Alright, its time to upgrade my 1ghz duron.

[MetalMat]

I just put WOW on my machine today, and finally realized that my computer aint cuttin it anymore. It is "running" the game, but I want some better graphics. This is what I got:

1Ghz AMD Duron
EDIT Abit KT7A Motherboard
Geforce4 MX 460
320 Megs PC133 Ram
20 and a 60 gig HD(both are Maxtor 7200 rpm)
Soundblaster Live! Value
Generic 48x cdrom drive
Windows XP professional

I am trying to keep this cheap though, I might wait till early next year depending on how much this is gonna cost as of right now.

 

[Mrvile]

Hmm...Duron is almost dead. You might want to upgrade your graphics card instead, because there's really nowhere to upgrade the Duron now (you can upgrade to the 1.8 ghz, which is 50 bucks, but your game will still run pretty slowly). Upgrading graphics cards are pretty expensive though, so if you still really want to up that Duron: http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=19-104-160&depa=0

 

[Budman]

A 2400+ is probably the max you can put in there.

 

[MetalMat]

Well, would it just be more cost efficient to start building a new system, or keep my current MB and upgrade the cpu?

 

[Sonic587]

Budget?

 

[MetalMat]

Oh, lets say 300 bucks tops. I would like it to be around 200-250 though. What kind of sucks is that fact that my video card runs bad at its normal speed, I have to underclock it some so the system wont turn off in the middle of a game (like in WC3). However, the card was givin to me for free and is way better than my old radeon LE.

 

[Matthias99]

Oh, lets say 300 bucks tops. I would like it to be around 200-250 though.

At that budget I think your best bet would be a faster CPU and video card (you could get a 9800Pro/5900XT and a TBred AthlonXP for under $300, easy -- and you could get a used 9700Pro/9800 and a slightly slower CPU for under $200). Getting up to 512MB of RAM wouldn't hurt, either.

You'll have to ditch the MB and RAM at some point, but I don't think you could get a new CPU/MB/RAM *and* a decent video upgrade for under $300. You might be able to if you sold the old parts to offset some of the cost.

 

[MetalMat]

I made a mistake, I have an Abit KT7A motherbaord. I was thinking of the one I had before that.

 

[futuristicmonkey]

However, you can overclock it. Just hope that this doesn't happen :Q

 

[SneakyStuff]

Try this, this is the best I could do for you on a budget. And this is pretty much a whole new rig BTW. So you'd see a VERY noticable performance increase.

Motherboard- Chaintech $45

CPU- Sempron 2200+ $55

Memory- 512MB low latency Corsair $82

Video Card- Gigabyte Radeon 9550 (When it's back in stock) $69

Total cost for a brand spankin new system... $251

 

[Mrvile]

Athlon 64 solution:

Motherboard - 67 bucks

CPU - 129 bucks

Video card - 76 bucks

RAM - 70 bucks

That's a bit over budget though (maybe by 30 bucks, including RAM), but it's a great setup.

EDIT: Changed video card. Raises price about 10 bucks but no big deal.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Mine's cheaper

And that video card has a crippled 64 bit memory bus, and its refurburbished!

 

[Mrvile]

Oh man, didn't look at it closely (tryin to do this quickly)! Back to the drawing board.

And mine's better

 

[cheesehead]

I reccomend the A64 with a video card off e-bay. You can get a GEF4-TI for 60$, and a 9500 for around the same price. The 9500 is very OC'able, and the GEF4ti is not too shabby either.

 

[MetalMat]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Try this, this is the best I could do for you on a budget. And this is pretty much a whole new rig BTW. So you'd see a VERY noticable performance increase.

Motherboard- Chaintech $45

CPU- Sempron 2200+ $55

Memory- 512MB low latency Corsair $82

Video Card- Gigabyte Radeon 9550 (When it's back in stock) $69

Total cost for a brand spankin new system... $251

A couple questions:
If I would get this setup, how much do you think I could sell the old system for?
I have seen really good prices for the 9600 Pros, would you recommend those?
Can I still use my current Power Supply and Case?

 

[SneakyStuff]

You can most likely sell your cpu/mobo/RAM on ebay for $75 or so. And a 9600 pro would be a nice card, depending on the price. If it's more than $120, go for a used 9700 pro off ebay.

 

[SneakyStuff]

If your PSU is a quality 200w or above, you'll be fine, and if it's a generic 300w or above, you'll also be fine. As long as you aren't oc'ing the CPU, you'll be fine. Something like this would be a cheap fix if your current PSU doesn't cut it.

SilverStone

or...

Antec