general update for desktop

[candle_86]

Well my nighbor got a computer a few weeks ago, and i loaned him some older games, Jedi Acadamey, Black Hawk Down, and Half Life 1. Now he wants to play better games.

x2 3600 skt 939
ATI x200 IGP
1gb DDR 400
120gb HD

so what would he need, its an HP though we already put a new 450W Antec Neo Power HE into it, as the old HP supply craped out.

[GJSNeptune]

Which better games?

[candle_86]

Half Life 2, Medal of Honor Airborne, Call of Duty 4, Crysis, CnC3

he has seen these on mine and wants to try them

[choppy]

get a better graphics card and leave it at that tbh. hd3850 would be right for his rig, just tell him to play on 1024x768 and i think he will be ok for them games on some good settings

[GJSNeptune]

In that case, upgrading the HP is a lost cause. Time for a new system.

Crysis and C&C 3 are going to be atrocious on a 3200+ and DDR memory.

[candle_86]

its an x2 3600 2.0ghz 256k L2 per core, think dual core sempron pretty much

[TheMailMan78]

Well I have an HP m7330n and I can run pretty much everything maxed out at 1680 × 1050.
Iv been getting 75fps in COD4. I have and have beaten every game on your list with everything maxed out also. (except Crysis). ALL OF THEM maxed out with great frame rates. Just buy some ram and a good video card and he should be good to go. 2 gigs min. x2 3600 might slow him down some but he can always lower the rez.

[GJSNeptune]

But if he's going to spend the money to play those games on his current rig, why not spend a little more on a new socket? Get some DDR2 memory, a cheap AM2 chip. Hell, the 5000+ BE is under $100. The 4800+ is around $70. A new rig will a lot more future-proof. It's Spring. The time to start anew. :D

4000+ Brisbane (Retail) $57 shipped (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103774)

[choppy]

But if he's going to spend the money to play those games on his current rig, why not spend a little more on a new socket? Get some DDR2 memory, a cheap AM2 chip. Hell, the 5000+ BE is under $100. The 4800+ is around $70. A new rig will a lot more future-proof.

not everone has money to invest in a new rig, lets consider the cheapest method for him to be able to play games. unless the OP specifes the guy wants a new rig i dont see why ppl push for him to build a new rig

[candle_86]

he cant afford a new rig, he has 200 bucks total to spend.

[GJSNeptune]

But he has the money to invest in a bunch of games.

$200 to play some of the most taxing games to date? Let's put a Hemi in a VW Beetle?

[choppy]

But he has the money to invest in a bunch of games.

come on man , £20-£30 buying some games compared to £300 to buy a new rig! bit of an overspend dont you think?!

[candle_86]

hes not except HL2, the rest im gonna loan him cause i dont play them right now

[GJSNeptune]

How much is that in dollars? Are games cheaper overseas? Crysis is still around $45. Tiberium Wars is $30. Call of Duty 4 is still over $50. He's gonna have little money left after he buys the games.

EDIT: Nevermind.

[choppy]

get for him a hd3850 or a 8800gs, whichever is cheaper. possibly some more ram depending on how much he is willing to invest. is it possible to upgrade his cpu? i know what oem machines are like...(dell :cry:)

[CrackerJack]

HD 3870 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102719

and try to find a amd x2 4200 about $40
the egg had it,

And an extra 1gb of memory, newegg has the ddr400 down to almost pennys now.

I've almost the same setup in my old pc, But
I've got a x1950pro in my other computer and it run alot games pretty smooth. Like COD4, Unreal3 and Bioshock.

[Darren]

Well my nighbor got a computer a few weeks ago, and i loaned him some older games, Jedi Acadamey, Black Hawk Down, and Half Life 1. Now he wants to play better games.

x2 3600 skt 939
ATI x200 IGP
1gb DDR 400
120gb HD

so what would he need, its an HP though we already put a new 450W Antec Neo Power HE into it, as the old HP supply craped out.

Socket 939 is dead and I would recommend a socket change and a cheap quad core in approximately a year. For now stick in some more RAM, he is going to need approximately 2 GB minimum, put in 3 GB if he is running XP 32-bit. Processor is dated but could probably play new games as long as the graphics card is decent. Don't get anything other than one of the following graphics cards :3870, 8800 GT/GTS, or 9600 GT. They are cheap and within budget.

[trog100]

just tell the guy to buy a half decent grafix card.. it will play games okay with something like a ati 3850..

most of these dudes think u need far more of a system than u really do..

trog

ps.. another gig of ram wouldnt do it any harm.. but u will find that out as u go along.. use XP..

[candle_86]

ok he decided on an 8600GTS 512 and another 1gb stick of ram.