Hey all,
I am thinking about doing an upgrade on my PC within the next month. My PC is built mostly for gaming and I play first person shooters. I have a little bit of money coming back from filing taxes and I am looking at upgrading 1 or 2 things on my computer. I am looking the biggest increase in performance for the money I spend. My budget is somewhat flexible, but I would say $200-$500 range is accurate.
I am trying to determine where my computer is lacking and what to upgrade. Here are some of the specs:
-Intel P4 2.8 Ghz 800 Mhz System Bus
-Asus P4P88 Deluxe
-2x 256 sticks DDR400 RAM
-Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Catalyst 5.1 drivers
-CDRW drive 52x 24x 52x, DVD-Rom drive, DVD-RW drive
-21" SyncMaster monitor.
-30Gb Hard drive
A few questions right off the top
RAM
I know I need to upgrade my RAM, but how much RAM should I get 1gb or 1.5gb?
I currently have 2 sticks of 256 in there now and 4 slots. Is it worth paying more for 2x512 sticks (and discard the 2x256 sticks in there now) than to buy 2x256 sticks and give up the dual channel on my motherboard?
CD ROM
Would a different CD rom drive really help game performance? If so how much? Is mine lacking and is causing bad performance?
Graphics Card
By looking at it I need a new graphics card. What type of graphics card should I go with? I am not neccessarily looking for top of the line, but a very nice card and a good value for amount of money compared to the performance boost.
I am a noob when it comes to overclocking and I have always wanted to give it a shot. I looked on a few sites to get an idea of what I was doing, but I was somewhat scared off by the fact that I didn't want to fry anything... Overclocking isn't completely out of the question, but I would rather not. The only way I would is if someone could help me out a bit with some tips/pointers and that sort of bit.
Anyways, thanks in advance for any help!
Lyrix
I am thinking about doing an upgrade on my PC within the next month. My PC is built mostly for gaming and I play first person shooters. I have a little bit of money coming back from filing taxes and I am looking at upgrading 1 or 2 things on my computer. I am looking the biggest increase in performance for the money I spend. My budget is somewhat flexible, but I would say $200-$500 range is accurate.
I am trying to determine where my computer is lacking and what to upgrade. Here are some of the specs:
-Intel P4 2.8 Ghz 800 Mhz System Bus
-Asus P4P88 Deluxe
-2x 256 sticks DDR400 RAM
-Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Catalyst 5.1 drivers
-CDRW drive 52x 24x 52x, DVD-Rom drive, DVD-RW drive
-21" SyncMaster monitor.
-30Gb Hard drive
A few questions right off the top
RAM
I know I need to upgrade my RAM, but how much RAM should I get 1gb or 1.5gb?
I currently have 2 sticks of 256 in there now and 4 slots. Is it worth paying more for 2x512 sticks (and discard the 2x256 sticks in there now) than to buy 2x256 sticks and give up the dual channel on my motherboard?
CD ROM
Would a different CD rom drive really help game performance? If so how much? Is mine lacking and is causing bad performance?
Graphics Card
By looking at it I need a new graphics card. What type of graphics card should I go with? I am not neccessarily looking for top of the line, but a very nice card and a good value for amount of money compared to the performance boost.
I am a noob when it comes to overclocking and I have always wanted to give it a shot. I looked on a few sites to get an idea of what I was doing, but I was somewhat scared off by the fact that I didn't want to fry anything... Overclocking isn't completely out of the question, but I would rather not. The only way I would is if someone could help me out a bit with some tips/pointers and that sort of bit.
Anyways, thanks in advance for any help!
Lyrix
