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#1
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pc upgrade advice needed for kids games
Hi
Ive got 2 PC's at home i need to upgrade to allow my kids to LAN play 1942: Battlefield (a game they both love and all their friends play) The games minimum requirements a pentium3 500mhz. (My kids PC is an intel pentium3 450 mhz and Pentium 2 and the game wont run) 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? 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? 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. Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory. I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new systems, will save alot of expense. I just dont have a clue at what to buy as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive, so I thought I'd ask around on the groups. Many thanks Chris |
#2
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Hey.
Sites I would recommend are http://www.cpc.co.uk and http://www.komplett.ie 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? It depends on what type of cases you have wheather you'll need new ones. If they're ATX case you should be fine but if not you caold probably pick up cheep cases for about £30 each. If you can afford to spend a little extra try and go for a Pentium 4, or even a Celeron, (I run a 2.4ghz £53.18 + delivery from Komplett, its not the best but it'll be well able to do what you want). A good motherboard and chip combo would be 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. You'll have to get new graphics cards. Wheather you want to spend a lot or not just make sure you get DirectX 9.0 compatible cards. Basically that means no nVidia Geforce 4, only GeForce FX 5200 and above or ATi Radeon 9600 or above. Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory. I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new systems, will save alot of expense. I just dont have a clue at what to buy as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive, so I thought I'd ask around on the groups. The worst thing anyone can do is go to a computer chainstore like that for advice. Generally the people there don't know as much as people in nwes groups like this, they will try and get you to buy from the stock they have in and will try to give you old stock. Thats just my personal experience but anyway the best thing you could've done was ask for adive here first. A nice set up that wouldn't cost too much and are good components made by a good company would be (All products priced from http://www.komplett.co.uk): Motherboard: Asus P4V800-X this is a very good budget board. £59.01 Processor: You've got 2 choices here. It all depends on how much you want to spend. If you want to stay cheap I would recommend a Celeron 2.8ghz (£90.72) or the best performance a Pentium 4 2.6ghz 800mhz (£133.00). It sounds slower but its actually faster. Case (If needed): A cheap case would be "Q-Tec Midi tower ATX 6021CMD" £22.80. Not the greatest case in the world but not the worst either. Only catch is you may have to upgrade the PSU so theres the extra cost. Q-Tec PSU 400w £22.78. Graphics Card: A Radeon 9600 would give good quality and relatively goos value. A PowerColor Radeon 9200 is £67.05 Memory: Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB at £36.26. The total cost of the 2 systems as I've built there using the Pentium 4's would be £677.80 + delivery. Or £593.24 + delivery for the celeron version. Hope it helps some bit. Martin. |
#3
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sarahandchris wrote:
Hi Ive got 2 PC's at home i need to upgrade to allow my kids to LAN play 1942: Battlefield (a game they both love and all their friends play) The games minimum requirements a pentium3 500mhz. (My kids PC is an intel pentium3 450 mhz and Pentium 2 and the game wont run) 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) I don't usually recommend this but it would be cheaper to purchase a couple of bespoke systems from somewhere like Dell or HP. I am not a huge fan of either, but my recent experience of Dell's support service has been positive. You can purchase a Dell Dimension 2400 for £555 including VAT and delivery and they are currently offering to double the RAM for free. You will not be able to build a system for that. 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? Avoid both like the plague - Ebuyer hasn't be dubbed 'ebuyer.con' for nothing. There used to be an ebuyer.con website, but ebuyer forced the designer to take it down - guess the truth hurts. Special Reserve charge over the odds - £70 for an 80GB hard drive when you can easily pick it up in most other places for £50. I have dealt with Watford Computers (aka Savastore.com) for years and have had one problem in all that time - they're very reasonable, but it would still be cheaper to purchase an 'off the peg' system. 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? Yes you will and no it won't. P4s require new memory. 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. Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory. I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new systems, will save alot of expense. That's where you're mistaken - as you will need to upgrade everything - and I do mean *EVERYTHING*, buying two new systems will be considerably cheaper - and much less hassle as you appear to be clueless and you need some nouse to put a system together. If you break something - you'll have to buy a replacement. I just dont have a clue at what to buy as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive, so I thought I'd ask around on the groups. Avoid PC World - give my mate Ben a call on 0208 892 7555 or visit his website at www.chillblast.com. Although he runs a company, he's good for simple, impartial, advice too. He'll set you straight. Many thanks Chris |
#4
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On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 22:49:15 +0000 (UTC), "sarahandchris"
wrote: Hi Ive got 2 PC's at home i need to upgrade to allow my kids to LAN play 1942: Battlefield (a game they both love and all their friends play) The games minimum requirements a pentium3 500mhz. (My kids PC is an intel pentium3 450 mhz and Pentium 2 and the game wont run) 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. snip You're searching for the holy grail of PC upgrade... modern games are demanding, a "partial" upgrade from something that old is going to require replacing practically everything, possibly with exception to the modem, sound, and hard drive. Your current cases may work but likely have inadequate airflow, so they need upgraded or modified to increase airflow. If you wanted to take your time and buy parts when they're on sale or rebated you may save a bit of $, but that turns this into a longer-term project which means your time, the value of it, is the real issue. To reuse your existing memory, power supply, case as-is, the minimal expense upgrade, use the following: Via 694T chipset motherboard, Tualatin Celeron 1.4GHz, and Radeon 9100. You might want or need to upgrade the memory too, the Tualatin Celeron can use PC100 memory but for optimal performance you'd want minimum of 256MB per system. Your current power supply(s) may power this fine or you might need a mid-grade 250-300W power supply, depending on exactly what power supplies are currently in the system(s). That's the lowest reasonable value upgrade at around ~$170 ea. depending on whether you need power supplies and/or more memory, but it's not "P4 equivalent" performance. If you really need P4 performance then figure closer to $300 each system. Dave |
#5
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"sarahandchris" wrote in message ... Please can someone recommend a processor + motherboard, and fairly good graphics card and tell me if i'll need a new case and memory. I just think that doing it this way instead of buying 2 complete new systems, will save alot of expense. I just dont have a clue at what to buy as their are so many different types of everything to choose from. I could go into PC world for advice, but ive heard they are useless and expensive, so I thought I'd ask around on the groups. Many thanks Chris Soyo board and 1.4 celeron CPU 128 USD If your case is standard ATX (clone) it should fit. http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q1A724686 Lane |
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