Help - want to play COD5 on my old-ish Mesh AMD3200+

[jgs-m64]

Hi,

I have a 2004 Mesh Matrix64 PC (specs below - not sure they've shown up in my profile).

I'd like to upgrade my graphics card to support COD5 and preferably Crysis too. I'm not looking for super performance - I understand my machine is near end-of-life; I just want a card which will allow an OK level of game play (if this is possible on my machine!).

Budget c. £100. I'd welcome any suggestions for a suitable graphics card for a machine of this spec (note - these acronyms and numbers don't mean much to me unfortunately):

- Mesh Midi Tower Case + 360W PSU + FDD (BLACK)
- ATHLON64 MB (ATX) -GB LAN/1394/SATA/RAID/AUDIO(K8V-D)
- AMD ATHLON64 3200+ PROCESSOR (Clock speed: 2202 Mhz, Socket designation: 754)
- 1024MB (2 X 512MB) PC3200 DDR-MEMORY (400MHZ)
- 128MB DDR ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 8X AGP TV-OUT &DVI
- MOTHERBOARD: K8VSEDX (ASUSTek Computer Inc), 800FSB
- WIN XP-PRO

Thanks

JGS

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Your system will be woefully inadequate for Crysis and COD5. When you bought your PC it had a very good spec in 2004 but it is not worth upgrading it to play Crysis. Remember this is at least 4 years ago!!
The following review also shows that the faster socket 939 Athlon 64 4000+ single core even with 2GB of RAM is a major limitation with Crysis and Call of Duty 4:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mark,2054.html

The review used a later PCI-Express motherboard with a Nvidia 8800GS which is similiar to the PCI-Express version of the ATI HD3850 in speed.

Crysis even brings modern PCs to their knees!! It is the most demanding game on hardware to come out in the last three years or so!! Check every review and you will see this.The last levels of the game even caused many newer PCs problems- including mine! The same goes for Crysis Warhead which runs better than the original game.

Firstly the CPU is not powerful enough and is a socket 754 which is end of life. You will need a faster processor. A dual core also helps too. If you had a socket 939 CPU you may have been able to upgrade the CPU to something of decent performance but with socket 754 you are very limited.

Also you will need more RAM -around 2gb to run Crysis OK.

Your graphics card is AGP - again this limits your upgrade options as PCI-Express is the current standard. You can get an HD3850 AGP as this is the best AGP card available. You can get one for £85:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/796622...+Graphics+Card

However you should also upgrade your PSU as the HD3850 requires significantly more power than your old 9800 AGP. You only have a 360w PSU and a 4 year old one at that!! It may end up overloading it and possibly causing damage to your other components!!

Also your weak cpu ( for modern games that is) will also be a bottleneck even if you had a HD3850.

Even an XBox 360 has probably more processing power than your computer for modern games and so does the PS3!! Considering that the former can be bought for between £100 to £130 it maybe a viable option!! COD5 is available for the XBox360. However Crysis is not as it is too demanding!!

[jgs-m64]

Cat-The-Fifth,

Thanks for your comprehensive answer. I was really hoping someone would say, "get the X-Y-Z and you'll be good for another year or so...".

I guess COD5 stays on my shelf till I can get a new machine :-(

Thanks again

JGS.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sorry to disappoint you!! Like I said it is better to put the money towards a new rig.

For example if you had £200 you could upgrade you current system so that it could play Crysis and Farcry 2. This is from from Ebuyer using the free Supersaver postage option:

Antec Basiq Power 350W ATX 12V PSU 114928 £25.52

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Socket AM2 2.7GHz Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB) Retail Boxed Processor 135662 £49.59

Asus M2N68-AM Geforce 7025 Socket AM2+ onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard 152777 £37.99

Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty 106133 £14.37

Inno3D 9600 GSO Overclock 384MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card 147796 £66.99

Total: £194.46

You could probably get a secondhand 8800gt off Ebay for the same price as the 9600GSO. The former is much faster!

