my "rig" and upgrades q's

[Junaid0]

hi i'm new to these forums, but anyhoo let me get to the point... i'm wondering how much longer i can use this system and b able to play the newer games, Doom3 and HL2, at good settings, or i mean how well will i b able to play 'em
it's a dell dimension 4500 got it a bit over a year ago, parents wanted a comp w/ a waranty so i couldn't build one
well let's get to the spex

P4 2.4 ghz, dont' know the side bus or any other stuff
786 ram, upgraded from 256
dell 80 gig HD, dont know the maker or the speed
gf4 ti4200, the one thing i'l wait on to upgrade til the new games start coming out
8x dvd and 52x cdr, i orderd a sony dru510a, i don't know which one i should take out
viesonic a90f monitor, 19 inches
creative sb live! value, what dell gave me
klipsch promedia 2.1, these work well for me, 'cuz i dont' wana invest in a 4.1 or 5.1, although i've thought about buying another set so i get 4.2
intelimouse explorer 3.0 and an oem microsoft natural keyboard elite
runnin xp pro and the auto upgrade @ microsoft says i don't need any patches
i have a d-link wireless thingy, worx well despite what others say
dont' know what kinda mobo i have or the rest of the info but i usually get 600 kbps with sbc yahoo dsl

i think thats all the important info, so which optical drive should i remove to put in the dru510a, i'm thinking about taking out the burner, 'cuz this is hooked up to my tv and this is my dvd player... also i wana get the mx700 but i dunno if it's gona drop in price anytime soon, and lastly... would i b able to use another hard drive like one of those 120gig ones, how would i set it up so that i have 2x drives, or should i just archive all my "documents" w/ the dvd burner...

edit: i've decided to start changing things now. the waranty ended in august, only got 1 year...

 

[nick1985]

your good for a while

 

[StraightPipe]

i'm running a very similar system (533 FSB)

i would say dont do anything, your vid card should be fine, but if it's not you shouldwait till these games actually come out b4 you upgrade.

i plan to add another 512 RAM card, I'll run the 2 512 cards in dual channel, and keep the extra 256 in there as a bonus.

shouldnt have any problems adding a HDD either, my system i holding 3 HDD'S and CD-R + DVD-ROM.

PSU is still holding strong

 

[D0S3D]

just to let you know with companies such as dell, gateway and all that, if u modify the computer in any bit, you will void the warranty

 

[StraightPipe]

Welcome to Anandtech!

 

[Davegod]

looks fine from here.

not so sure how well the gf4ti4200 will hold up for HL2 and especially doom3, at least wait until HL2 comes out and see how it runs on your system, and also so some good benchies come out for a more reliable reference should you decide the card cant quite handle it how you'd like.

no idea how happily Dell computers take upgrades though?

 

[randumb]

I believe the guys at iD said Doom 3 will be playable a GF4Ti4200.

 

[MDE]

The Sony DVD burner will play DVDs too, so I'd ditch the DVD ROM and keep the CD-RW for faster CD recording.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: randumb
I believe the guys at iD said Doom 3 will be playable a GF4Ti4200.

IIRC carmack merely said doom3 will work on a GF2 (might have been 1), but i think that meant the technology is there on the graphics card - no indication of wether it would perform anything like reasonably playable, or what the level of eye candy would be at, i.e. doom3 with a cfg any pro Q3 player would be proud of.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: D0S3D
just to let you know with companies such as dell, gateway and all that, if u modify the computer in any bit, you will void the warranty

Quit spouting lies.

 

[imported_Phil]

Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who deals with warrantied PCs daily in the UK, he is correct. Modding or altering will void the warranty if the modifications cause anything to fail as a result of that mod. For example, the HSF is changed. If the CPU fails, it's generally a no-no. If the hard disk goes, you're golden.

Dopefiend