[KGH]

How much could you afford? I have absolutely no idea of prices in Canada (I'm in Aus), but presume Newegg and Tiger Direct ship to Canda.

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About $500 Canadian.

[thamasta]

About $500 Canadian.

[KGH]

Ok, so that's about US$400.

I'm still not sure we've got the motherboard specs right.

I think you should send e-machines an email inquiring about the 'upgradability' of your machine. Can you do one more check on the RAM - can you try and determine, again using Everest, the maximum amount of RAM your mobo supports? This should be 1gb.

Did Everest also tell you whether your AGP slot was x8 or x4?

Is your case a 'mid-tower case'? Ie, a case that stands upright? I don't suppose you know what power supply (overall watts and amps on the 12V rail) you have do you? You'll probably need to remove the side panel of your case to check the sticker on the PSU for these specs - are you able to do that?

For US$400 you could perform a substantial upgrade:

(1) 2 x 512mb Corsair Value Select RAM ($95) - RAM. Unless your existing RAM is Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, Mushkin, Geil, your best bet is to replace it with some good Corsair RAM and then add another stick. This will give you a total of 1gb of RAM which will be perfect.

(2) Video card - couple of options - you have to go with an AGP slot based card:

(a) Mid-high end Nvidia - XFX 6800GT ($284) - 6800GT

(b) Mid end Nvidia - XFX 6600GT ($154) - 6600GT. If you want to play BF2, there is really no point going any lower than this card.

© Mid-high end AT - Saphire X800SE ($289) - X800SE

d) Mid end AT - I'm not overly familiar with mid range ATI card, but some people have said the X700 gets performance similar to a 6600GT.

I have a BFG 6600GT OC and I find it can run all games at mid to high settings (that is, however, with a AMD64 4000+).

[thamasta]

K the max amount of RAM is 1gb.
My APG slot is both x8 and x4.
My tower stands up but I'm not able to take off the side panel.
I'm going to go with the 512mb Corsair Value Select RAM and the Nvidia - XFX 6600GT . Thanks for all of the help you have given me.

[KGH]

Hang on hang on hang on!!!

If you can't take the side panel off, you are going to have trouble installing new hardware!!!

[thamasta]

I'm going to ask my older cousin to do it, he's done that kind of stuff before.

Edited by thamasta, 02 August 2005 - 08:27 AM.