Build or Upgrade A Gaming PC

[Justin E]

In May my girlfriend received a computer for her birthday.

I was wondering wether I should upgrade her computer to play a few games or would I be able to build a decent gaming PC on a budget of under 1,000?

A side note, I have Half Life 2: Episode 1 and her computer should be able to play it, but it can't.

Specs of gf's comp.-

Windows XP Service Pack 2
CPU 3.00 GHz
384 MB of RAM
ATI Radeon 200 Series


-Justin

[azzey]

What's the manufacturer and model number?

[Justin E]

It's a Gateway DX310X.

Intel Pentium for the CPU.

-Justin

[azzey]

Here's the CNET review for the PC:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Gateway_DX310X/4660-3118_7-6534256.html

You do have a PCIe16x slot so a video card upgrade would be possible. Right now that is the bottleneck for gaming. Also, more RAM couldn't hurt. You'll want at least 512MB if not 1GB for any type of hardcore gaming.

[jlreich]

CPU 3.00 GHz
384 MB of RAM
ATI Radeon 200 Series

CPU is fine. But get some more ram. 1GB is standard for gaming. Especially for HL2, it likes a lot of ram.

More importantly you need a video card. The ATI Radeon 200 is onboard video. That's why you can't play HL2. ;) Also you have your ram listed as 384MB, well that's not entirely correct. You have 512MB-128MB that is taken away for the onboard video. Get a dedicated video card and you will get the rest of the ram back.

The system a has a free PCIe slot, so get a decent video card, 1GB ram, and you can play HL2.

Or, yes you can build a decent system for $1k. It's a little tight, but it can be done. It's a little easier if you don't need everything, like a monitor, KB, and mouse.

If you would like to go that way let us know and we can help. :)

Edit- Azzey beat me to it. :D

[Justin E]

Thanks, you've been tons of help.

I would like to know what I could get on such a budget.


Thanks,

Justin

[azzey]

Hehe I'm quick on my toes today!

For about $800 you could put together a nice little system (just an estimate)
Athlon 64 X2 3800
Any decent AM2 motherboard
1GB DDR2-800 RAM
150GB SATA HDD
PATA DVD-RW drive
nVidia GeForce 7900GT
A case

That would give you a nice starting point and you would have a clear upgrade path. For a little more you could probably squeeze in a bigger hard drive and faster processor. Maybe more RAM too.

Obviously that is without a monitor included. If you didn't need the Gateway anymore, you could transplant the hard drive, DVD-RW, and not much else. You'll need a new case because the Gateway uses the BTX form factor (as noted in the CNET review).

[jlreich]

Don't forget a decent power supply. Stick known good brands like Antec, Thermaltake, and Seasonic to name a few.

[Justin E]

Thanks again.

Another question (sorry, I'm full of them) what kind of graphics card should I get? Specifically. Right now, I'm going upgrade my girlfriend's PC and save up to get myself the built PC. I appreciate the help.


-Justin

[saphalline]

As an aside, one reason I don't like OEM machines is because they have extremely limited gaming potential. Yeah you can upgrade them to a decent low/mid-range gaming machine, but they'll never be up to par for high end gaming. You can easily slap in some more RAM and a $100-150 vid card and get some good gaming performance out of them. All fine and dandy. But the computer as a whole probably cost less than the latest GeForce 8800 GTX vid card alone! An OEM machine like that Gateway your girlfriend got will never be able to handle the latest $600 vid cards. It will never be able to handle the full 8GB of RAM that is supported by standard mobo's. It will never be able to handle the latest "extreme" $1000+ CPU's. It will never be able to handle the full 6 SATA 300 hard drives. Now I'm not saying that everyone should plunk down $3500 for a massive top-of-the-line gaming system like this, but the standard off-the-shelf components that Newegg sells can still support all of this. Even if you can't afford to buy it and use it, the latest mobo's and cases available for sale on Newegg can do it. The potential is there. I like it much better when my system's capabilities exceed my needs & budget rather than the other way around. There's nothing worse than a system that can't keep up with its user!

To answer your upgrade question, I think you should slap in one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145529) for the RAM. Or if the system came with only DDR2-400 (aka, PC2-3200), then you should buy a 1GB dual-channel kit (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145526) and just dump the RAM that came with it (it's not useful if it's going to rob the system of performance). For the vid card, I'd recommend a GeForce 7600 GS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125028) at the very least - or get a GeForce 7600 GT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130062) if you can afford it. I wouldn't recommend going any higher than this on a low-end Gateway model. The cheap PSU wouldn't handle the extra load very well, which means you'd be looking at a more expensive vid card in addition to a better PSU. This would add another $100-150 to the vid card upgrade, which isn't worth it on a system with only 2 RAM slots.

[Justin E]

I had some major money things and couldn't upgrade when I wanted to. Now I can.

Could I add a gig into that other slot, or would it be better to just add another 512mb? DDR2-400 (aka, PC2-3200), I'm not sure about this.

How easy is it to install these things? I'm quite noobish with this sort of thing.

[Justin E]

I've upgraded and I thank you guys for your help.

I bought the GeForce 7600 GT. The only problem was with the RAM. It had two 256 instead of one 512, so instead of looking I ordered one 512. I'm going to order another 512 or could I put in a 1 GB RAM card?

[mjc]

Go with the two 512's...

[johnny_quest]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_channel

Dual-channel architecture DDR/DDR2 SDRAM describes a motherboard technology that effectively doubles data throughput from RAM to the memory controller. Dual channel-enabled memory controllers utilize two 64-bit data channels, resulting in a total bandwidth of 128-bits, to move data from RAM to the CPU.

In order to achieve this, the DDR/DDR2 SDRAM memory modules must be installed into matching banks, which are usually color coded on the motherboard. It is not required that identical modules are used, but it is often recommended. One module of 512MB RAM could be installed in bank one and a 1GB module could be installed in bank two. Modules rated at different speeds can be run in dual channel, although the motherboard will then run all memory modules at the speed of the slowest module. Some motherboards however have compatibility issues with certain brands or models of modules when attempting to use them in dual channel mode. For this reason it is generally advised to use identical pairs of memory modules and most memory manufacturers now sell "kits" of matched pair DIMMs. Several motherboard manufacturers only support configurations where a "matched pair" of modules are used.