hey guys,
I need some help here, lookign for good advice. My friend who always games with us has a Dell. It was great a couple years ago when he bought it brand new when we played HL. He went from a 300mhz to this Dell which play HL and mods GREAT. Any way, we all have moved on to newer comps that run Desert Combat and HL2/CS:Source type games. I showed him CS:S source and he wants it really bad. Just trying to get him able to play and it run and look decent. He has very little money. He is on a budget of around $200-230 here.
I'm trying to get his computer to run Desert Combat on high settings and make his computer be able to run CS:S on at least low-med with 0 sticking at all. I don't even know if the Dells like this (Dimension 4500) can take a different video card or not. I'm assuming it has an AGP slot, but which version of AGP slot?
Ok so as far as I know it has (currently):
-Intel 1.8Ghz P4 processor
-256 RAM
-GeForce 4 "MX" 64mb, MX=suck
Obviously the CPU isn't worth messing with. It will hack it I guess. First thing I need to do is get him to at least 512mb Ram.
so I must ask:
-Is 1 Gig RAM worth it to go to or just go to 512mb and that is best i'll get?
-What is a good video card that matches the CPU power? I don't want to make the CPU the bottleneck. Is a FX5500 or something a good choice? Radeon 9800 or something like that better since HL2 runs really well on these? Are the 9800 cards DX9? I'd really like to get him some DX9 graphics for HL2 so it will run properly though. Or would something like a 6600GT be ok? I figured a 6800GT or Radeon X series is too much for the CPU. What about the GF4 Ti4200? They are cheap at around 80 bucks. I'm really looking closely at the Leadtek 6600GT for 140 dollars or so. ::: Also found I out I can get a eVGA 6600 for around 140 shipped. THats a good deal (if it will work in his comp)
I'm thinking if I could get him a couple sticks of Valuselect or Crucial and bump him up to 512 or a gig... Edit: Just looked the Crucial is a great deal, 512mb RAM for 61 bucks. I can just throw this in with his 256mb to get 768mb. Getting two 512mb would waste money and i'd have to take out his 256mb since the comp can only handle 1 gig.
Please let me know what you guys think. I'm sure some of you have had this issue.
Thanks,
Rhin0
I need some help here, lookign for good advice. My friend who always games with us has a Dell. It was great a couple years ago when he bought it brand new when we played HL. He went from a 300mhz to this Dell which play HL and mods GREAT. Any way, we all have moved on to newer comps that run Desert Combat and HL2/CS:Source type games. I showed him CS:S source and he wants it really bad. Just trying to get him able to play and it run and look decent. He has very little money. He is on a budget of around $200-230 here.
I'm trying to get his computer to run Desert Combat on high settings and make his computer be able to run CS:S on at least low-med with 0 sticking at all. I don't even know if the Dells like this (Dimension 4500) can take a different video card or not. I'm assuming it has an AGP slot, but which version of AGP slot?
Ok so as far as I know it has (currently):
-Intel 1.8Ghz P4 processor
-256 RAM
-GeForce 4 "MX" 64mb, MX=suck
Obviously the CPU isn't worth messing with. It will hack it I guess. First thing I need to do is get him to at least 512mb Ram.
so I must ask:
-Is 1 Gig RAM worth it to go to or just go to 512mb and that is best i'll get?
-What is a good video card that matches the CPU power? I don't want to make the CPU the bottleneck. Is a FX5500 or something a good choice? Radeon 9800 or something like that better since HL2 runs really well on these? Are the 9800 cards DX9? I'd really like to get him some DX9 graphics for HL2 so it will run properly though. Or would something like a 6600GT be ok? I figured a 6800GT or Radeon X series is too much for the CPU. What about the GF4 Ti4200? They are cheap at around 80 bucks. I'm really looking closely at the Leadtek 6600GT for 140 dollars or so. ::: Also found I out I can get a eVGA 6600 for around 140 shipped. THats a good deal (if it will work in his comp)
I'm thinking if I could get him a couple sticks of Valuselect or Crucial and bump him up to 512 or a gig... Edit: Just looked the Crucial is a great deal, 512mb RAM for 61 bucks. I can just throw this in with his 256mb to get 768mb. Getting two 512mb would waste money and i'd have to take out his 256mb since the comp can only handle 1 gig.
Please let me know what you guys think. I'm sure some of you have had this issue.
Thanks,
Rhin0