Back in '98 or '99 for Christmas I got a shiny new Compaq Presario 4551. I guess it was pretty decent for light gaming back then, but I'm long overdue for an upgrade.
It came with an AMD K6-2 454 mhz processor. It has, onboard, 8 MB of video RAM, and an SiS video chipset, which is my PC's most major drawback. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is either going to make me have to replace the whole motherboard just to get a new video card, or force me into some really tricky situation involving adding another more modern video card.
I have 3 sticks of RAM right now totalling 256 MB, and 2 hard drives: a 20 GB Quantam Fireball IDE, and a 160 GB Western Digital SATA attatched to a PCI controller. The only other upgrades I've made is a new monitor and a DVD burner which failed after 2 weeks with very light use.
Here is a detailed list of my PC's specs.
I can't play any modern PC games, and I'm stuck in the Pentium II era. I'm able to run things like Half-Life 1, the original Unreal Tournament (with medium detail settings in 320x240 resolution), Metal Gear Solid, Quake II, and SimCity 3000. A few things I've tried to play and can't without horrible slowness are Starsiege: Tribes, System Shock 2, The Sims, and generally any game that isn't made to run in 320x240.
I definitely want to upgrade my processor and video card more than anything. I'm pretty much happy with the rest of my system. I have no idea where to start though, and if I ever buy any new hardware, I'm doubtful that I'll be able to install it on my own.
Basically, to start with, I need some reccommendations that would work with my system and allow me to play more modern games cheaply. The link I gave earlier has information on my motherboad. I don't know how to tell what's combatiable with it or not. I'd really, really appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.
It came with an AMD K6-2 454 mhz processor. It has, onboard, 8 MB of video RAM, and an SiS video chipset, which is my PC's most major drawback. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is either going to make me have to replace the whole motherboard just to get a new video card, or force me into some really tricky situation involving adding another more modern video card.
I have 3 sticks of RAM right now totalling 256 MB, and 2 hard drives: a 20 GB Quantam Fireball IDE, and a 160 GB Western Digital SATA attatched to a PCI controller. The only other upgrades I've made is a new monitor and a DVD burner which failed after 2 weeks with very light use.
Here is a detailed list of my PC's specs.
I can't play any modern PC games, and I'm stuck in the Pentium II era. I'm able to run things like Half-Life 1, the original Unreal Tournament (with medium detail settings in 320x240 resolution), Metal Gear Solid, Quake II, and SimCity 3000. A few things I've tried to play and can't without horrible slowness are Starsiege: Tribes, System Shock 2, The Sims, and generally any game that isn't made to run in 320x240.
I definitely want to upgrade my processor and video card more than anything. I'm pretty much happy with the rest of my system. I have no idea where to start though, and if I ever buy any new hardware, I'm doubtful that I'll be able to install it on my own.
Basically, to start with, I need some reccommendations that would work with my system and allow me to play more modern games cheaply. The link I gave earlier has information on my motherboad. I don't know how to tell what's combatiable with it or not. I'd really, really appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.
