What to do?

[thewolf17]

Hi,
I am thinking about upgrading my computer, so that I can have better performance on today's games.
Right now I have:
Windows XP
40GB Hard Drive
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1.4GHz
Gforce 3 TI 200 64mb
512mb DDR ram

I am going to be going to college in the year after next (i'm a junior in highschool now), and I will be buying a top o' the line notebook that I will use as my main computer (for gaming, schoolwork, etc.). So I will really only be using the computer I have now for about one more year. What would be the most cost efficient way of getting some more performance out of my computer, and would the increase in performance be enough to be worth it?

Thanks!

 

[crip11]

Reformat and reinstall windows will give you a huge performance boost until then, Otherwise more memory.

 

[thewolf17]

What about my video card? If I was going to replace it, what would you suggest I get? I am looking to spend less than $200 on the upgrade.

 

[crip11]

Thats a decent card however a Geforce 4 MX440 64 mb for around $60 might not be a bad idea.......search newegg.com

 

[squidman]

DUDE, the best video card for 200 bux (at new egg) is LeadTek WinFast A250 ULTRA on GeForce 4600 Chipset!!! That $#!+ is of the hook! Me buddy got one, that thing is really fast (not as 9700 pro, but close to regular 9700. Plus, leadtek's kick ass cooling lets you overclock that thing to.........................yeah)
If i had 200 right now, i wouldnt hesitate even for a sec!

 

[snidy1]

I would upgrade the video and also the CPU, you can pick up an XP2200 for $90

 

[crip11]

He just needs something to last him a year though, read the original message DUDE!!!!

 

[squidman]

And yeah, if you are a gamer you MUST format your drive and clean install EACH MONTH. My friend (the one who got anupgrade) has a pc with Athlon 1700+. ITs a year and a third old, but it was slow as hell!!! I just looked in his windows folder (i was the one installing the card) he had so much crap in there. Also, task manager showed his cpu was 20 percent loaded when "idle", and there were 45 percent free ram. So i formatted the darn thing, and now he's got kick ass gaming platform. And i have GeForce 2 Gts. He has 10500 (default) 3dmarks, i have 6100. Gay.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: crip11
Thats a decent card however a Geforce 4 MX440 64 mb for around $60 might not be a bad idea.......search newegg.com

wow, i hope your joking. that is such a downgrade....

 

[snidy1]

Originally posted by: crip11
He just needs something to last him a year though, read the original message DUDE!!!!

I upgrade twice a year

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

a Geforce 4 MX440 64 mb for around $60 might not be a bad idea

Yeah, that would be a great upgrade. A geforce 3 to a geforce 4 mx. WOW! Good call! Maybe an even better upgrade would be a 4meg PCI card. You can find them sometimes in dumpsters!

 

[Wolfsraider]

Originally posted by: TROGDORdBURNINATOR

a Geforce 4 MX440 64 mb for around $60 might not be a bad idea

Yeah, that would be a great upgrade. A geforce 3 to a geforce 4 mx. WOW! Good call! Maybe an even better upgrade would be a 4meg PCI card. You can find them sometimes in dumpsters!

the gf3ti200is a better card than the gf4mx series and it wouldn't be an upgrade.but then again he can educate him/her self on the differences in the different names / technologies.

you on the other hand,are a smart @ss and will never educate yourself.although there are many of us that will attempt to remedy that

mike

 

[EeyoreX]

I think I'd grab a new CPU and video card, and not a GF4 MX. It's not the top o' the line, but I picked up a 128MB GeForce4 Ti4200 for about $110. The rest for the aforementioned Athlon XP 2200+ would be a good upgrade. I have the impression that if he is going to try gaming with a laptop he really doesn't need to spend money on RAM (Maybe it's just me, but isn't 1GB of lappy RAM a wallet buster?) Of course, on that note, I wonder about gaming on a laptop too. Of course, I haven't worked with some of todays super laptops, so my opinion here doesn't count for much I suppose. I also suppose it depends on the type of games one is playing.

\Dan

 

[Mitzi]

Originally posted by: squidman
And yeah, if you are a gamer you MUST format your drive and clean install EACH MONTH. My friend (the one who got anupgrade) has a pc with Athlon 1700+. ITs a year and a third old, but it was slow as hell!!! I just looked in his windows folder (i was the one installing the card) he had so much crap in there. Also, task manager showed his cpu was 20 percent loaded when "idle", and there were 45 percent free ram. So i formatted the darn thing, and now he's got kick ass gaming platform. And i have GeForce 2 Gts. He has 10500 (default) 3dmarks, i have 6100. Gay.

Format once a MONTH!!! Rubbish. My WinXP installation is over a year old and still doesn't suffer from the problems you have listed. All it needs is a little regular housekeeping (defrag, clean the registry, search for spyware, virus check etc) and everything runs smoothly indefinately.

 

[Loop2kill]

Originally posted by: Mitzi

Originally posted by: squidman
And yeah, if you are a gamer you MUST format your drive and clean install EACH MONTH. My friend (the one who got anupgrade) has a pc with Athlon 1700+. ITs a year and a third old, but it was slow as hell!!! I just looked in his windows folder (i was the one installing the card) he had so much crap in there. Also, task manager showed his cpu was 20 percent loaded when "idle", and there were 45 percent free ram. So i formatted the darn thing, and now he's got kick ass gaming platform. And i have GeForce 2 Gts. He has 10500 (default) 3dmarks, i have 6100. Gay.

Format once a MONTH!!! Rubbish. My WinXP installation is over a year old and still doesn't suffer from the problems you have listed. All it needs is a little regular housekeeping (defrag, clean the registry, search for spyware, virus check etc) and everything runs smoothly indefinately.

Yep, I was running on 1 1/2 years on the last install and it was still just as fast as this new install is right now...regular maintenance and being careful of what and how you install stuff are the keys to speedy windows.

reinstalls are very inconvenient and take forever to get back the way it was before.

i think a new cpu and video card would get you up an going again with all current games.

if $200 is the total for all upgrades then i would go with a ti4200 and an xp2200/2400