I'm running the Vista Home Basic OS on a HP Slimline PC (Model s7713w) and I wanna know the specific upgrades I need to make to play games such as Crysis and Timeshift. Im a newbie to gaming with pc's so I need all the help I can get. The processor specs are: AMD Sempron Processor 3500+ 2.00 Ghz. I know I need to upgrade from the 512MB of RAM to 2Gigs but I dont know what kind of ram I need. Could anybody help with this because I really don't know where to start...

is this your motherboard?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131042

because until we know what motherboard you have, we can't help you. it's all about compatibility. once we know that, we can work our way up.

I just ran a great program I found called Aida that shows great in depth detail about your pc's system information so I can give you any information you need now. Here's what was under the motherboard properties:


Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 11/30/2006-C51-MCP51-Pyrite-00
Motherboard Name Unknown

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type AMD Hammer
Real Clock 200 MHz
Effective Clock 200 MHz

the properties don't help me. i need to know what slots it has, and what sort of socket the CPU takes. is it an AM2 socket, do you have PCI-express 16x slots, do you have 240 pin PC2 6400 DDR2 800mhz ram slots? stuff like that.

hence why i asked if that newegg model was the same model. i did some googling and searched for your computer model. according to one spec i found, it showed that the model i posted was your motherboard model. but i can't be sure unless you figure it out for me because i can't physically see it.

After doing some research I found that this is the one currently installed by default. Is Asus a good brand and what's next.

well, lately people have been complaining that asus is going downhill. they were fairly decent. that motherboard however looks like a fairly good one.

well, i sort of expected that would be your motherboard and it looks like we're off to a great start.

that motherboard has the following:
a PCI-express 16x slot. perfect for a good gaming graphics card.
an AM2 socket. perfect for a great dual core amd processor
4x 240 pin pc2 6400 ddr2 800mhz RAM slots. that's standard memory these days.

but that's about all thats good. obviously, it's time to start upgrading. since you didn't really tell me what your budget was, i'm just going to go with some fairly top of the line parts.

graphics card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130304
that's an 8800gts 640 mb card. excellent for gaming especially if you want to play something like crysis or bioshock.

however, at this point i would recommend an 8800gt 512mb because it outperforms that card by a good bit. unfortunately they're out of stock in a lot of places. so if you want one, you're on your own tiger.

processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773
amd 64 x2 athlon 6000+ 3.0 ghz

thats a fantastic processor. and it will fit that AM2 slot perfectly.

memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565
and there's 2 gigs of memory to compliment the system.

now...that's some very powerful stuff. so you need a good power supply to make sure it'll all run perfectly.

here's a power supply thats fairly cheap and has lots of head room so you can add stuff later and still be able to power the system with confidence:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

i'm not entirely sure how you're doing in terms of cooling for that box. you may want to consider adding a few fans to it in order to keep the whole thing cold enough so your whole thing doesn't over heat and fry itself. and fans are very easy to find.

the brand you want to look at for fans is Zalman. they have some very nice stuff.

again, i assumed there wasn't really a budget. if you DO have to work around a budget, tell me now so i don't force you to overspend or search for some cheaper stuff on your own.

but if you can get those parts, then you ought to be in VERY good gaming shape.

WOW! Yea ima college student so those prices were WAY high. Im looking for sort of a mid-range deal maybe. I just want to be able to play the best games with no errors and fairly decent graphics at the lowest price possible.

And by the way thanx man I think by researching all of this I'm learning more already.

ok wow. we're both in the same boat there then.

well, if you want to play recent games, and want decent graphics, you don't really have much of a choice. it's either the 8800gt 256mb, 200 bucks, or bust. all the other graphics cards that are out are kinda getting left behind.

it's either the 8800gt, or the new 3850/3870 from ati radeon. ATi's latest chip is about 179 dollars. which is very cheap indeed. you take a 20% performance hit, but something tells me you won't care. its looking like that chip is your best bet for now if you want to game massively.

and if you want to game, you absolutely NEED a good processor, at least 2.6ghz or higher. you'll probably want to go with the amd 5200+ which is about 120 dollars, or the amd 5600 which i believe is about 139 dollars.

the good news here is that the RAM i found is very cheap, and you get 2 gigs worth. 54 bucks :3. that's going to be the cheapest you'll find and maintain quality.

and as for the power supply, you don't have much of a choice there because there aren't a lot of high quality power supplies that will let you add parts later. there's a power supply that i have in mind that will definitely power the system, but it won't let you add very much later.

i'll just find a list of parts for you and you can pick and choose. if you still need to go cheaper, i'll see what i can do to let you still game and keep the price as low as possible.

so hold up a minute while i find some stuff...

processors amd 5200 and amd 5600 respectively:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103759
119.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103771
139.99

memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
GSkill 2x 1 gig sticks 54.99

video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102714
ATI 3850 256mb 179.99

power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007
antec earthwatts 500 watt 78.99

i looked into a smaller power supply from corsair but it was actually more expensive than that power supply. so the cheapest you'll get with the best quality will likely be THAT power supply right there.

