Purchase advice

[benkirkup]

Hi guys,

Pardon me if this isn't the correct place to start this thread however i have a decision to make and would really appreciate some advice.

I recently found myself pc-less and was generously given quite an old system. It does the job however when it comes to gaming it lacks a little luster. Here are the specs.

Gigabyte 8GE667P Motherboard
Pentium IV 2.4Ghz Processor (overclocked to 2.7ghz)
512mb DDR PC3200 RAM
Integrated Intel 82845G graphics card.

Im currently saving to buy a new system, however until I have the money i'd like a low cost upgrade for this one.

Im thinking of doing the following.

Upgrading the RAM with an extra 512mb stick

scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-Corsair-Value-Select-DDR-PC3200-%28400%29-184-Pins-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-25

And one of these two graphics cards

Gigabyte 6200

scan.co.uk/Products/256MB-Gigabyte-6200-AGP-4x-8x-Mem-700MHz-GPU-350MHz-4-Cores-S-Video-DVI-I-Passive-Cooling

PNY 6200

scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-PNY-NVIDIA-GeForce-6200-Graphics-Card-AGP-8x-4-Cores-D-Sub-DVI-I-S-Video-Passive-Cooling

For the life of me i can't decide between the two cards. My mother board doesn't have pci-e support, only an AGP 4x slot.

Sorry i couldn't post actual links, it wouldn't let me.
Thanks for reading my waffle.
Ben

[jim]

For the life of me i can't decide between the two cards. My mother board doesn't have pci-e support, only an AGP 4x slot.

Should probably be in the hardware forum, but don't worry about it - a mod will probably move it and I don't think you'll lose out on getting help

As for the card - I appreciate that you're stuck with AGP, but a 6200? Seriously? I'm not convinced that's going to make much difference unless you want to play old games or Football Manager. And it's a lot of money for a terrible card.

If you're set on one, I'd take the 256MB one - the 8800 GTS only came with 320mb, so a 6200 certainly doesn't need 512.

What sort of budget were you considering - and what did you want to use it for?

[Phage]

As snooty says there's a lot of variables, but probably the best AGP Card is still very cheap.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143873

[benkirkup]

Hi, thanks for the replies.

I'm not set on the 6200 it was just well with in my price range and thought maybe it do what I needed. The main game I play is world of Warcraft. I also play a little counter strike but nothing newer than these. My budget is to keep the upgrade as far below £100 as possible. Anything above and I figure I may as well just get a new system. The 3850 looks good but also like it exceeds my needs from a gpu. Is there any cheaper alternative?

Thanks, ben

[Phage]

I'd get more RAM, Why not get a 2Gb kit ? Crucial do a memory matching service that I used with my old P4. http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/index.aspx
I'm afraid I'm not really up on AGP cards. They've been obsolete for a while now, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get 2Gb RAM and a new card for £100.

[jim]

WoW recommends an nVidia 7600 or higher, so I personally wouldn't recommend getting anything worse than a 6600 or 6800 card - maybe try second hand to save a bit of cash.

You'll never get value for money with AGP, that's just the way it is. You could probably get an ATI 4850 PCI-E for a similar amount of money as an nVidia 7800 AGP

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would also consider the HD4650 DDR3 card as it requires less power to run than an HD3850 AGP card:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ource=googleps

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...053&tid=frooct

Since the computer the OP has is quite old an HD3850 AGP may tax it too much!

I would also upgrade the RAM to at least 1GB or 2GB if the budget allows this.

[circuitmonkey]

A bit left field here, but spending £60ish on a graphics card that will have no use in his new system is very hard to justify. Instead why not get a second hand console for a similar price (there was a 360 going in the classified section for £70 IIRC - although the OP doesn't have the post count required to access that forum, must be others around though) get your gaming fix with that, at least it can be re-purposed as a media extender when the OP buys his new rig

That said, if WoW if your thing and 7600 is min spec, how about trying feebay:
7600GS 256MB AGP - £44 inc Del

[Nanek]

Looking at that system, not worth spending money at all on it...but if you must you should really try ebay! you could grab an ATI x1650 agp which should do you fine for now. Oh and it pretty much blows the 6200 out the window.

x1650 for ~£35:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sapphire-ATi-R...item2eaa703639

[Behemoth]

I'd say the op is better off with a card from the era that the PC came from, so something like this might be the better option

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AGP-NEW-ATI-Ra...item3efa2fad65

Will knock the spots off any 6200 based card by nividia, and wil run Half Life 2 quite nicely also

[jim]

This helps me

No it doesn't.

[Phage]

No it doesn't.

Heh.
Are you suggesting that my pearls of wisdom are less than useful ? I'm shocked and appalled sir ! I demand satisfaction. Have your second call my second for tomorrow at dawn.

What ? You're 150 miles away ? Oh.....nevermind, carry on...

[benkirkup]

Hi guys

Sorry for the late reply I have been away for a while.

I think based on value and the fact that i only have a 300w PSU I am going with the 9800, at £20ish i hope it will provide a decent temporary solution until i can afford to buy a new PC.

Thanks for all the great advice!

Ben