[hun_master]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to upgrade my computer by adding a graphics card , more Ram, and an external Hardrive. I'm thinking about 1 gb of ram, and I'm not sure of the graphics card. I just want to play the new games, such as Battlefield 2, with ease and no lag. I'm looking for a place where I can get these 3 for no more than $500 usd, including shipping and handling.

Before anything, I have the following questions:

1. What are some good brands for the graphics card//Ram sticks.
2. How much ram should I get? 2gb's?
3. What many mb graphics card ?
4. What is a good brand for the hardrive?

Also, here are my current computer stats:

Monitor: TFT LCD Color display (Sony, relatively new)
1.67 Ghz
224mb ram
*AMD Athlon™ XP 2000+
* I think this is the motherboard, but here is some more info just in case:

It's a
MS-6738 (v1.X) Micro ATX Mainboard


-thnx a million

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First off start out looking at Newegg.com, definantly the top choice for low-priced electronics.

You may need only 512 RAM, that is sufficient these days, especially if you are keeping under $500.

For a graphics card I would recommend an ATI Radeon X850XT or X800XT (or their nVidia equivalents) because those will run BF2 and others very well (well graphics wise, your CPU is still kind of low for BF2 [which recommends 1.8]).

As for harddrive, I'm a big fan of Western Digital but that's just personal preference. Also why are you looking for an external not an internal?

My two cents,
}BP{

[BlackPandemic]

First off start out looking at Newegg.com, definantly the top choice for low-priced electronics.

You may need only 512 RAM, that is sufficient these days, especially if you are keeping under $500.

For a graphics card I would recommend an ATI Radeon X850XT or X800XT (or their nVidia equivalents) because those will run BF2 and others very well (well graphics wise, your CPU is still kind of low for BF2 [which recommends 1.8]).

As for harddrive, I'm a big fan of Western Digital but that's just personal preference. Also why are you looking for an external not an internal?

My two cents,
}BP{

[hun_master]

well here's the thing.
My computer has 3 hardrives installed in it. 2 of them are really old and can only hold up to 4 gb's each. The other is a 40gb one, which maybe had a virus or some weird problem but it works now, but it's pretty much full atm.
See the thing I have two operating systems. The first one is Windows XP professional which was installed first, from a bootled, and in one if the older hardrives. Another thing is that one of the old crappy hardrives is configured as my "master" and my computer won't run if I take it out. Then Windows XP home (Orignal CD) was installed on the other hardrive or maybe the same one, I'm not 100% sure atm. Now I can run both windows XP home and professional at the same time. I would take out a crappy Hdrive in a flash, but the thing is I don't think my computer will turn on without them. Even if it does, I'm 90% sure that I won't have windows XP Home, which is the OS I use; the CD's where Stolen from me, so I can't re-install it either.

Anyways, I'd figure an external Hardrive would be the best solution and I just found a good 80gb one for $82. I'll just move all my music/videos there and keep the 40GB one for games and other programs.

Btw: If you/anyone can think of a solution to Hardrive problem, please tell me. If there is a way for me to make Windows XP Home my main OS, and hopefully if it's installed in the other crappy Hdrive make that my main one, then please tell me how to do this.

[jrm20]

Anyways, I'd figure an external Hardrive would be the best solution and I just found a good 80gb one for $82. I'll just move all my music/videos there and keep the 40GB one for games and other programs.

You can get a 160gb or 200gb for the same price... $80ish.

[hun_master]

You can get a 160gb or 200gb for the same price... $80ish.

external or internal?
and where?

[BlackPandemic]

My advice is to take out the two small ones (just because they are useless this day in age) and buy a bigger one. I know on Newegg a 200GB is like $86 (internal).

The problem with externals is that they are waay to expensive in my opinion, so I'd just swap out the 4's for a 200!

I guess your first step though is to find out which has XP on it, and if you can't find out...the only step may be to cough up $90 for a new OS.

[warriorscot]

Just remove the old ones and set the new one as the master and place it on the primary IDE cable. Save all your files you need to keep. If you are confused what i would do is when you get your new drive install XP home on it and use it as your primary it would be the faster drive and you can move the data you need from the old drives onto the new one and get rid of them.

However the system as a whole is quite slow and there would be a limit to how much of a boost an upgrade would give it. You also only have an AGPx4 slot so the faster cards wouldnt do you as much good as the interface would be slow and limit there performance, smoething more like an x700 would be as good as i would say is the fastest you should tr yand use. Definatley an x800 or 850 is to fast and probably to much for the PSU, they arent the cards i would reccomend either there are better newer cards for the same money but better.

[jrm20]

external or internal?
and where?

Well first you need to buy the harddrive, then you buy the external case to put it into.

Or you could get a combo deal that already has the case + harddrive included together..


www.newegg.com

I would just get an internal harddrive and take out all the other crappy drives. Format then Install a fresh copy of windows onto the new harddrive.. You might have to buy win xp home edition cd since you dont have a win xp install cd or borrow your friends cd..


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16837102059

Edited by jrm20, 22 April 2006 - 10:37 AM.

[hun_master]

thank for the suggestions everyone.
I'm going to figure out which of the hardrives I can remove, for they really really suck.
As for the graphics card, I'm going to get an x700 because as a warriorscot said anything else will prob. be a waste, that and they are much cheaper too.
Now the hardrive dilemma is something im going to have to think about. It will cost me more to get a new one + an OS, but it'll probably be better in the long run.

[bleep] maybe getting a new comp will be cheaper as I have seen some go for $500 on newegg.

-thnx everyone, and if i need help (most likely) installing a new internal Hdrive, then I will def. post here.

I just hope with these new upgrades (video card and 1gb ram) will I ba able to play Battlefield2 and warcraft lag free, and run Matlab7.0 relatively fast.


Btw: Is my motherboard AGP or PCI? or both??

Edited by hun_master, 22 April 2006 - 05:07 PM.

[jrm20]

thank for the suggestions everyone.
I'm going to figure out which of the hardrives I can remove, for they really really suck.
As for the graphics card, I'm going to get an x700 because as a warriorscot said anything else will prob. be a waste, that and they are much cheaper too.
Now the hardrive dilemma is something im going to have to think about. It will cost me more to get a new one + an OS, but it'll probably be better in the long run.

[bleep] maybe getting a new comp will be cheaper as I have seen some go for $500 on newegg.

-thnx everyone, and if i need help (most likely) installing a new internal Hdrive, then I will def. post here.

I just hope with these new upgrades (video card and 1gb ram) will I ba able to play Battlefield2 and warcraft lag free, and run Matlab7.0 relatively fast.
Btw: Is my motherboard AGP or PCI? or both??

it has 1 agp 4x slot and 3 pci slots..


http://www.shopping....ar_KM2M_Combo_L

[BlackPandemic]

You may not care but I hate buying pre-made computers...just an opinion