upgraded for under $50, and I just needed some advice.

I have a 400 watt 16 amp PSU, and I found that my amp rating isn't high enough for almost all of even the cheapest video cards on the market today. My mobo has an integrated 256 MB geforce 6100 (dont know if its DDR or DDR2) and 1 PCI-E x16 slot.

I have 1 GB of memory (533 mhz) now, so my cheapest option would probably be to upgrade it to 2 GB, right? Would I get any significant boost in gaming performance? (specifically simpler games like Guild Wars and Unreal Tournament 04)

I know getting a dedicated graphics card would be the best option, but that would mean that I would need a new PSU too... going over the price limit.

Any help would be appreciated!

JakeusZ

Goto http://www.powerleap.com/and run upgrade configurator to see what you have in there. I believe DDR2 PC6400 is your RAM? That runs at 533. Your problem is most definitely the GeForce6100 hands down. You gotta put some cash into a dedicated graphics card. This is a must for gaming. You don't need top of the line. But a 7800 or 7900 is where you will get your bang for your buck. I say keep your $50 and try to make some more to get something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143070

But that would surely require an upgrade in power supply to at least 500W I think. Check all mfg documentation on the cards before you buy them to see what power supply requirements are. I run a 7900GS AGP flavor with a 500W PS unit, and no issues. I wouldn't go any lower though. Also power supplies will degrade in output by up to 10% per year every year of service after 1 year, depending upon the quality of the unit. So shoot a bit bigger if you want to keep it for a while. There are nice power supply requirement calculators out there to help determine what size you actually need. One such is here

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Going from 1GB to 2GB ram will help performance as well. If you have dual channel memory mode, buying the same modules in pairs for your upgrade will help give it a 10% or so boost over no dual channel memory mode...

Dunno about those processors getting price cuts but right now the E4300 is the best budget overclocker.
With a decent motherboard and ram, hitting 3ghz min is pretty easy, while 3.3-3.4ghz is about the max with stock cooling.
LordEC911

I agree E4300. I run one now just at 2.4 and is plenty fast enough for me. Board can do up to 3.0 without any voltage tweaks. I have liquid cooling though, because it's 13 times more efficient than air cooling, and was fun to install. Bought the 4300 retail for $117. Probably cheaper if not phased out by now. There is a 4400 and 4500 at 2.0 and 2.2 I think? My board would do a 4500 at 3.3 very nicely I think. 3.3 with the 4300 stock cooling may cause it to fry in due time though I think... But at around $100 who cares? Give it a try...

...without cracking open the rig. I know what the different slots look like but would like to know if it is possible to tell through an information screen or something. Also is it possible to check my power supply without opening the rig? I might buy a new graphics card for my old computer to squeeze life out of it.PhantasmCipherX

I tell people to go here http://www.powerleap.com/ and run the upgrade configurator, cntrl alt prnt scrn the window and paste it to a word file and send to me. Then I can see what it has. You don't need to send me anything of course, that's just what I tell people to use... It should recognize what you have. It will give you highly priced recommendations as well. I recommend you don't take those of course...

[QUOTE="samu99"]I clearly see now that Vista seems to be the problem with my sluttering issues , what I will do is uninstall Vista and boot up Xp . if i see its possible and not too much trouble I will dual boot Vsita with XP. Thx for help guys !Zeke129

Don't get carried away. Vista shouldn't cause you ANY problems with a rig like that. All these haters have probably never used Vista before.

I think your 450W PSU just isn't powerful enough.

I agree with this one. Give it more juice. I also agree with the GeForce comments. I saw a while back don't buy anything less than an X800 in a GeForce series, and I've seen it first hand. It's not the first number in the series that makes it any good, it's the second! I literally had a noticeable 2x increase from a 7600 to 7900. I can only imagine the same would be true for the 8000 series...

Are there any hybrid motherbords for intel c2d that support ddr 400mhz memory (2gigs) and AGP 8x? if so are there any that have

ddr/ddr2 or agp8x/PCI-E

runejedi

Yes. Running one of these boards right now just fine. Read if you have time

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25776993

OK, so now I'm confused again. One says to buy Radeon, where other GeForce. So which one? And what CPU I should or do I just need a new video card and a power supply?? Will it be enough? Also, do you think this sound card is good http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006deiviuxs

Read my dinosaur post:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25776993

For the most part, I think my system is good enough to play what I play maxed out. My games are listed in my profile. I believe whole-heartedly that this industry is more hype than substance. It is very good at telling you you need something more than what will do just fine. I always say, never buy rev A of anything. You can play well with buying behind the cutting edge curve. You just gotta pick a point in time and go for it. Everyone's got opinions. They are for the most part valid to some degree. I suggest to everyone to read and learn as much as you can about building and modding your own PC. It's easier than most people would envision, but it takes practice. I'm a learner every day in that area. That's why I don't buy the expensive stuff right away. What I have for stats is:

Asrock 4-core dual vista- a unique kind of board that has dual of just about everything, so you can use some old parts...

E4300 C2Duo running at 2.44Ghz (through overclocking FSB to 270 on that asrock board) This is proving plenty fast btw...

