Gaming What should I upgrade on my PC...?

[Splych]

So here are my current specs of it:
Dell Optiplex GX280 Tower

CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz
RAM: 2GB (4 x512MB)
Hard Drive Disk: 40GB (x1) and 80GB (x2)
Video Card: ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 64MB ( Don't know the exact one...)
Optical Drives: DVD Reader and DVD Writer. Nothin Special...

Thinking about upgrading the RAM to 4GB (2x2048MB) and maybe a new video card (256MB or 512MB). Birthday is coming up... so gonna end up asking for it on my b-day. For the RAM, I am planning on getting a OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz Platinum XTC Revision 2 2GB (2x1024MB) Dual Channel Kit for $56CAD and on sale for $40 CAD (Mail in Rebate discount). But haven't decided on what Video Card to get. If there is anything I should upgrade, tell meh xDD.

And this is mainly gonna be used for games... ^^

 

[Law]

If you upgrade what you want, you may be able to play a lot of newer games, but I doubt you'll be able to install many with such a small amount of disk space.

My main hard drive (One with all my installed games on it) is a 250GB drive. There is nothing on there but Windows and installed games, and there is 130GB left. There's not even that many games on it.

All my other shit is spread out across 1.5TB, though. Guess I'll have to start installing games somewhere else soon.

 

[playallday]

Don't waste your time upgrading that, buy this and add a 4830 (and sell the other video card). There you go, a gaming computer for under $400!

EDIT: Wait, your Canadian like me, oops. But DON'T BUY THAT RAM!!! OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB's were just on sale for like $30 bucks at NewEgg.ca. I have that RAM and I love it

, but I got it when it was $50 on sale

. Just wait for them to get back on sale...

 

[megawalk]

get a quad core q9xxx the 3 x's stand for the numbers
then you can play SRW Alpha3 on comp and then i will be jealous because i can't (ugh i need upgrades)

 

[Splych]

I am a 13 year guy... Who gets paid $10 a week. I doubt I can afford that... With my current amount of savings... ($600). There's been a lot of things I wanted... such as clothes and shoes. I won't even want to pay that much for a PC at my age. Might as well get some Laptop... Not some awesome one.

So I guess Hard Drive might be something I may upgrade. But it isn't priority. Since it is not like I am gonna play all the games at the same time.

So now... what to do. I already designed my ultimate PC that'll fit meh xDD. It was so expensive... So I am saving up.

 

[Law]

I am a 13 year guy... Who gets paid $10 a week. I doubt I can afford that... With my current amount of savings... ($600). There's been a lot of things I wanted... such as clothes and shoes. I won't even want to pay that much for a PC at my age. Might as well get some Laptop... Not some awesome one.

So I guess Hard Drive might be something I may upgrade. But it isn't priority. Since it is not like I am gonna play all the games at the same time.

So now... what to do. I already designed my ultimate PC that'll fit meh xDD. It was so expensive... So I am saving up.

You'd want them all installed at the same time though, unless you want to go through the install process every time you want to play a game, then the uninstall process once you've saved and quit for the session.

 

[Splych]

I can understand what you meant Law xDD. Happened to me a few times with WarCraft III and Age of Empires III.

Right now... I am just going to make a fully custom PC...

 

[juggernaut911]

I am a 13 year guy... Who gets paid $10 a week.

When I was 13, I went around fixing computers, basically stealing money it was so easy, and then at Christmas, I dropped $450 on parts from newegg and built my current machine. You can get a lot with $600.

 

[Joe88]

putting a powerful graphics card will just be a waste as his P4 would bottleneck it

I doubt you can just slap in the new CPU right now judging by how old it is, it might only accept up to the Pentium D series


just keep saving money to buy a new computer
a hard drive upgrade would be fine though

 

[Splych]

I would go around helping people fix their computers if I was allowed to leave the house. I am not even allowed to leave my house w/o my parents supervision... If I was allowed to like lets say, Shovel people's drive ways in winter, mow people's lawns... I would do that to help me get some extra cash.

So now... Time to save up. I already found a nice case... Mid Tower and has a window. Anything else will just be well... somewhat complicated to find. Thinking of getting a Core 2 Quad Q9400 since the Q6600 isn't instock at the place I am buying at...

Or I might end up getting the processor at NewEgg. The brands at NewEgg... Are brands I am not very familiar with. When I go searching for parts, I usually look out for OCZ, Patriot, Seagate, and even Thermaltake. There are more I know, but just am too lazy to put em up.

So right now... This is what I got for a custom PC:

Case: Cooler Master Elite 310 (Blue) Mid Tower Case or Thermaltake M9 Mid Tower Case w/Window or Thermaltake V9 Black Mid Tower Gaming Case. (Mainly looking for one with Window. And also how many drive bays they can have. The M9 looks a little funny in the front, so I might not get that one...)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB 6MB L2 Cache 45nm or Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz 1333 MHz FSB 12MB L2 Cache 45nm (The 9400 seems to be a better choice in money wise...)

