Upgrade this to a gaming rig?

[imported_rod]

My brother wants a gaming machine, and I have the following machine which I bout 2nd hand a few months ago:

AMD AthlonXP 2500+ (barton)
ASRock K7VM4 (FSB333)
256MB DDR333 RAM
Integrated Graphics (AGP 8x Slot)
plus HDD, Monitor etc...

Anyway, I'm just wondering if I thow in a decent video card and some more ram, how do you reckon this will go? BF2 at low/med settings? I was think of getting it 512MB ram (768mb total), and something like a 2nd hand AGP 9800/x800.

Will this work, or is the CPU too low powered?

RoD

EDIT:
P.S. Which radeon is better? Is it XT>XL>Pro>SE?
Also, is there much difference between a 9800 and an X800?

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

Originally posted by: rod
My brother wants a gaming machine, and I have the following machine which I bout 2nd hand a few months ago:

AMD AthlonXP 2500+ (barton)
ASRock K7VM4 (FSB333)
256MB DDR333 RAM
Integrated Graphics (AGP 8x Slot)
plus HDD, Monitor etc...

Anyway, I'm just wondering if I thow in a decent video card and some more ram, how do you reckon this will go? BF2 at low/med settings? I was think of getting it 512MB ram (768mb total), and something like a 2nd hand AGP 9800/x800.

Will this work, or is the CPU too low powered?

RoD

EDIT:
P.S. Which radeon is better? Is it XT>XL>Pro>SE?
Also, is there much difference between a 9800 and an X800?

XT then XL then PRO then GTO then SE
9800 <<<<<<< X800 by alot... 9800 for one is 128bit

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: AzNPinkTuv

Originally posted by: rod
My brother wants a gaming machine, and I have the following machine which I bout 2nd hand a few months ago:

AMD AthlonXP 2500+ (barton)
ASRock K7VM4 (FSB333)
256MB DDR333 RAM
Integrated Graphics (AGP 8x Slot)
plus HDD, Monitor etc...

Anyway, I'm just wondering if I thow in a decent video card and some more ram, how do you reckon this will go? BF2 at low/med settings? I was think of getting it 512MB ram (768mb total), and something like a 2nd hand AGP 9800/x800.

Will this work, or is the CPU too low powered?

RoD

EDIT:
P.S. Which radeon is better? Is it XT>XL>Pro>SE?
Also, is there much difference between a 9800 and an X800?

XT then XL then PRO then GTO then SE
9800 <<<<<<< X800 by alot... 9800 for one is 128bit

Actually, the 9800 is 256 bit unless you are getting a cheapo version.


If you upgraded the memory to the point where you would have 1GB total, and upgraded to a Geforce 6600GT level video card, you would be able to play Battlefield 2 at medium settings no problem.

 

[imported_rod]

Well I plan to get the video card off eBay(australia), and there's isn't a huge difference between 6600's, 9800's and x800's. I figure if I get the x800 I'll never have to upgrade it again anyway. Or would the CPU already bottleneck the x800 so that it wouldn't be any better than a 6600 or 9800?

Also, since it isn't dual channel, can i put different size sticks of ram in? BtW: It only has two slots.

RoD

 

[bamacre]

Yeah, go X800, Pro if you can. Your cpu will not bottleneck it.

 

[imported_rod]

Awesome, thanks.