My emachine T2862 needs a jump start.

[sixabove]

Hello im new to the site.
my $299 emachine managed to get me here.
Just installed a new graphics card. didnt seem to help much.
hope to find new ideas to to increase the performance of my current computer.
while planning to build a new one...not sure im ready to take that step yet.


sixabove
emachine T2862
Celeron 2.67mhz
256mg 3200ddr
pny nvidia fx5500 128mb

 

[MonkeyMan]

Hello, and to increase performance, I would recommend a new video card. The one that you have, is not a bad card, but if you want to really speed up your PC, you should get a more powerful one. The best kind out there, is a 6600GT. Its not too expensive, and it has basically has almost as much power as the high end video cards for less. You can check out www.newegg.com for a good video card. Just type in Geforce or Radeon on the search bar, and it should give you a good selection for an average price. But welcome to the forums, and I hope you enjoy your stay. Its very fun to talk to people on these forums, and overall, just have a good time with everyone.

 

[sixabove]

just returned the fx5500 to bustbuy i guess i will start collecting parts for the new computer.

thanks for the info and the welcome.

sixabove

 

[nork]

Im very surprised nobody has mentioned ram. You only have 256 mb and i suggest, if you are running win xp, that you should have a min of 512 mb rama and that the few dollars you spend on the ram will give you far more overall speed than the vid card. A good vid card is not a bad idea but you already have a fairly decent vid card for everyday use. I have a gig of ram and i use onboard video and my system is pretty quick. I'm very fussy about my system, i like it working fast, real fast. To me, ram is the best investment you can make as far as helping speed up your system. If i needed a certain vid card i would get it, but im not a gamer and if i want speed i did the best i could do with a small amount of money, i added ram!

I would suggest you take the ram to either 512 or 768 mb from the 256 you have now. I mention 512 or 768 as that is usually a "sweet spot" where you get value for money, or where you will get a speed increase for the money spent. Sometimes going from 768 to 1 gig doesnt really speed up the system as there are other bottlenecks as well, its just good insurance to go from 768 to 1 gig, not always needed.