Gaming PC suggestions

[Aries_Split]

Hey Shovenstuff, post the make/model of your PC or motherboard so we can help more

Ah you see, it was originally meant to be a school computer.
*sigh* Its an E-system...
I'm not entirely sure how to find out motherboard details.

Open up run from start and type in dxdiag

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

I'm not sure totally what you need so I'll put down pretty much everything it says:

System Manufacturer: DIXONSXP
System Model: Ei 314
BIOS: Phoenix - Award BIOS v6.00PG

 

[Virgil]

OK, then the internet says you probably have a Foxconn P4M800P7MB [http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={7168fdd0-2bc4-4f4e-a040-73fefb499fdc}&CatID={c5c6f8a6-8ca9-4e3a-8549-48af0c2b2d2a}]. You can't drop in a better processor, but you can get 2gb (2x1gb) RAM for $23 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146569] at newegg, which is the max that motherboard supports. That's pretty much a no-brainer though, and you should get an immediately noticeable performance boost from that.

Doing much more would, in essence, involve building the better part of a new PC.

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

OK, then the internet says you probably have a Foxconn P4M800P7MB [http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={7168fdd0-2bc4-4f4e-a040-73fefb499fdc}&CatID={c5c6f8a6-8ca9-4e3a-8549-48af0c2b2d2a}]. You can't drop in a better processor, but you can get 2gb (2x1gb) RAM for $23 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146569] at newegg, which is the max that motherboard supports. That's pretty much a no-brainer though, and you should get an immediately noticeable performance boost from that.

Doing much more would, in essence, involve building the better part of a new PC.

how much would a decent processor and a new mobo set me back, out of interest and possible future investment?

 

[Zer_]

OK, then the internet says you probably have a Foxconn P4M800P7MB [http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={7168fdd0-2bc4-4f4e-a040-73fefb499fdc}&CatID={c5c6f8a6-8ca9-4e3a-8549-48af0c2b2d2a}]. You can't drop in a better processor, but you can get 2gb (2x1gb) RAM for $23 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146569] at newegg, which is the max that motherboard supports. That's pretty much a no-brainer though, and you should get an immediately noticeable performance boost from that.

Doing much more would, in essence, involve building the better part of a new PC.

how much would a decent processor and a new mobo set me back, out of interest and possible future investment?

Your card is an AGP board, so that means that upgrading the motherboard involves at least 2 other pieces being replaced. The Video Card and the Processor.

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

OK, then the internet says you probably have a Foxconn P4M800P7MB [http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={7168fdd0-2bc4-4f4e-a040-73fefb499fdc}&CatID={c5c6f8a6-8ca9-4e3a-8549-48af0c2b2d2a}]. You can't drop in a better processor, but you can get 2gb (2x1gb) RAM for $23 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146569] at newegg, which is the max that motherboard supports. That's pretty much a no-brainer though, and you should get an immediately noticeable performance boost from that.

Doing much more would, in essence, involve building the better part of a new PC.

how much would a decent processor and a new mobo set me back, out of interest and possible future investment?

Your card is an AGP board, so that means that upgrading the motherboard involves at least 2 other pieces being replaced. The Video Card and the Processor.

Well I would want a new processor so thats cool, but as for the video card (I assume you mean the 9600 GT) couldn't I just take that out and then put it back in the new motherboard?

 

[Virgil]

how much would a decent processor and a new mobo set me back, out of interest and possible future investment?

Well, I'd say you'd have no problem getting a decent set for about $200, but with an upgrade like that there's other potential complications.

First, since you have an off-the-shelf system, the new hardware might not fit into your existing case. You might need a new power supply to be able to connect to the new motherboard, depending on the connectors and wattage of your existing one. The new motherboard would probably not have an AGP slot, which means you'd need a new video card to put in it. The memory would almost certainly need to be a faster speed. The new motherboard may not support IDE drives either, which could require a new HDD and CD/DVD. Once you're at that point, you just built a complete PC.

The real problem is that your current PC is sitting right on the edge of a bunch of major changes. The processors leapt forward a generation, video cards almost universally switched to PCI-X, drive connectivity changed to SATA, new power connectors were added for all three...

 

[Zer_]

OK, then the internet says you probably have a Foxconn P4M800P7MB [http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={7168fdd0-2bc4-4f4e-a040-73fefb499fdc}&CatID={c5c6f8a6-8ca9-4e3a-8549-48af0c2b2d2a}]. You can't drop in a better processor, but you can get 2gb (2x1gb) RAM for $23 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146569] at newegg, which is the max that motherboard supports. That's pretty much a no-brainer though, and you should get an immediately noticeable performance boost from that.

Doing much more would, in essence, involve building the better part of a new PC.

how much would a decent processor and a new mobo set me back, out of interest and possible future investment?

Your card is an AGP board, so that means that upgrading the motherboard involves at least 2 other pieces being replaced. The Video Card and the Processor.

Well I would want a new processor so thats cool, but as for the video card (I assume you mean the 9600 GT) couldn't I just take that out and then put it back in the new motherboard?

If your card is an AGP card then no, you'd need to purchase a new Video Card. When I look at your specs, I get confused. The 9600GT is not available in AGP Format. Yet the motherboard our friend Virgil said was yours is an AGP motherboard, your card is PCI-E. AAAH Dividing by zero! STOP IT!

 

[Dele]

Thanks for the advice
I really am useless.

No worries. And it's not uselessness, you just don't know about the subject. (We can't know everything!)

Actually, you can answer your own question: I don't know if you are aware of this, but there is a recommended system settings for each game sold in Steam. Take Team Fortress 2, for instance. On the bottom of the page within the Steam client, you have the System Requirements:

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

You might want to clean out your hard drive though: if you're like me, you'll buy a couple of games in one go and it's startling how quickly your hard drive can fill up!

Thanks to crappy rate system TF2 actually requires constant 60-70 fps to be enjoyable on big servers when playing classes like scout or sniper.

Umm...No.

The brain can't even detect FPS beyond like 55.

You might wanna read my post again. The lower your fps the more hitboxes are out of sync from models thus hitting becomes quite a lot harder and especially non-splash one hit kill classes suffer from this sniper, spy and scout really needs to hit when seeing an opening or he dies.

Nothing is more frustrating than carefully sneaking behind enemy lines with a low-fps spy and then moving to do instagib backstab.. strike --> warpstab, warpstab, warpstab Soldier:"THAT SPY IS NOT ONE OF OURS" warpstab and rocket to face. Also I cant elaborate the frustration sniper feels when his shot "misses" a stationary target. Move to pixel detection finally please...

Those who dont know what warpstab is I included a little video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl8BkW_8V6k]

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

If your card is an AGP card then no, you'd need to purchase a new Video Card. When I look at your specs, I get confused. The 9600GT is not available in AGP Format. Yet the motherboard our friend Virgil said was yours is an AGP motherboard, your card is PCI-E. AAAH Dividing by zero! STOP IT!

Well he did say that the information came from the internet. Is there any way for finding out for sure without doing a BIOS update? Because yeah, my current card can just click in to a slot.

 

[Aries_Split]

I don't think his card is AGP.

Considering they don't make an AGP model of a 9600.