Upgrade Advice

[markuk]

Guys i have the following spec PC and would like some advice, finding it a bit slow when playing games and takes a while to load pictures some times. Was thinking of additional RAM and a Video Card? any ideas? dont want to spend too much however if looking for video card may want one with digital ouptut for when i uprade my 17"LCD to 19+ next year.

Any ideas would be helpful along with where to go!

Base processor

Pentium4 515 (P) 2.93 GHz:

*

533 MHz Front side bus

*

Socket 775

Chipset

Intel 915G

Motherboard

*

Manufacturer: Asus

*

Motherboard Name: PTGD1-LA

*

HP motherboard name: Grouper-GL8E

Memory

Component Attributes

Memory Installed 512 MB (2 x 256)

Maximum allowed 4.0 GB* (4 X 1 GB) requires the replacement of the installed 256 MB DIMM

Speed supported PC3200 MB/sec

Type 184 pin, DDR SDRAM

DIMM slots Four

Open DIMM slots Three

Video graphics

Integrated with up to 64 MB allocated video memory

[tom yum goong]

I think you already seem to know the answer. If you are playing today's modern games with an integrated video card, then its going to be slow.

stick a mid-range video card in there and you should see a marked improvement. check what type of card your mobo supports, ie AGP, PCI-Express etc.

more RAM also never hurt anybody. For a basic gaming pc you should be looking at at least 1 gig. don't forget to use 2 identical sticks so u can take advantage of dual channel ddr.

[markuk]

I think you already seem to know the answer. If you are playing today's modern games with an integrated video card, then its going to be slow.

stick a mid-range video card in there and you should see a marked improvement. check what type of card your mobo supports, ie AGP, PCI-Express etc.

more RAM also never hurt anybody. For a basic gaming pc you should be looking at at least 1 gig. don't forget to use 2 identical sticks so u can take advantage of dual channel ddr.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the advice.

RAM - as i have 2x256mb in the machine now should i put another 2x256 or do away with them and put 2x1GB as an example? or do i put 2x1GB and leave the 2x256 and will it funtion ok? giving 2.5mb?

Video Card - if i get 128 will i see much difference or should i go 256/512? also i have free PCI Express port is there a considerable difference than the normal PCI? and is it worth doing?

[Simmo]

Thanks for the advice.

RAM  - as i have 2x256mb in the machine now should i put another 2x256 or do away with them and put 2x1GB as an example? or do i put 2x1GB and leave the 2x256 and will it funtion ok? giving 2.5mb?

Video Card - if i get 128 will i see much difference or should i go 256/512? also i have free PCI Express port is there a considerable difference than the normal PCI? and is it worth doing?

Go for 2 * 1 GB and ebay/sell your old memory. Using different size/vendor/speed memory causes all kinds of problems.

For your video card something from the Nvidia 6600 line probably represents the best bang for your buck ( I don't know much about ATI cards, maybe someone else can comment). Stay away from the cheap MX & 5700 lines which are really abudant in the markets here as they're to slow for any recent games.

Go for 256 meg if you can afford it, 512 meg is overkill ATM but new games are starting to use that much texture memory.

If you have a PCI express port then you can only use a PCI express card, forget about PCI video cards they haven't been produced for the last 5 years or so.

Edited December 21, 2005 by Simmo

[tom yum goong]

of course the more memory for your video card the better.

I'm using a GeForce 5700 256mb and Simmo is right, its getting a bit slow.

starting to see a lot of ddr 2 memory chips now too. might be worth considering if in your price range.

Don't know too much about ATI cards either. But a friend just bought a 9600 Pro which is supposed to be getting on a bit, and he reports good results.

[AlexLah]

Processor AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice

Motherboard Asus A8N-SLI nForce4 SLi

Cooler Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu

Memory 2x 1024MB PC3200 DDR (TwinMos)

Videocard Asus GeForce 7800 GTX

Soundcard Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS

Hard disk Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB

Dvd-player Lite-On 16x48x, LTD-166S (black)

Dvd-burner NEC ND-4550 16x (Dual-layer, black)

Something like that.

KR,

Alex

[h90]

biggest problem is the graphiccard, even a 128 MB will be a lot better than the onboard.

but 256 is a good choice.

Maybe 2x256 and 2x512 MB are running, you can give it a try, else sell the 2x256.

than you can tweak arround in your bios, that can bring you between nothing and 10 % up on how it is set.

Defrag the Harddisk, when playing a game try to have the system clean, no virus scanner, firewall, or other things running in the background. Ctrl+Alt+Del shows you what is running and when searching on the internet with google you find what it is and if it is necessary.

[markuk]

Cheers for the help guys

probably go for 2x1gb memory (anyone want to purchase 2x 256??)

will probably go for 512 on the video depends on price, no plan to replace PC for another 2-3 years so should be ok.

Thanks again

[The Coder]

will probably go for 512 on the video depends on price

Don't make the mistake of making your purchasing decision on how much memory a card has! They have figured out a certain set of people still do this so they flood the market with crappy cards with lots of memory that perform worse than cards with less memory. You want to choose based on *benchmarks* such as those found at tomshardware.com. Based on your comments you will probably like something built around the nvidia 7800 chip. Another word of advice; be warned a high end video card may cost you double if purchased in Thailand vs USA.

[markuk]

will probably go for 512 on the video depends on price

Don't make the mistake of making your purchasing decision on how much memory a card has! They have figured out a certain set of people still do this so they flood the market with crappy cards with lots of memory that perform worse than cards with less memory. You want to choose based on *benchmarks* such as those found at tomshardware.com. Based on your comments you will probably like something built around the nvidia 7800 chip. Another word of advice; be warned a high end video card may cost you double if purchased in Thailand vs USA.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have gone for an ATI video card with 256, seems to be better for loading webpages etc, still a bit slow when playing Sim City 4. Will upgrade memory this month.

Is there anyway i can re-allocate the 64mb ram that was being used by the motherboard for video? and any advice on how to tweak other settings?

[The Coder]

Go into bios setup to optimize your settings / disable the integrated graphics. For your new card, download a free tool like the riva tuner to tweek / overclock and check out guru3d.com.