REAL budget upgrade.

[cnjmorris]

Okay someone I know has an old system they are trying to play World of Warcraft on.


AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2 Ghz (afraid to overclock due to previous overheating issues)
Geforce FX 5400 128 mb
1GB RAM, board can support 3GB but with my huge heatsink its blocking 1 slot so more like a 2GB max.

They have about $200 to spend and they know that won't buy much but they wanted to know what would give them bank for buck to get a performance bump over the above hardware.

Is it a lost cause or is there something they can do?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

what OS?
i would upgrade to at least 2gb ram and a 4830/4850 on the cheap to hold him over for now.

 

[cnjmorris]

Okay I got some more info from her.

GA-K8NS Pro 754 is the motherboard.
The graphics card is PCI (not express) but the board has a AGP x8 slot.
She uses Windows XP Pro.

 

[vailr]

POWERCOLOR Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP - $104.99 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814131141
Or else, look on the For Sale/Trade forum (or: Dell's "open box") for a used motherboard/CPU/memory combo; one that uses PCIe graphics.

Note: this video card requires a 6-pin power connector. Which might therefore also require replacing the PSU.

 

[LostPassword]

maybe get something integrated, cheap proc, cheap ram,
and then buy the vid card later.
something like this.
ASRock A780GXE $88
kuma chip $78
and whatever left for ram

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: cnjmorris
Okay I got some more info from her.

GA-K8NS Pro 754 is the motherboard.
The graphics card is PCI (not express) but the board has a AGP x8 slot.
She uses Windows XP Pro.

ouch

that limits things otherwise u could get quite good value for money with a pcie video card.

slightly less options when it comes to agpcards these days bang per buck wise. but even those are enough to play wow. get a decent agp card and a bit more ram

 

[TidusZ]

I have an athlon 3000+ (1.8ghz) that I overclocked to 2.25ish pretty easily. The fan that came with the heatsink was GARBAGE, so I stuck an arctic cooling 3 fan on there (cost a few bucks tops http://www.ncix.com/products/i...ture=Arctic%20Cooling) using elastic bands reinforced with twist ties (its surprisingly sturdy). That brought temps plummeting down. I imagine you could do the same for your friend. That, and the aforementioned video card / ram upgrade would be your best bet probably.

Btw I have had heat problems with this chip too - my friend complained to me that his pc was constantly rebooting, and I knew before I got over there that his heatsink was gonna be full of dust, which it was. A quick vacuuming and his pc was fixed. If your friend is willing to open the case and vacuum / compressed air the dust once a year or so, then heat will never be an issue if you replace that fan. Maybe every two years.

If you can talk your friend into it I'd overclock the videocard you buy as well, every bit of performance you can eek out will make WoW more playable.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: LostPassword
maybe get something integrated, cheap proc, cheap ram,
and then buy the vid card later.
something like this.
ASRock A780GXE $88
kuma chip $78
and whatever left for ram

Yup.

ASRock A780GXE/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G: $80

Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800: $24

AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz: $78


You could splurge on 4Gb or 1066MHz ...

 

[thecrecarc]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813186155 $50 Foxconn M61PMV
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103210 $60 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820161241 $38 4GB DDR2 667
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102805 $50 HD 4650 512MB

Total=$198

 

[Denithor]

3850 AGP + 1GB DDR is you best bet <$200.

Otherwise, go for the build thecrecarc suggested but use an X2 4850e (lower power consumption, cooler, $5 cheaper) instead of that X2 5200.

And spend a few dollars more for a 4670, the 4650 is not a gaming card by any stretch of the imagination.

If you go this route, make sure (before you get started) that your PSU will handle the load.