weedelf

I've got an old HP sitting in the other room that my little brother's use to game, surf, and chat. Here's the spec page for it:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...=90862&lang=en

I've got 1 gig ram in it, which seems to be the max for that board. I've got a 128mb ATI PCI card in there, not sure on exact model. And I just purchased a 2.6ghz P4 processor to replace the current Celeron in it for $20 on ebay.

As far as gaming goes, they play a little WoW, The Sims 2, and warcraft 3.

I was thinking about moving everything over to a new case and mobo but wasnt' sure if that was worth the trouble.

Anyone have suggestions on how to squeeze a little more power and life out of this PC for around $100 or less?

Turnoz

What's the graphic card in it? I have a feeling that upgrading that will provide the best bang for buck upgrade. However, if its the 9250. (like mine. yay) You might as well forget it as you are getting to the end of PCI and should upgrade everything in it.

Reading motherboard info, you are also on Skt 487. Chances are there is little you can upgrade in there after the processor that is still under 100$ and would give you a worthy upgrade...


Note to StillUnknown2k3 (or whatever your name is. The PCI guy :P)
Please don't tell him to upgrade the gfx card if its a 9250, you well know that the difference is not enough between this and another 100$ PCI card.

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Manyak

I take it it doesn't have an AGP slot huh?

I'd say you have one of two options that would do some good.

1 - Spend it on a new PCI video card, and use whatever is left over to get the best hard drive possible (for speed purposes, not space). But like Turnoz said, the improvement won't be worth the money.

2 - Spend it on a new motherboard and AGP card. A brand new AGP 6200 512mb only costs $50, and you can find a DDR Socket 478 mobo w/AGP for less than $50 as well. I believe you will need a microATX board to fit in that case, since it says it only has 3 PCI slots.

I really suggest going with option #2 though, it will feel like a brand new computer. And with the right motherboard choice you'll be able to overclock the processor too.

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Cato

Well the biggest jump your gonna get is probably the processor. Honestly I'd almost write off that 2.6 and see if I can't get one of the 3.0 or 3.2's that will fit in that slot.

You can probalby snag a better video card as well, hard to say without knowing what you got.

Personally unless I could find the stuff used and cheap, I'd probably just save the $100 and add some more til I could get something like an amd 5000 processor, 780g motherboard and 2 gigs of ram for it. If you catch everything at the right times you can get all that for about $150

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Current Stable 3dMark06 - 14,153

Manyak

But if he changes the motherboard, he can OVERCLOCK the 2.6 even higher than that.

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dmreeves

I know it's cheezy, but if you look around you can find some pretty nice pre-built systems for less than a few hundred dollars. Maybe you could save up (or convince your parents) to purchase a system that will last for a year or two with those games they play.

Maybe it would be worth your time to spend a little more than trying to get by spending a little less

weedelf

It's either a 9200 or 9250. I'm pretty sure it's a 9250.

chessmyantidrug

I was thinking the $100 would probably be best spent on a new system myself. You should be able to build a much better system for $500.

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flyin15sec

You should consider barebone kits from Tigerdirect.

For $60 more you can get a barebone AMD X2 system from Tigerdirect. Move your current drive over, reformat and reinstall of course. Wont even need to invest in a video card yet, as the motherboard will have built in video that is faster than a PCI video card.