***** shopping

[manleystanley]

I'm trying to upgrade this Yugo, I mean Gateway. I need a video card PCI, 32-bit, +3.3v PME, i2c/smbus; hell if I know what any of that means. Will the PROLINK MVGA-NVG34P Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR PCI Video Card fit the bill?

Wrong place but same project, I also want to up to 1gig ram using 2 512k cards, I need ddr-sdram. This is what I am looking at pqi POWER Series 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model MD4412UOE, same question.
Also with these upgrades will I need a case fan? Probebly get one anyway, they're fairly cheep. And a cpu cooler? again. not a very pricey item.
I'm trying to get this in under $250, looks like it wont be much of a problem.

Oh, ya, Hello

 

[zephead]

gateway, says you? it's an oem build, don't waste your time trying to upgrade it. my advice is to get yourself a standard machine instead.

TS could be a much bigger help if you filled us in on what you plan to use the machine for, the specs of the gateway, and how much money you're willing to spend.

 

[manleystanley]

Replacement isn't an option, it's ether upgrade or not. Hence the $250 limit.
I would like to be able to play a few more games, and render things a bit faster.
Being financialy challenged this is what I have to work with.
Look at it this way, I'm running on an onboad intel grafics chip, with 256k. At this point anything would be an improvment.

 

[jarvis]

What games were you planning on playing? That card is very outdated...yet with the onboard you are dealing with now I guess any thing would do. The RAM you are looking at is suitable however. You should probably just list all your specs so we can better help you.

 

[Sharkfood]

Hi stanley,
As jarvis mentioned, if you can at least report back with what Gateway make/model you have, we can likely give you much, much more meaningful advice.

On the topic of 3d card + 1 gig of memory, it's quite likely you can get both well under your $250 budget, but impossible to determine or point you in the right direction for the best results until we know what exact Gateway you're planning on upgrading!

Cheers

 

[manleystanley]

Gateway 310x.
pent 2.4
Model : Thrasher
Version : 4000856
Mainboard
Manufacturer : Intel Corporation
MP Support : 1 Processor(s)
MPS Version : 1.40
Model : D845GVSR
Version : AAC45431-104
Number of Memory Slots : 2
Maximum Installable Memory : 3GB
DDR-SDRAM 256MB/64 @ 333Mt/s
DIMM1 - J6G2 : Empty
Chipset 1
Model : Intel Corporation 82845G/GL/GE Brookdale Host-Hub Interface Bridge (B1-step)
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI IMB USB i2c/SMBus
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 133MHz (532MHz data rate)
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 4x 133MHz / 2x 166MHz
Width : 64-bit
Expansion Slot(s)
J7B2 (1h) : PCI 32-bit +3.3V PME i2c/SMBus Full-Length Available
J8B1 (2h) : PCI 32-bit +3.3V PME i2c/SMBus Full-Length Available (Gateway 2000 82845G/GL/GE Integrated Graphics Device (B1-step))
J9B1 (3h) : PCI 32-bit +3.3V PME i2c/SMBus Full-Length Used

I love Sandra LE, is that enough info?

As far as games I'm a gamer so I play about anything; except FPS. I also do some modeling, and rendering; I'd do more but highend modeling progs are just waaaaaaaaaaaaay over priced. Lets see buy C4D or put a new engine in my truck? Being a farm boy that would be easy desision .

 

[DelJo63]

Gateway 310 is a 2.4 ghz box I know there's a lot of Gateway bashing here.
Apparently problems are model and mfg date specific.
Mine has been faithful for several years and if you're happy that's all that matters.

 

[manleystanley]

Yes, mine has been a dependable work horse, but like a work horse it does everything at a slow steady pace, or not at all. There have been a few times I have bought games only to have them say "can't find graphics card" when I tried to install them, or would crash/ lock when I went to run them. Morrowind has been crashing; 4 times in a month, bad enought that my comp goes to 512 res with 16bit color, and I have to reboot. I think I'm on the wrong side of looking good, or running smooth, it tends to freeze for a few seconds on a regular bases. And I would love to crank the grafics up on the games that do play; NFS:UG looks excellent with the grafics maxed, but acts more like a slide show then a game. Evan an older game like GP500, looks sweet with grafics maxed, and runs smooth during practice, but starts looking like a silent move with a dozen bikes on the track.
Of corse I would love to cut my render times down from 10's of hours. :zzz:

 

[Sharkfood]

As that's a P4-2.4ghz/533mhz fsb, I'd recommend an FX5700 (non-LE if you can find one, but LE will work if you cannot). The 5200 has very, very little graphics power. The 5700/5700LE come in PCI flavor and have much, much more 3D power than the 5200. They are also DX9.0 compliant.

As far as memory, the plan for 2x512's should work fine. I'd also recommend pricing/shopping for the lowest latency memories you can find. CAS2/2.5 would be best as this system doesn't appear to support dual-channel memory mode. So lower latency memories will be key for good performance.

I wouldn't worry about a case fan or power supply until after you've upgraded. That case has decent ventilation, but a fan and/or aftermarket power supply may be needed. If you install the upgraded parts (video + memory), if you encounter instability, graphics artifacting or the like- it could possibly be indicative of needing those additional upgrades.

 

[manleystanley]

Been searching, the only fx5700 PCI's I have found have been LE. Still looking but I can't go too wrong at the price. Memory cards looks like it's more who you like, they're all about the same price. Think I'll just go ahead and get a case fan, right now I have the side off; it can get to 115f in my place during the summer. No, I shut my comp down at those times and turn on the PS2, not worried if it burns up :haha: . Not bad, under budjet, now do I want to get Vue 5 or try to track down C4D 7; both should be about $100, but I need C4D.

Thanks Sharkfood

I plan to build my next comp, I intend to scavenge as much out of this Gateway as possable to start, then upgrade from there.

 

[zephead]

does your gateway even have an agp slot? upgrading an oem will yield limited performance returns and you'll hit all sorts of snags. if you do spend your $250 now, your gateway will still be antiquated on account of the ram, chipset, cpu, and the general design of the system. i think dropping more cash on this gateway isn't going to be worth it.

perhaps you should get an i865/i875 based board, a new case and psu instead. you'd still keep your current cpu, ram, drives, and cards but in the future you could easily upgrade to far better parts in the future, when you get more money.

 

[manleystanley]

I've done some checking, the only snag I may run into would be disabaling the intel chip in the bios. I've priced the mother boards you suggested zephead, the i865is low priced so may prove to be inadaquit, the i875 would take my entire budget. This upgrade is going to come in at around $130, leaving me a bit of cash for other computer needs; like c4d 7. My budget just does not allow for a rebuild at this time, that will have to be next years project. I only have the money to do this stuff once a year; harvest is the only time I have extra money to do anything. This is also the time of year I stock up on games, most of the games I want are 6 months old or older; been wanting them sence they came out but didn't have the money to get them. And why are older; 6 months to a year, computer games so hard to find?