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Upgrading my eMachines

A

abracadaver

Member
Right now I'm running a $350 CAD eMachines which is in bad need of some upgrades. It currently has 512 MB of RAM, no video card and a S754 A64 3000+.

I want to add some more memory and a video card, and I would like to keep the spending under $200. Right now I'm thinking of adding:

6800 XT 256MB
Memory

I know the video card isn't the greatest, but with the MIR, it's almost $100, which seems like a very good price. I would like to keep this rig for a couple years(I don't care too much about having a lot of eye candy), so should I go for more memory, or will 1GB be fine? Should I stick with the 6800 XT? Also, I should mention that if I were to get another video card, it would have to work with a 300W PSU.

Any input is appreciated.
 
Are you asking to do the CPU or the memory, or both? Doing both will give you a good improvement and the ability to play most modern games at a decent speed & resolution. As you stated you won't be able to turn on all of the eyecandy but you will be able to turn on enough to make it look nice.
 
I don't plan on upgrading the CPU, but I do want to upgrade both the GPU and the memory. Should I consider a CPU upgrade? Price is a pretty big factor here, since I'm not exactly raking in a lot of cash, but if it would offer a significant upgrade I'd consider it.
 
No the CPU is fine. The GPU and memory upgrades that you proposed should work out fine and give you decent gaming performance. Just make sure that the power supply is up to snuff for supporting it.
 
I would definitely upgrade the PSU even if you didn't buy anything else, unless eMachines actually uses decent PSUs in their boxes now.
 
Eh, it's a pretty crappy PSU. 300W and 15A on the 12V rail. EVGA reccomends 18A on the 12V rail, so should I upgrade the PSU as well?
 
Originally posted by: abracadaver
Eh, it's a pretty crappy PSU. 300W and 15A on the 12V rail. EVGA reccomends 18A on the 12V rail, so should I upgrade the PSU as well?
Click to expand...


Try it out first and if your card isnt getting enough power then upgrade the psu. My roomate is running an overclocked 3000+ with a 6800 gt and 2 harddrives with fans galore. Hes got a really cheap aspire 420 thats so light you cant even use it as a paperweight. His rig has been running solid for half a year now.
edit: its actually 350 no 420. I was thinking of the other 420...

Also what games are you looking to play? You might get away with using only 512 ram if your not playing anything too intense.

My advice is grab the videocard first and try that out for a while. If you feel like getting further upgrades then get the ram. And/Or if your card isnt gettin enough juice grab a psu.
 
Is there some way of calculating how much power my PC will need after upgrades? I'd like to find out how much power my system will be using so I know if I should upgrade my PSU or not. Also, I think I will get the memory anyways, because it's fairly cheap.
 
Yeah I'm pretty tight on cash, so I'd much rathe not upgrade the PSU if I don't have to. Thanks for the wattage calculator too, apparantley I should be fine with my PSU.
 
It's not just the amount of power your PSU can supply. Like I mentioned, eMachines had (has?) a bad rep for crappy PSUs that fail often. Unless they've fixed that issue, I wouldn't keep the PSU just because it could hassle me later.
 
Yeah, I'm sort of leaning towards getting a new PSU because even though I might not need it, it seems like it's one of those things that could come back to haunt you.
 
Alright, so I've pretty much decided to go with the Fortron PSU, the 6800 XT and 512 MB of RAM. This fits well enough with my budget, so I'll probably get the stuff tomorrow night. If anybody else has somethign to say, the by all means say it! I'm going to bed no, so I'll check this tomorrow. Good Night!
 
try to get ram that matches with the 512 that you have. If not in brand name then in timing, Cas latency, etc....
 
Originally posted by: JSFLY
try to get ram that matches with the 512 that you have. If not in brand name then in timing, Cas latency, etc....
Click to expand...

i agree. ram works best with a matched pair

also, how good is the 6800XT? is it in between a vanilla 6800 and 6800GT?
 
Have you checked if it even has a slot for a video card? No video card means onboard video. I don't think Socket754 PCIe motherboards were very common, but I don't know much about eMachines.
 
Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch
1. i'm guessing you have an AGP slot, not PCI-e
s754 mobos usually came in AGP, especially EMACHINES

2. the 6800xt is BAD. IIRC it's slower than a vanilla 6800. something like a 6800le. For $100 i'd go for a x700PRO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125199
Click to expand...

The X700 PRO isnt even close to a 6600GT. The 6800XT is bad, but it's better than a 6800XT. I think a 6600GT might be better overall than a 6800XT. The 6800XT has the 256-Bit Memory Interface, but much slower memory/core.
 
Originally posted by: Extelleron
Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch
1. i'm guessing you have an AGP slot, not PCI-e
s754 mobos usually came in AGP, especially EMACHINES

2. the 6800xt is BAD. IIRC it's slower than a vanilla 6800. something like a 6800le. For $100 i'd go for a x700PRO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125199
Click to expand...

The X700 PRO isnt even close to a 6600GT. The 6800XT is bad, but it's better than a 6800XT. I think a 6600GT might be better overall than a 6800XT. The 6800XT has the 256-Bit Memory Interface, but much slower memory/core.
Click to expand...

It's close, about halfway between a 6600 and 6600GT. With an OC it'll be as fast as a stock 6600GT. However, they didn't seem to fall in price much since last year. It's not worth it over a 6600GT or 6800XT for the same price.
 
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