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"Beefing up the PC"

Right, as many of you may have seen I know pretty much nothing about computers.

A year and a half ago my parents got me a Dell Dimension 2400, mainly as it was quite good value for what I wanted it for. (Internet, writing essays and storing music/pictures).

However, I kind of want to play new games on it now but this system isn't that great for it... so I'm going to upgrade it as best I can. I probably should just use the money to buy a mac or something but my parents would go mental, probably.

Here it is here [URL]http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Dell_Dimension_2400_Cel_2_20GHz_128MB_40GB[/URL]

I have only have one slot for memory, so I'm thinking of getting a stick of 512 RAM, plus I need a really good graphics card.

Erm, so please help tell me what I need and any suggestions. Plus, do I need a new motherboard?

poopots wrote:
> That will
> set you back around £100 if you buy generic ram but if you have
> the money I would recommend buying some branded ram such as Kingston
> or corsair, remember corsair ram will cost a lot more, I think it
> will be around £200 for a matched pair of 512mb's.

Pfft. £100 for 1GB of Geil Value PC3200.


> For a very cheap budget
> card I would recommend the ATI 9600SE (£50-£60). This
> will play all the games on the market at the moment around medium
> quality including doom3 and Half-life 2.

Don't get that card. It will suck balls.
9700 Pro for £90.

Don't get anything below that.

I actually have a fair bit of cash it's just I don't want to buy lots of RAM and expensive graphics card if something else will faulter.

Some website mentioned I could have trouble running the PC3200 card at 800mhz or something? Bah I'm getting my manual out.

Taking into mind what you said “you don’t know much about computers”, I would through the idea of a new motherboard out of the window as there are to many things to go wrong, any way your processor seems perfectly fine to me. As some one stated earlier you should sell of your 256mb stick of ram and upgrade to a gig. Remember to buy the 400 MHz (pc3200) ram. This is because it is now cheaper, they can under clock to your own FSB and they are more forward compatible. That will set you back around £100 if you buy generic ram but if you have the money I would recommend buying some branded ram such as Kingston or corsair, remember corsair ram will cost a lot more, I think it will be around £200 for a matched pair of 512mb's.
As for the graphics card it depends on how much you want to spend, I presume your motherboard has 8xAGP support? For a very cheap budget card I would recommend the ATI 9600SE (£50-£60). This will play all the games on the market at the moment around medium quality including doom3 and Half-life 2. The 9800pro is the card I currently have at the moment, it is a nice little runner and will play all modern games on high settings with a decent frame rate, it should also play most games for a few years to come. At £100-£150 it isn’t bad. I personally would pay the little extra and go for this (geforce 6600gt AGP)just search for it on SR .That unless you want to blow around £350 for a top end dogs balls card. But at the end on the day it’s all down to how much you want to spend. A budget would be very helpful.

Isn't this bloody great.

A dumbasss like me with a harder problem than you smarty pants people.

Yes if you get a socket 478 motherboard with an AGP slot you can just bung everything into that. People here will help you pick one, I'm sure.

One thing is that I seem to recall Dell using non-standard components or something, so the Dell power supply connector may not work in another motherboard. I'm probably wrong though.

OI, we're helping me remember.

I don't think it has an AGP socket, I did a scan thing on a website... that's why I thought I needed a new motherboard.

So do I just put my old stuff into a new motherboard?

secret_squirrel™ wrote:
> No not really...i just spoke to some AMD guys and they told me that a
> 3000+ is sposed to perform at the same rate as a 3 gig Pentium 4. So
> I asked them if you could get the XP 3000+ up from 2.16 gig to
> 3...and they said yea, they dont overheat that quickly and they told
> me this high speed fan to get which like sucks the air in really
> quickly and packs it down all over the chip...and its fine...still
> quite hot...runs at bout 48 - 55 degrees. But it works and its
> stable.

bulls**t
the 3000+ rating is to show that performance is comparable to a P4 at 3GHz, not that the chip is capable of reaching that speed.

I have a 2500M and it isn't completely stable at 2.4GHz at 1.7v despite a temp of less than 40 degrees.

I severely doubt you got an XP 3000+ to 3GHz on air cooling.

mermoid wrote:
> secret_squirrel™ wrote:
> LOL ok calm down...it is capable of reaching 3GHz coz i run mine at
> 3Ghz...but ok. Lets get back on topic.
>
> Really?
> You must have some **** off hardcore cooling then.
>
> like cal says, phase change?

No not really...i just spoke to some AMD guys and they told me that a 3000+ is sposed to perform at the same rate as a 3 gig Pentium 4. So I asked them if you could get the XP 3000+ up from 2.16 gig to 3...and they said yea, they dont overheat that quickly and they told me this high speed fan to get which like sucks the air in really quickly and packs it down all over the chip...and its fine...still quite hot...runs at bout 48 - 55 degrees. But it works and its stable.

secret_squirrel™ wrote:
> LOL ok calm down...it is capable of reaching 3GHz coz i run mine at
> 3Ghz...but ok. Lets get back on topic.

Really?
You must have some **** off hardcore cooling then.

like cal says, phase change?

mermoid wrote:
> secret_squirrel™ wrote:
> Is that right, yea i spose so...but are Intel's capable of O/Cing
> much, iv always found it really difficult to get one to O/C and
> remain stable...
>
> Maybe you didn't know what you were doing.
> The fact you think the "3000+" label on your AMD means that
> it's capable of 3GHz would seem to suggest this is the case...

LOL ok calm down...it is capable of reaching 3GHz coz i run mine at 3Ghz...but ok. Lets get back on topic.