Thanx... this is a lotta help. And why would I need to add parts to my power supply later??? I want my system to be more stable than the best system ever.

well you're obviously going to keep this thing a while, right? you might want to throw some more ram in there eventually.

or eventually you might spot a very nice processor or new video card and want to upgrade. you have no guarantees that the power they eat is going to be less. so you'll want to be able to make sure you have plenty. any other power supply below that one also starts to border on being a piece of crap. lots of the ones that are less expensive give out very quickly. some people say their supplies lit on fire minutes after they got it.

i don't want to see that happen with you.
it's all about planning for the future. not just now.

Hmm.. makes since. I guess I'm a donkey for asking that question.

nah forget it. it's good you're asking so many questions. at least you'll have an exact and logical reason for why you're getting what you're getting.

anyway. how do those parts look? do you think it'll be ok? or do you need to go a little cheaper?

Im gonna search around for these items and see if I can maybe find local sales or anything like that. You know with Black Friday coming up Im gonna find a few lists that might help me out. After I do A little shopping im gonna get back to ya.

And by the way I think this is a great thread for the rest of the cheapos like me that bought the slimline because of the price, size, and vista but still wanna game. We got some good $hit here!

keep an eye out because newegg is going to do the black friday sales as well. so a lot of the items i listed will quite possible go down in price. massively. so don't limit your search to stuff outside of newegg. keep an eye on them too.

JustJay, your system can only handle up 2GB of DDR2, it only has 2 slots according to HP and Crucial. You only need to get 2 1GB sticks of DDR2-pc4200(533Mhz) as the system doesn't appear to be capable of running at higher speeds. You can get pc5300(667Mhz) as it is usually the same price or cheaper. If you want to do a CPU upgrade for cheap just get an AMD X2 3800+ or 4200+ as they are the cheapest(Socket AM2 of course). If you want to game with DX10 since you have Vista, you need to get an Nvidia 8600 or better (PCI-Express). I'm an Nvidia guy so I dont pay much attention to ATI. You can probably get away without a PSU upgrade right away as long as you dont go crazy on what video card you get.

it turns out the site i found the motherboard at listed the motherboard using the southbridge. apparently the southbridge is the nforce 430. the actual motherboard is the Asus A8N-BR.

we were misled. there are 2, you are correct. but you're only mostly right. i went to HP as well, and the default motherboard there does NOT support 667 memory. it only supports 533 for 2 gigs worth. (pc2 4200).

there is some more bad news. if that motherboard you described from HP is the motherboard he has, he can NOT get a good video card. it only has PCI expansion slots. not PCI express 16x. which is bad. because at best he can get the geforce 6200 card. and you will NOT be able to game "hard" at all.

so what does it all boil down to? you're kinda effed.

you would have to first buy a new motherboard, then a new processor, 2 gigs of memory, new power supply, and the video card. you could reuse some old parts like the hard drive, the cd rom drives, and stuff. but it'll end up being a good 50-70 dollars more expensive now because it turns out you have a very shatty motherboard after all.

so if you wanted to have the amd 5200, the antec earthwatts 500, an alivenf7g from asrock, an ati radeon 3850, and 2 gigs of memory, you'd have to shell out easily 500 dollars.

and thats more than the whole piece of shat is worth to begin with.
you'd actually be better off buying a new computer.

save whatever money you have, try and sell whatever you can of that piece of CRAP you have now, and try to build a cheap one that you can use for gaming. i designed one that could be used for gaming that costs roughly 600-650 dollars if you're interested. BUT you have to have some parts on hand before you build it because i'm reusing a bunch of parts to save money.

i already have a nice flat panel, 2 cd drives, 2 hard drives, mouse, keyboard, speakers, and an operating system. so that saves me a shatload right off the bat. if you have most of those kinds of parts on hand right now, you can consider trying my idea of a cheap gaming pc. but otherwise...well...f**k. i feel really bad for you now.

JustJay420, link590o & Slayor I suggest you stick to the original subject & not steer the thread into a general blatter topic & watch your words while you're at it.

...again with this "stay serious" stuff?

would you at least LOOK at the other posts we made? all of the others were serious. it's called reading up and then comprehending and posting. i do it all the time.

are we not allowed to joke around for one or two posts? SHEESH. it's too difficult to stay serious 100% of the time. i don't get why we have to be on topic and focused so much. this isn't school or our job. we do this for fun and because we feel like it. what we say is our prerogative, not yours ESPECIALLY when we were on topic for the most part. a stray comment here and there isn't going to kill anyone.

please, for our sake, ease up a little bit.

besides. the least you could have done was offer your own suggestion instead of just parading around policing the threads for bad language. We don’t do this for a living. This is on our own time. If I’m doing it of my own free will, I should be able to take it as seriously as I wish. And I feel like being mostly serious with some chicanery off to the side. And that’s just what I did. And that’s just what they did. We all made 1 post each of a joke. You had no reason to come in here other than to wave your fat TS Special forces badge in our faces. If we do nothing BUT the chicanery I can understand better. But…we made 1 post each of a joke. You’re being a little bit extreme. Tone it down a notch for Christ’s sake, would ya?