is upgrading my computer hopeless?

[CanOWorms]

I'd like to upgrade my computer a bit to play some games... I'm not a hardcore gamer, I rarely play, right now everything I try is pretty choppy and slow. I'd like to upgrade, but I'm not sure what to upgrade... I haven't followed anything in computer hardware for a while. My current system is:

Celeron 1.8 GHz
Geforce 4 ti4200 64mb
512mb ram

Do you think if i upgrade to a 2.x Pentium 4, will there be a significant performance increase in games?

 

[nick1985]

Shuttle AN35N-Ultra 400 = 56
mobile athlon 2400 = 77
HSF = 15 or so
for $148, you can have a pretty sweet setup.

 

[Cannabis]

You would see somewhat of a improvement. For newer games like farcry you would see a larger inprovement with a newer vid card. My ti4600 plays all the games i have at 1280x1024 no problems( mostly WoW, UT2004,war3). Most 4200's will over clock to 4600 speeds. Also you might want to bump your ram up to a gig.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: nick1985
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra 400 = 56
mobile athlon 2400 = 77
HSF = 15 or so
for $148, you can have a pretty sweet setup.

I'd have to buy a case, power supply, etc. I currently have one of those small, mini computers

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Cannabis
You would see somewhat of a improvement. For newer games like farcry you would see a larger inprovement with a newer vid card. My ti4600 plays all the games i have at 1280x1024 no problems( mostly WoW, UT2004,war3). Most 4200's will over clock to 4600 speeds. Also you might want to bump your ram up to a gig.

I don't think I can use a ti4600... I don't think my power supply can handle it. I had one, but it wouldn't work on my computer, but it would work on a larger, traditional computer with a normal power supply. My current computer is a small, mini computer (AMS gBox)

 

[Cannabis]

Sorry, my post was kinda vague. I wasnt saying get a 4600 just that you can over clock the 4200 to 4600 speeds and pick up some perfermance.

 

[gplracer]

Shuttle AN35N-Ultra 400 = 56
mobile athlon 2400 = 77
HSF = 15 or so
for $148, you can have a pretty sweet setup.

Add a fortron 350 watt power supply from newegg and you will be ready to go. Actually if you really want to be cheap just get this case: The power supply is not the best but it would probably be fine for now. Read the reviews for it. Several users have processors similar to the one listed above and an even more power hungry video card with no problems:

Raidmax case w/ 350 power supply

 

[CanOWorms]

Would overclocking it put more of a drain on the power supply? I'm wondering if it's even possible since a normal ti4600 wouldn't work.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: gplracer
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra 400 = 56
mobile athlon 2400 = 77
HSF = 15 or so
for $148, you can have a pretty sweet setup.

Add a fortron 350 watt power supply from newegg and you will be ready to go. Actually if you really want to be cheap just get this case: The power supply is not the best but it would probably be fine for now. Read the reviews for it. Several users have processors similar to the one listed above and an even more power hungry video card with no problems:

Raidmax case w/ 350 power supply

Wouldn't I have to get new ram if I go to a new motherboard? I currently have PC2100.

 

[mobobuff]

There are plenty of newer motherboards out that will support PC2100 as their lowest RAM speed. So you COULD upgrade, but you don't HAVE to.

Mainly the video card and the proc need the most attention. More RAM can be a not-so-distant future upgrade.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
There are plenty of newer motherboards out that will support PC2100 as their lowest RAM speed. So you COULD upgrade, but you don't HAVE to.

Mainly the video card and the proc need the most attention. More RAM can be a not-so-distant future upgrade.

are processors backwards-compatible on some motherboards, too? I think my current setup can only support the 400 mhz FSB Pentium 4. I was thinking maybe I can just get that right now, but it would be great if I could use it later on if I decide to get a new system.

 

[mobobuff]

You can get a 2.0 Ghz P4 A which uses the Northwood core and will run fine at 400 Mhz FSB. I've heard of people being able to overclock these without problems.

here

IF you want a natively faster P4 you'll need to get a new motherboard that supports 533/800 MHz bus speeds. Abit has a handful of boards out that will support all three FSB speeds (400Mhz only for Northwood).

 

[jhurst]

What games do you play that are choppy with a Ti4200? That is a decent card. Might want to upgrade to a 128mb vid card....that shows big improvements in benches. Like sell your card on Ebay and buy a Ti4200 128mb. That would be a cheap upgrade that would show improvement. If you could get a P4 running at 2.2-2.4 ghz (OC'ed), that would help out too. Really all depends on what you are trying to play. Don't expect to play the new wave of games coming out on that rig, I'm worried about how those games are going to play on my system with a 9600XT

 

[CanOWorms]

I'm trying to play games like Deux Ex 2 (not even at high settings.. 1024x768 resolution) ... even Battlefield 1942 was pretty slow on my computer when I had 256mb of ram... haven't tried it since i upgraded to 512mb.

 

[Mloot]

A big factor in your slowdowns is probably the Celeron. When it comes to games, they are pretty darn slow compared to XP's and P4's. Take a look here, or here.

 

[jagec]

Yeah, the biggest bottleneck in that system is def. the Celery. Get a good Northwood (1.8a, 2.0a or so), and you'll see MUCH better gaming performance.

That video card isn't the hottest card out there, but it really isn't too bad. Say, 85% as good as a 9600pro. And you have enough RAM, though not a huge amount. I assume that's DDR or RDRAM, yes?

 

[SportSC4]

yeah... seriously, which games are you playing and at what resolutions?
i have a geforce 3 (titan3) on my amd 2600 (sometimes 3200) with 512 megs o memory and i'm running max payne 2, battlefield 1942, call of duty, ut2004 at 1024 (and in some cases 1152) resolutions with full effects and i haven't had any problems with chopiness.

definitely switch your processor

 

[chilled]

Originally posted by: jagec
Yeah, the biggest bottleneck in that system is def. the Celery. Get a good Northwood (1.8a, 2.0a or so), and you'll see MUCH better gaming performance.

That video card isn't the hottest card out there, but it really isn't too bad. Say, 85% as good as a 9600pro. And you have enough RAM, though not a huge amount. I assume that's DDR or RDRAM, yes?

Yup, ditch the Celeron.
Keep the ti4200....for now