RAM: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz Platinum XTC Revision 2 2GB (2x1024MB) Dual Channel Kit or OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum 4GB (2x2048MB) Kit Dual Channel or OCZ Reaper DDR2 PC2-6400 DDR2-800 4GB (2X2GB) Memory Kit (The first one is pricey if I were to get 2 sets to make 4GB. The second set it pretty much identical except the set comes with 2x2048MB RAM. Saves about... $30. Reaper is on sale... $58 but with male in rebate. Same thing as the Vista Performance Platinum set. Just different models. When not on sale, same price as the Vista Performance but $3 more xDD)

Hard Drive Disk: Seagate Barracuda SATA 3.0Gb/s 500GB 32MB Cache (Only need one for now... It is not like I have a lot of crap to put into it... Maybe a few games to start off and not get bored)

Mouse: Razer Salmosa Gaming Mouse (lool. I don't care what you say. It is affordable and matches the keyboard. So far, I like it better than the copper head even if it doesn't light up...)

Keyboard: Razer Arctosa Antighosting Gaming Keyboard Black (Same thing... The keyboard doens't light up, it is affordable and it matches the mouse ^^. The Lycosa is what... $50 more expensive...)

So yea... That is all that I have so far. All the stuff I want are available in a local store for meh, so I can just go straight to there.

So if I was to pick all the expensive stuff put together... This is the maximum price (w/o taxes): $732. I might take off some parts... Like an example is the V9 case. Outrageous price xDD. But will tell the revised plan tomorrow. All I need left is a video/graphics card and motherboard... And then I will have the final price.

 

[Joe88]

good choices

just make sure the seagate isnt a 7200.11 drive, they have had massive firmware problems

also what about a PSU?

and about the Q6600, intel is about to discontinue it, its old tech now

 

[TheDarkSeed]

Wait, your Canadian like me

 

[Splych]

So this is my final details...

Case: Cooler Master Elite 310 Blue Mid Tower Case ($51)

Power Supply Unit: OCZ StealthXStream 600W Power Supply - Active PFC, 120mm Fan ($82)

MotherBoard: Asus P5QL PRO Socket 775 Intel Intel? P43 + ICH10 Chipset Dual-Channel DDR2 / 1066 / 800 / 667 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s 8-channel High Definition Audio 1x PCI-E x16 12x USB 2.0 ($105)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Quad-Core Socket LGA775, 2.83 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB, 12MB L2 Cache, 45nm ($342)

RAM: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum 4GB (2x2048) Kit Dual Channel ($72)

Hard Drive Disk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 500GB 32MB Cache (OEM) ($77)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3.0Gb/s 500GB 16MB Cache (OEM) ($66.99)

Video/Graphics Card:

Total Price: $825 (/w Taxes) or $729 (w/o Taxes)

But gonna change it up... A little pricey and as you said... HDD problem. Gonna look for another one.

EDIT: How bout that 7200.12? They any problems...?

Revised Price: $719 (w/o Taxes) or $813 (/w Taxes)

Yaay. Cheaper by what... 12 Dollars xDD

 

[Splych]

Well now it is revised... What should I add? Video Card can be put aside... Just gonna use that 64MB temporarily if I make this computer. And thinking of decreasing the HDD to either 320GB or 250GB since I am not a hard core gamer and I doubt I can get even half of it filled.

 

[themuddaload]

putting a powerful graphics card will just be a waste as his P4 would bottleneck it

I doubt you can just slap in the new CPU right now judging by how old it is, it might only accept up to the Pentium D series


just keep saving money to buy a new computer
a hard drive upgrade would be fine though

you miss the fact that it is a 3.4 ghz p4! most current games dont even use multiple cores yet, TF2 just added multicore support with their latest update a week ago!

although my advice seems to go against what everyone else is saying, i would put a decent 512mb gfx card in that computer, as well as maybe a better HD.

your ram really doesnt need to be upgraded, unless you are using vista, 2gb of ram for xp is plenty, especially since this isnt a real gaming rig.

if you decide to get more ram, dont just buy 2x2gb if you have 4 slots, because doing 4x1gb will allow the computer to write to the ram faster.

 

[Splych]

Woow. Never knew that... Thanks for the advice. But I will just note what you said. Then gonna get back to this custom PC xDD

 

[playallday]

Maybe get a 4850?

 

[Raki]

putting a powerful graphics card will just be a waste as his P4 would bottleneck it

I doubt you can just slap in the new CPU right now judging by how old it is, it might only accept up to the Pentium D series


just keep saving money to buy a new computer
a hard drive upgrade would be fine though

you miss the fact that it is a 3.4 ghz p4! most current games dont even use multiple cores yet, TF2 just added multicore support with their latest update a week ago!

although my advice seems to go against what everyone else is saying, i would put a decent 512mb gfx card in that computer, as well as maybe a better HD.

your ram really doesnt need to be upgraded, unless you are using vista, 2gb of ram for xp is plenty, especially since this isnt a real gaming rig.

if you decide to get more ram, dont just buy 2x2gb if you have 4 slots, because doing 4x1gb will allow the computer to write to the ram faster.

Well I have a 3 Ghz Pentium D 830, which I can overclock to 3,2 Ghz and even while it's dual core it's bad bad bad in games like crysis and GTA 4. In games like Mirror's Edge, CoD 5 and CoD 4 it gets to abot 90% average usage and that processor is a dual core...
OK some games like DMC 4 just push it up to 60%


Well in my opinion you should buy a new PC like you are planning to do, if you have the money

 

[themuddaload]

um, almost nothing runs crysis well bro... if ur proc is at 90% most of the time, sounds like you need a better video card.

 

[Joe88]

um, almost nothing runs crysis well bro... if ur proc is at 90% most of the time, sounds like you need a better video card.

good hardware will run crysis fine

I have no trouble with my 4870 and core2duo E7300