Also you would need a copy of XP or Vista unless you can re-register the existing one you have( I am not sure about this).

Basically if you were to add a SATA hard disk and a copy of Vista it would set you back no more than £300 to £325. You would have to reuse your monitor,mouse,keryboard,case and optical drive but as you can see it will not necessarily cost you a huge amount to update your current pc!

[Pob255]

Change that PSU C-T-F the Basiq Power is antec's bottom range budget psu and is not very good.
Also you can pick up cheap ati 3850 512mb and 3870 512mb now which would be better than the 9600gso

However in total I agree, sorry JGS but you're pc is now far to creaky for newer games, you'll need a near total upgrade, the good news is that it can be done for relatively small amounts, under £500 eaisly.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I suppose the slightly more expensive(around £27) Silverstone 350w PSU is better then?? The 400W Silverpower SP400 is also decent according to reviews.

[jgs-m64]

Cat-The-Fifth, Pob255,

Thanks to you both. I appreciate the confirmation that my machine is not the right starting point for COD5!

Thanks for the detailed advice on components... alas you haven't factored in the cost of the the most important ingredient - know-how! So I suspect I will need to pay Dell or somesuch the 100% fee for putting it altogether for me... :-(

Thanks again, time to start the negotiations and planning...

Regards,

JGS.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

To help you with the planning check the following website out:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/computers/deals/hot?page=2

Some good Dell deals are featured on it and also additional ways of saving some more money such as cashback websites. The cashback website Quidco gives you 4% cashback on Dell computers:

http://www.quidco.com/dell/

The best thing to do is get a decently specced Dell base unit and then purchase a good graphics card for it!!

For instance if you got the following pc and a £90 HD4830 or 9800GT you would have a decent budget gaming PC for £370:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr..._530_d015004~~

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151393

If you had about £500 you could get an HD4830 and the following instead:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr..._530_d015004~~

Hence even going with Dell means you can still get a decent deal as long as you get the graphics card from a different retailer!!

[Pob255]

Self building a pc is really not that hard, it's pritty much all tab A into slot B and a screw in hole C (that sounds vaguely rude)
The most complex things are the motherboard BIOS settings and probably fitting the cpu cooler.

However that said it's getting harder budget wise as pre-built systems have become far cheaper and there starting level specs have become far better.

For instance if you got the following pc and a £90 HD4830 or 9800GT you would have a decent budget gaming PC for £370:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr..._530_d015004~~

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151393

If you had about £500 you could get an HD4830 and the following instead:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr..._530_d015004~~

Hence even going with Dell means you can still get a decent deal as long as you get the graphics card from a different retailer!!

Umm both thoes links are the same
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor (2.4GHz, 8MB cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 32-bit - English
Display Not Included
256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3450 graphics card
3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024 + 2x512]
500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
Total £399

For £400 that's a very nice unit even though the 3450 is underpowered it sould still play games ok at 17"-19" resolutions. not great but ok, just don't expect to be able to put every setting up to high.
And spend another £100 on a better graphics card and that's a very nice pc for £500 with minimul work.
Although in the £500 bracket I'd probably build something my self so I could overclock it, which you'll not be able to do with that dell.

I think the other link should of been for the Inspiron 530 DT(D015002)
(I cannot find the page to link it, it's the cheapest one from here)
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 processor (2.5GHz, 800MHz, 2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 32-bit - English
1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
2048MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Display Not Included
320GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator 3100
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Total £279

You would need a graphics card in that for games, depends on what resolution you plan to run at but you should be able to get something ok for £70ish putting the total to £350

[jgs-m64]

Cat-The-Fifth, Pob255,

Thanks again, appreciate the guidance. I'll start a leisurely survey for an OK-ish spec games machine in 2009 (I know I just got too much on to devote the time needed to build up my knowledge base for self-assembly - more's the pity).

Have a great festive season!

JGS.