Making a high-end PC from a cheap one.

n11n12

n11n12

CAGiversary!
Thought this might be a pertinent subject for many gamers here.

I'm starting to become interested in PC gaming (since the concept of longevity seems foreign to the 360), but my current PC is a budget Compaq bought for a whopping $500, including monitor. Of course, it's loaded with bloatware, and everything else you'd expect. You pay the price for being cheap, I guess

Here's what it has:
AMD Athlon 2.3 GHz (upgradable)
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
3GB RAM (4GB max.)
500GB HD
250W power supply
Vista (yippee!)

So what would I need to make this thing a contender and how much might it cost to do so? Am I better off just scrapping the whole thing and starting over?
 
[quote name='jchoi'] How much were you looking to spend?[/QUOTE]

Hard to pin point right now. Let's pretend that I'm not exactly cheap, but reasonable at the very least.
 
Mind supplying us with an exact model number?

Looking with you specs initially, you could *probably* sneak in an ATI 4650 or 4670 (both can be had at well below the $75 mark), since the lot of them wouldn't need an external power connector. Another choice could be the PNY Nvidia 9800 GT, low power edition, which can run off the mobo power. Hard to make a recommendation on a CPU upgrade without more info, but that can be held off after getting a new PSU, making your graphics card a #1 priority.

That being said, the power supply could be a dicey problem since 250w is really inadequate. That will be your second priority. You could shop online for a GOOD 450w+ at around $60, at the minimum (don't be too cheap on this one, since I fried a computer with a shody no-name brand PSU).

Got 64bit? Are you a student? Do you want to max out your ram and have your computer effectively use all 4gb? Consider picking up a copy of Windows 7 64bit, so you could effectively future-self your computer and be ready for Direct X 11.

I have a computer that is fairly similiar to yours, and that is my current/intended upgrade path.
 
Since you stated you are new to PC gaming, I don't know how comfortable you are with building your rig from the ground up but for under $200 you can rebuild your machine while just keeping the Video Card, Hard Drive and RAM...everything I would reserve a dumb terminal for email/business.

You can get all of your parts from here - www.pricewatch.com...

I would do a google search and post up your ram specs, video card specs and your HD specs...from there I can help you locate everything else for cheap...then you can move into the Free and Legal PC Gaming forum and be set for the next 20 years ;)
 
Just because there is a bunch of crap on the hard drive does not by any means mean you need to buy a new one. If you were to buy a full install (not upgrade) version of windows 7, it gives a very easy to follow way to format the hard drive, which would totally clean it off.
 
Hmm...

First off, Here's the support page that lists all your specs, straight from the manufacturers website. And, in case you need it, this is the support/service manual (.pdf) for the machine.

Rolling an AM2 AMD socket type, kinda limits your choice to older chips, but a good $50 can travel far in this department, upgrading you to an AMDx2 2.9ghz processor. WARNING: these chips do tend to get very HOT, so I would suggest spending a little bit and getting a beefier cpu cooling fan if you do drop a 2.9ghz processor on that bad boy.

Go shiyte-wild with the RAM, picking up a dual channel 4gb kit for well under $70, less if you follow Megazell's advice and shopping around with pricewatch.

Looking at the type of PCI-E x16 what you have, I personally wouldn't spend anything more than $70 on a vid-card upgrade with the stock processor, and I wouldn't even go pass $110 if you do. The added price from an expensive card will be wasted because of your lack of PCI-E 2.0 x16 support (although, I've been told that there are very few cards that can actually exceed the first iteration specs).

Power supply is a must upgrade, imho, to the point that I might renege on my first advice, and ask you to seriously consider making the power supply a first priority. If you want to add a second hard drive and all the cool components, then this becomes a high imperative.

EDIT: if you want to hear/see some ideas for a vid card upgrades, check out this article. It's updated monthly, to reflect the changes in street prices and upcoming cards.
 
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[quote name='Sycowulf']Just because there is a bunch of crap on the hard drive does not by any means mean you need to buy a new one. If you were to buy a full install (not upgrade) version of windows 7, it gives a very easy to follow way to format the hard drive, which would totally clean it off.[/QUOTE]

You can do a fresh install with an upgrade disc as well, doesnt have to be a standard full install copy.
 
it will depend on how much you're willing to spend. But if you want to spend the least amount possible you can just keep everything the same and buy a decent video card for < $90 and your computer will be at least respectable.
 
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