Upgrading the old pc - any suggestions?

[DeadSurvivor]

my computer specs -

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GATEWAY-FX-250D915-B

dynex wireless adapter

LGA 775 Pentium 4 3.0 GHz single core processor with hyper threading

2 GB of 533 MHz ram

standard optical drive

winows xp service pack 3

I cant buy a new computer due to my budget.

I'm a noob here so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[MdX MaxX]

250W won't power any GPU worth upgrading to.

You could do a CPU/RAM upgrade. But even that will be relatively expensive considering LGA 775 has been dead for a while and parts aren't made anymore.

Actually, you should probably just hang on to what you've got until you can afford a new PC. Nothing you put into this will really pay off.

If you really must upgrade something, about all I can recommend is throwing in an SSD. Like a Crucial M4 or something. At least you can use that later. But does XP play nice with SSDs?

[DeadSurvivor]

Thanks for your help on this. im going consider doing that if i cant afford a new pc in a while.

[DeadSurvivor]

Do you think if i take the os, optical drive, and hard drive could i use them to make a pc build cheaper? or will it not be worth it? I also have an old crt monitor with a new keyboard and mouse so the peripherals are covered.

[MdX MaxX]

The optical drive and hard drive should be fine (assuming they're SATA).

The problem with XP is that there won't be driver support for newer hardware. If you can't afford Windows 8 I'd recommend using Ubuntu. It's free and probably the most user-friendly Linux distro.

[racann2]

The optical drive and hard drive should be fine (assuming they're SATA). The problem with XP is that there won't be driver support for newer hardware. If you can't afford Windows 8 I'd recommend using Ubuntu. It's free and probably the most user-friendly Linux distro.

I concur with MaxX. XP was a great OS but it has run it's course and probably not something you would want to plan on using for too much longer in the future. I've tried Ubuntu from booting from a flash drive (just to play around with it) but I doubt your rig will boot from a flash drive (it might though, just depends on the bios) because my old xp laptop won't.

My advice, read as much as you can on the forum and learn what components work well for certain tasks. Depending on what you want to do, you could build a budget friendly rig.

[Dim]

At your current stage, it seems a waste of money to invest in any new components.

Anything even relatively new would be insanely bottlenecked.

My recommendation is to not waste any money. It is important for you to save up as much as possible--some computers can be improved through component additions, this one cannot.

Once you have raised $600-1000, investing in an entirely new system would really make an enormous difference.

I would recommend a RAM upgrade, but frankly RAM for LGA 775 is extremely overpriced for what you get.

Leave it for now, perhaps make a software upgrade as mentioned above, but don't make any hardware purchases--it will be a waste and in vain.

When you feel you have enough money for a new system (I would recommend ~$800), post a thread on this forum asking for a reasonable build for that money. I realise you don't have the money right now, but it's important you don't spend anything you do have on something that isn't going to be of much use.

:)

[Guest]

What's the budget? What's the aim or intention of this system? Web browsing, light gaming: Minecraft, Source engine or more intense gaming: BF, Skyrim ect or worse yet; Crysis 3.

[Vitalius]

Your troubles are somewhat solved. I recommend building this PC as it would be many times better than just attempting to upgrade your current one. Harvest what you can and move on.

TekSyndicate did a "Cheap Ass Gamer Build" that I absolutely found awesome. A gaming PC that can run Skyrim at 30 FPS at 720p on Medium settings. It costs around $250 shipped. This doesn't include the price of an OS as Steam is now on Linux which is awesome, but you can get Windows and install it and reinstall every 3-4 months to have it legally (not pirating or what have you) and it assumes you own a monitor or TV with a DVI, HDMI, or VGA port already. Basically all the essentials for having a PC as is though and I assume this too since you already have one.

If you aren't really into gaming, this computer can handle everything else well. You could even knock $50-$100 off the price by downgrading some stuff if you wanted. Up to you.

PC Part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/uLaz Go nuts.

[gasho]

I agree with "Dim" . I don't think its very wise to put money in that machine. DDR2 is way too expensive, 250W PSU will limit a new GPU, the s.775 CPU are only second hand to find now and they are still expensive...

I mean it depends what you want to do with it, but my best advice would be to start saving some money till you have a nice sum (arround 700-800$) for a nice entry gaming rig.

[DeadSurvivor]

wow thanks for the help guys! the games i will play are mostly minecraft and some of the popular free to play on steam. ive came up with a build in the last few days:

Pentium g860

Radeon HD 6570 2gb

Logisys 480w atx12v psu

Asrock matx 1155 motherboard

Gigabyte standard case

Corsair 4gb ddr3 1333 mhz

and the optical drive, monitor and peripherals are included. Where an i buy Linux? and what is the latest version?

[DeadSurvivor]

oh and the 320 gb hdd

[DeadSurvivor]

which all adds up to: $277.66 USD and that includes shipping and tax

[Hobox]

I don't see why they did a single 4GB stick for the RAM. They should have done 2x2GB for their build so you can at least still utilize dual-channel. I'd recommend you get 2x2GB also, or if you can manage to just get a second 4GB stick do that, it will be beneficial.