Best upgrade for old computer?

[Novaoblivion]

I hope this has not been asked I didnt see it. My brother has an older computer and wants to do a upgrade hopefully for $100 - $200. His current computer is 1.8 P4 (Willamette Core), MSI 645 Combo motherboard, 512 ddr 2700, Geforce 5700 Ultra. So I am wondering would it be better for him to A. buy another 512 ram. or B. buy a new cpu & motherboard maybe a sempron? or C. not worth it to upgrade right now. He does play games mostly WoW and some strategy and racing games but he doesnt really mind turning the graphics down some. Thanks!

 

[DaveSimmons]

PC3200 DDR is suddenly really cheap -- one "after rebate" deal in Hot Deals is $50 for 2x512 MB. I've read that WoW is one of the many recent games that runs better with 1 GB.

If you're getting a new motherboard, you probably want socket 939 with a PCI-E slot, plus RAM and a PCI-E graphics card like a 6600GT -- but this will cost $500+.

You might start with the PC3200 RAM (1 stick or a pair), and see how much having 1 GB helps.

 

[Sentinel]

it wont cost you 500 you can do it for around 350-400 depending how you price it and what features you want

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
PC3200 DDR is suddenly really cheap -- one "after rebate" deal in Hot Deals is $50 for 2x512 MB. I've read that WoW is one of the many recent games that runs better with 1 GB.

If you're getting a new motherboard, you probably want socket 939 with a PCI-E slot, plus RAM and a PCI-E graphics card like a 6600GT -- but this will cost $500+.

You might start with the PC3200 RAM (1 stick or a pair), and see how much having 1 GB helps.

I think that's a great idea. Getting some more ram for now since it's so cheap and then waiting to upgrade the whole system is what I would do.

 

[Novaoblivion]

Yeah that sounds good. Ill recomend that to him. Thanks guys! Would you happen to have a link that $50 ram?

 

[Nick5324]

From MSI's website, it says this board supports 400mhz FSB, but then says "Supports 400MHz FSB, can be auto negotiated to 533MHz through BIOS for better system efficiency
? Supports up to 2.8GHz or higher speed." I guess if you could pick up a 2.8Ghz/533Mhz FSB P4 for a reasonable price on the FS/FT forum, should be decent upgrade. I would go with the RAM first, but if you end up spending ~$45 on RAM, and had a budget of $100-$200, it is worth considering the CPU also. Link for MB

RAM $41.36 shipped. Not the absolute cheapest on Newegg (rosewill, $38.98 shipped), but close and i've heard good things about Buffalo RAM lately. I'm sure there are better rebate deals to be had, but this is a quick fix, no hassle. Since the board only has 2 slots for DDR, and one is taken, 2x512MB rebate deals are out for you.