i recently sold my xbox and everything with it for 450 bucks. i have a compaq with an intel pentium D. i have PCI-E x 16, and a good PCU. is it possible to upgrade this to play crysis or unreal on medium/high? i also want to play BF2. i play alot of f.e.a.r. and trackmania nations on it right now, which look horrible.i have an LGA 775 socket. does this mean i can go out and get a quad core w/o buying a new mobo?
Possibly, depends entirely on the motherboard. If you have DDR2 then it is definitely possible to get a Core 2 Duo for it, but unless it has a PCI-e x16 slot, then you will need a new motherboard. Since you have 2GB of RAM, obviously a hard drive, case and a 700W PSU (do you know what kind?), then all you really need is a motherboard, a CPU and a video card, which should be fairly easy to get for $450. Thing is, if you have DDR1 then this might mean buying new DDR2 RAM, which could add $60 no problem. If you have DDR2 already then you can take your current RAM over to a new motherboard (if it doesn't have a video card expansion slot). If you have DDR2, and if you DON'T have a motherboard with a PCI-e x16 slot, then i would say about $200 for a motherboard AND CPU, then $250 for a video card, perhaps even an 8800GT. If you do have a motherboard with DDR2, compatible with a Core 2 Duo CPU and has a PCI-e x16 slot, then you will be able to get a decent CPU and video card no problem for $450. You should either look in your case for these things, or use a System Information program like Everest Ultimatep (but it's a Trial Version and will block some information), or the completely free and still comprehensive PC Wizard. Either should tell you most of what you need to know.
i dont see why not with your pentium d do you have a pcie slot with your board if you do 450 bucks is a good problem to have.and with a 700 power supply you can get any card to help you play any new games coming out. wait and see how the 8800gt really perform when they do come out or the new 8800gts or even the new radeon cards just around the corner i think for launch dates.like i said 700 power supply should run anything that comes out.dont worry about the bottle neck just dooooooo it.:O
bottle neck in simple terms mean you get less frames per second than if you had a faster cpu. the diffrence would be like instead of getting 200fps with a faster cpu you get maybe between 50-100fps which is playable with any games.thats reminds me make sure your case can fit a new 88xxx series cards because compaq are really compact for cases are concerned.
if i bought a new case i would have absolutely NO IDEA how to put everything in the new 1. can i have someone to do it for me, or get directions somewhere? CONFIRMED- i do have a pci-e x16 slot and DDR2 ram
That board uses the old 945 chipsets. Oddly enough, according to HP, the one with integrated graphics does not support the 1066 FSB chips, but the one without graphics can. That's the best I can come up with as ASUS does not mention a "P5LP-LE" anywhere. It probably was a direct to OEM only board I guess. Putting together a computer in a new case is rather easy. All of the instructions tell you exactly what to do usually (sometimes you get Engrished pretty badly). I would say, based on what I was able to find out, to go for a new motherboard, CPU, and graphics card as well as a new case as I imagine that case can only hold Micro-ATX boards as your new graphics card probably wouldn't like the lack of airflow. Since you live so close to Microcenter I would say to compare their prices with places like Newegg to make sure you get the best price on your budget. But, you might just want to go ahead and get the case at Microcenter to save on shipping charges as those are often higher than simply paying the sales tax. For specific parts, it really depends on what you want to do with your system. Like if you plan to overclock or not. Whether or not SLI/Crossfire are important to you, and if you have any special needs or wants for your motherboard. As for re-installing Vista, that would not be a bad idea with so many hardware changes. You will have to call up Microsoft though to get it activated as you will trigger the 'too many changes' switch they have for your installation. Simply tell them you have it installed on one computer and you're good to go.
so from what your all saying, i need to go get a CPU, case, and vid card, and maybe a mobo for under 450 bucks. yea right
Case Processor Motherboard Total left for graphics card: $195.03. After rebate: $210.03 These were just a quick selection. But, yes, you would get some very nice improvements all around with them. And I wouldn't be surprised to see the 8800GT have at least one card in that $200 price range so it can be done for sure. Someone who currently has an AM2 based system could give you a better idea on motherboard, I just selected that one as a filler.
Possibly as soon as next week, but more than likely mid-November. The new Radeons are also coming out soon. 3850 and 3870 I think. They'd be worth seeing their performance results as well.
You could get a new: case - Cooler Master Centurion 5 - $50 Motherboard - Gigabyte P35 - $100 video card - 8800gt - $200 hopefully your PSU is good enough... that's only $350 if you hold on to the CPU for a while you can always get a new CPU later if you need to since the P35 will support penryn quad cores when they are released. That will give you a good upgrade options for the future while saving some money now.
dont doooooooo it if you never built a computer yourself your in for a big headache.putting all that crap together and finding out it dont boot after spending 4 hours on it.you will be pulling your hair out or want to throw the setup out the window hahaha.any little mistake you will be confused like not putting the cpu fan on tight or correctly didnt put the floppy connector on right so you cant format the hard drive any little thing could go wrong and discourage you.just buy a new card at microcenter and see if it fits in your case. if it doesnt return it you save big bucks and less headaches. less work installing a video card and drivers than building a whole new comp.
Ehm, lemme see, $450? All right, lemme give a whack at this... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059 $95, GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029 $195, Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail Well, if you get the 8800GT, that may put you closer to $500, but for a C2D E6750 with the higher FSB, and a P35 mobo, you could be on your way to something far more efficient, imho...
Funny that, because the way I learnt to build PCs myself was just to go ahead and try it, I helped my friend build his new core 2 duo machine and just need to install Windows/drivers/programs etc. now, took quite a long time but we got it done (then again last time I built a machine before that was about 4 years beforehand) so I like to think I did decently, it booted fine first start up.... going round to his later on today to finish it off...
It's really not difficult to build a PC, in fact i think anyone who can add RAM, change a Video Vard, or install a new Hard Drive can build a PC from scratch. All you need is patients, a little time, some basic understanding of what you're doing that can easily be found out with some light reading, and most important thing, common sense (and a good screw driver ). There is a guide here called Setting Up PC Hardware- A full guide and another one called Build Your First PC. Have a look one, or both, and see if it's something you think you can do. It really isn't hard and there is a first time for EVERYTHING.
i really dont think im gonna do it myself because not only have i never seen anyone do anything like this before, but i only have to do it once. ive installed RAM before but thats about it. does anyone know microcenters labor costs? and also whats wrong with my mobo right now?
