"sarahandchris" wrote in message
...
Therefore i wish to upgrade 2 computers to be able to cope with the latest
games (but dont want to shell out for top end stuff)

Could someone please help me as I want to do it quite cheaply. I will
probably buy from somewhere like ebuyer or special-reserve.co.uk where
delivery is fast and prices are meant to be reasonable?

Chris, on the one hand, it's really pretty easy to swap out motherboards to
upgrade (and then reinstall Windows), but on the other there are also a lot
of details that *could* snag you. You can do this relatively cheaply
though.

I need to know what processor + motherboard to buy for both PC's that
would
make them pentium4/equivelent as there are so many to choose from.
Will i need new cases? and will their existing memory slot onto the new
pentium 4 (or equivelent) motherboard or will that have to be upgraded
too?

You won't need new cases, assuming they are standard ATX. I would go with
an Athlon XP in the 2500-3000 range. Motherboards are either made for
Pentium or Athlon, so you'll want to get a motherboard to match. You will
probably want new memory (someone else chime in on memory types.)

What graphics card should i buy that can cope with these games? (something
good that will do the job but not THE very latest expensive ones)
I think the one in there pc is a voodoo 3 and voodoo 2 but not sure if
those
would handle the game or not.

No, those were great in their time, but it's time for an upgrade. I'd
recommend getting a couple GeForce 4 Ti4200. You would have to spend a lot
more to get faster graphics cards. I just bought a used one for $65 US. If
you're willing to buy used, this is great bang-for-the-buck. So let's say a
new Athlon XP, maybe 2600+, with a motherboard, let's say an Asus for the
Athlon CPU. Those 2 should cost about $200. Add 256M RAM plus a used Ti
4200 graphics card for another $125 = about $325 each. That should get you
started in your search :-)