GeForce 7900 GS AGP. XFX card. I know, AGP, but it's proving to perform well for me as it is...From my old motherboard

2x1GB DDR400 sticks in dual channel memory mode (identical make, model, size, timings, etc..) Note I said DDR, not DDR2. This is not a typo. Yes, core2duo with DDR memory is possible... From my old motherboard

500W power supply- This may be a bit marginal, especially if I try a PCIE card, but when I do that, it will be an entirely new build. Works fine for now... From my old motherboard

200 GB SATAII HD running at board limitation of SATA I, but SATA II drives are cheaper and backward compatible. Plus can migrate over to a future build... This is partitioned into 20, 60 and remainder GB. Windows XP clean OEM install on the 20GB partition and nothing else. All programs go onto other drives, either partitions or separate drives. Ideally you'd want to have a small drive with just operating system on it. I'm a firm believer in that, but only 2 SATA plugs on this motherboard...

2x250GB IDE drives.For storage only, no gamingprograms on it. Video, pics, music, tivo...From my old motherboard

Soundblaster audigy gamer- I dunno if it's really necessary, From my old motherboard

DVDRom and DVD+RW drives, floppy (why?) From my old motherboard

Swiftech H-120 cooling kit. Water cooling is the way to go. Test it on your old system boards in case you make a plumbing mistake. Mine went in and upgraded with no issues. I even got the new mobo in without draining and dismantling it... From my old motherboard.

I get all my new stuff from Newegg. This is a prime site to wargame your pc upgrades and builds. Stuff comes fast to you too.

This was a really good learning and salvage build. My next step will be more advanced with the confidence gained through this build/refurb.

If you go with C2D you need to change the memory too because you will need DDR2

Sorry I didn't saw that you will give this pc to your mum. So what's your budget is the main question then

dayaccus007

You don't need DDR2 necessarily to run a C2D or QC processor with the ASROCK 4 core dual vista mobo. Read my post

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25776993

Is there really a noticeable difference between a PCI-E and AGP 8X card? I max out settings on my shtuff and I'm satisfied with the results...

I started gaming back when the console mainstream was Atari 2600. No, I'm not ashamed that I still do game as a hobby as I approach my 40's, because I know I'm not alone. Anyway, I've converted to PC gaming since the late 80's and been PC ever since. I built what was near cutting-edge PC back in 2002. I had really no need to upgrade until the last year or so. In my opinion, the Core2Duo family of processors demonstrates a Return On Investment (ROI) factor worthy of investing in some upgrades. I spent a bit of money experimenting with my 2002 era system before going to the Core2. I had a P4 2.4 400FSB system. I found a 2.6, and started experimenting with liquid cooling and overclocking. Something I wanted to try on a system I deemed on the way out in case I toasted it or got a leak. Liquid cooling was a snap with a Swiftech H-120 kit from Newegg.com. Which I believe is the Mecca of PC hardware enthusiasts, incidentally. I got it up to 3.2 with decent stability. I also tried to breathe some video life by trading in my GeForce 5700 AGP for a 7900 GS AGP. This was not one of my better moves, as it's a pricey card in AGP form factor, but I was trying to breathe life into the dinosaur. A while back I had upgraded my 2GB max memory holding to two identical DDR 400 chips at 1GB a piece. I also had two 250 GB IDE drives that I added a couple years ago and had them in onboard RAID0, which gave me a boost in speed. A few months back I replaced my power supply as well, so that was fairly new. The standard DVD+RW drives and whatnot for family video editing and burning also. But the old single core just wasn't cutting the mustard for me anymore, even with the overclocking and whatnot. So what do I do now that I had some fairly decent stuff in this dinosaur? Was there something I could do to salvage some of this value? Yes there was. Enter the ASRock 4-core dual Vista.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157107

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/asrock/4coredual-vsta/b1.htm

I bought the board for $60, a 200 GB SATA $85, an E4300 $117, and an OEM copy of XP Home $89 (good enough for me). So for another committment of approx $375 shipped,I put myself in a Core2Duo with up to Quad Core compatibility. I like to start with the lowest end that will get me where I need to be I guess. The reading I did said the E4300 was an impressive little thing, especially to OC. I totally agree. Besides, I could live with toasting a $117 chip through experimention. Icouldn't be happier with the performance level I have now. The board is only SATA I compatiblethough, however, a cheaper SATAII drive works backward compatible. Going from IDE to SATA I is an impressive leap anyway, 1.87 times faster I guess. Using the board stock without OC options yielded impressive gaming results for me. I now use the 8X capability of the 7900GS whereas I was choked to 4x previously. The ability to use one's DDR rather than buying new DDR2 is also nice, and according to the above link, not really a performance hit. I've maxed out all settings on every game I've played so far, with no hitches that I can see. I'm not a First person shooter however. More RTS, strategy turn based, simulatorkind ofguy. Wolves of the Pacific looks much better than before, fluid in time compression with the Core2 chewing through the code, instead of myjerky slug of a single core dinosaur PC. Company of Heroes is beautiful and fast. I'vetaken the FSB up to 270now and ran forquite some time now at that without any hits. This bringsthe E4300 to 2.44Ghz vs it'sfactory 1.8Ghz. The board hasup to 340 FSB tweaking capability, but reported only stable to 300. 300 will run the 4300 at 2.7Ghz, and thatshould be plenty enough for me, for now until a Quad core becomes feasible.

So if you're in a situation like I described, where you bought parts that are still decent performers, and don't want to scrap your entire systemjust yet, there isa path that allows you to bridge the old with the new forgreat performance results.