Upgrade P4 system

[nvening]

Hi, my cousin needs to upgrade his pc so he can play some more modern games. He will be playing at 1024x768 and just basically wants to be able to play them without destroying the graphics!

However, there is obviously a limit on how much he can spend, his not sure on the exact ammount but not too much!

Anyway the spec is 2.8GHz P4 with 1/2 gig RAM with an 8x AGP slot.

Basically he needs to upgrade the GPU and RAM, however there is a very sifty looking 250w PSU in there and im not too sure about available space in the case.

Therefore i think he will need a new PSU too, hopefully a GPU can be found which is a more normal size rather than approaching a foot long!

Im thinking

Antec SmartPower II 500W Modular PSU - £29.99

Corsair 256MB DDR 400MHz/PC3200 x 2 - £19.98

HIS X1950Pro 256MB AGP - £96.99

Total: £146.96

Is this a good option, im worried about bottlenecks?

[Max Tractor]

What card is he using now?

[nvening]

something like a 9200 lol

[Max Tractor]

Have you thought about a 7600GT? Not sure if you would get away with the current psu.

[alsenior]

you might want to consider taking the computer all the way to 2gb as it would be more beneficial in current games

[master811]

I've got the HIS X1950 Pro AGP card and it will be more than good enough running at that Res, how much Ram does he have now, 2x512MB might be a better idea should only cost you an extra £10 and will be worth it. Depends on the sort of games he'll be playing?

The actual bottleneck could well be his CPU, as I have a feeling my cpu is holding my gpu back a bit.

[shadowmaster]

P4 2.8Ghz is a decent processor, but it may well be a slight bottleneck for an X1950PRO, as it is a very good graphics card.

2GB of ram will help in current games as Alsenior said, I find that 2Gb especially helps in Fear multiplayer, and Oblivion, it depends somewhat on what games your cousin will be playing.

I dont think a 250watt psu could handle a 7600gt but I would not take the risk. Anyhow the Psu you have chosen should be more then enough for that system. And at £30 (im guessing ebuyer) its at a very good price.

[Pob255]

Yes I'd agree with what's been said

grab that Antec, 500w modular for £40, cannot really fault it. ( pritty sure this is it http://www.antec.com/us/productDetai...?ProdID=26500# )

Looking at ebuyer
EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GS CO Copper Version 256MB AGP £111
Point Of View 7600GT 256MB DVI AGP £65
That ATi looks the best deal with ease.

Although they have
HIS X1650Pro IceQ 256MB (128bit) DDR2 AGP £66
Hightech HIS X1650Pro IceQ 256MB DDR2 DVI TV AGP £85
They seem to be the same thing listed twice looking at the HIS web site the cheaper one has got the correct manufactor code.
Not 100% sure on the performance vs a x1950pro, but should be ok at 1024x768
(check his monitor, if it can do 1280x1024 the x1950pro will be great for that)

On the memory front find out what he has currently and what his motherboard can use.
I'd advise a couple of the Corsair 1GB DDR 400MHz/PC3200 at £40 each or stick with the Ebuyer 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz at £32 each, if your not going to overclock and are not too worried about the tightest CAS numbers then the extra value stuff should be fine.

getting an extra gb to bring him up to 1.5gb will be ok for most games, however if he plays MMOs then I'd sugest 2gb as MMOs tend to be very memory hungery (City of heroes/villians, LOTR and Auto Assault ran far smoother for me with 2gb over 1gb)
Don't worry about matched pairs so much, turn off dual channel mode if they cause problems, loseing dual channel will be less of a loss than only haveing 1gb or less

[nvening]

ive just seen in the bargains section 2GB ram for £60 (same as in my rig) so maybe some of that (his board takes 4x1GB afaik - ill check later

Thanks for the help guys!

[Pob255]

Just remember you cannot put ddr2 in a ddr1 slot