friend upgrading, suggestions?

[w0lf42]

I have a friend who's looking to upgrade so he can play his games at reasonable frame rates (Age of Mythology, Asheron's Call2, War Craft III. Ghost Recon, Neverwinter Nights, etc.). He is willing to upgrade the following compents:
motherboard
CPU
memory
power supply (probablly needs a 350 Watt one)
(he believes he can get a Geforce4 [not sure which one] from a friend)

I'm not sure what he has now, but I was hoping that some people would have some cheaper solutions.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Originally posted by: w0lf42
I have a friend who's looking to upgrade so he can play his games at reasonable frame rates (Age of Mythology, Asheron's Call2, War Craft III. Ghost Recon, Neverwinter Nights, etc.). He is willing to upgrade the following compents:
motherboard
CPU
memory
power supply (probablly needs a 350 Watt one)
(he believes he can get a Geforce4 [not sure which one] from a friend)

I'm not sure what he has now, but I was hoping that some people would have some cheaper solutions.

How about a budget to work with? AMD or Intel?

There are so many good options out there to work with.

 

[OxbowBurrito]

Thanks, w0lf42.

Hey Guys, my budget is currently around $300 for a new motherboard, CPU and memory. I have a bit of flexibility here, so if there is a great deal on something that pushes me a bit above this budget, please let me know.

I am currently running a PII 550 on an Asus board (sorry, at work and don't recall the model) with 384 megs of memory. I currently have a GeForce2 Total Annihilator (2?) mx and am considering upgrading to a GF4.

I have only recently started having problems running various games. The first was Morrowind followed shortly by some of the games, w0lf42 listed.

Any advice or suggestions you might have are greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Markfw]

I don't have time to look it all up, but at that budget, and AMD XP2000+, 512 meg DDR PC 2700 and a motherboard should be pretty close to $300. I think the A7N8X is about $110, and a retail XP2000 (with HSF) is about $100 and the memory is about $100.

 

[HendrixFan]

In the games you are playing, memory will be the biggest performance factor. Make sure you get 512MB.

If you are getting a GF4 from a friend, make SURE that it isnt a GF4MX, it wouldnt be worth the upgrade. AoM and Warcraft are fairly 3d intensive, but a used GF3 from the FS/FT forums would be more than enough for those games. NWN would be more demanding, but you are on a budget.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Epox budget nForce 2 board or KT333/400 board, Asus, MSI, Chaintech less than $100.00
RAM-Kingston value 512mb DDR 2700 from googlegear.com for under $90.00-you can find the link in the Hot Deals forum.
CPU-XP 2100 from newegg.com and heatsink from SVC $120.00
CPU option 2-XP1700 or 1800, nice heatsink and fan combo.

This should be under $320.00 shipped.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: newbiepcuser
Epox budget nForce 2 board or KT333/400 board, Asus, MSI, Chaintech less than $100.00
RAM-Kingston value 512mb DDR 2700 from googlegear.com for under $90.00-you can find the link in the Hot Deals forum.
CPU-XP 2100 from newegg.com and heatsink from SVC $120.00
CPU option 2-XP1700 or 1800, nice heatsink and fan combo.

This should be under $320.00 shipped.

Why not just get the $93 2100+ T-Bred B from Newegg with a Coolermaster $6 HSF from there as well?

 

[KidChaos]

You could get some good stuff for ~$300

Processor: AMD XP 1700+ Thoroughbred-B Processor (OEM) $53
Heatsink: Thermalright SK-6+ ~$10
Fan: 60mm (Panasonic Panaflo, Thermaltake or YS-Tech) ~$5
Motherboard: Abit NF7-S motherboard $126
Memory: Two Samsung Originial 256MB PC2700 memory modules $110

$304

vendor(s): newegg.com, www.svc.com

Later, you could add Barton Processor, latest nVidia Card or latest ATi card or whatever, Serial ATA hard drive if you wish.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Originally posted by: Ilmater

Originally posted by: newbiepcuser
Epox budget nForce 2 board or KT333/400 board, Asus, MSI, Chaintech less than $100.00
RAM-Kingston value 512mb DDR 2700 from googlegear.com for under $90.00-you can find the link in the Hot Deals forum.
CPU-XP 2100 from newegg.com and heatsink from SVC $120.00
CPU option 2-XP1700 or 1800, nice heatsink and fan combo.

This should be under $320.00 shipped.

Why not just get the $93 2100+ T-Bred B from Newegg with a Coolermaster $6 HSF from there as well?

Will that be sufficient in cooling? SVC has better prices on the higher end HSF. Newegg.com doesn't discount their shipping even though you buy multiple items.

But if the $6.00 HSF works, then kewl.