PC Upgrade Question

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Thanks for the information Thoran.

The system I bought DOES have a network card in it, and I'm sure the new one does too (haven't checked that specific component though).

And I AM "price sensitive". I'm looking at an Intel Celeron P3 for around $600.00. More than likely, I will just take the two systems down to the local PC store I mentioned and let them copy the files for me. They can probably do it much more quickly and efficiently than I could hope to, and should only charge about $25.00 for their time.

I really do appreciate ALL the suggestions I recieved. I already had a good idea of what I want and the information I've received has confirmed my choice. Thanks again to everybody.

[The Hunter of Jahanna]

Heres my 2C worth. I just upgraded in February. I got a case,powersupply,mainboard,Pent 4 @1.5G CPU, 120 megs of rambuss, 2 extra cooling fans and had it delivered all for only $400.(www.hugebee.com)Then I got a 100G western digital HD for $85 at Sam's club.(local wholesale everything store). Finaly just last month I upgraded my vid card to a GeForce 4 Ti for $ 170 at Best Buy. I am still useing my old monitor,printer,soundcard,scanner and speakers. I also got a free network card from my ISP when I sighned up for DSL service.

Total cost $650

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Thanks for the information, Hunter. That was a good site.

I will not be keeping anything off of my old system, however. I'm giving it to my mom. So I need a complete system, top to bottom. I've found a site where I can get a complete system (including monitor) for around $600.00. That's also about the extent of my budget.

The specs for that system are:
Intel Celeron P3 1.3gh processor
256mg RAM
40gb HD
CDWR drive (32x I believe)
64mg video card
300w power supply
17" monitor

These are the components I "upgraded" in my selection. It also has a standard CD drive and a 1.44 floppy drive.

I'm hoping to order a new system within the next two weeks. If anybody has another site that offers complete systems in this price range...I would GREATLY appreciate you listing them for me to check out

Thanks again (and again) to EVERYBODY for tips and suggestions.

[Tanoch Thas'ala]

My nephew, who I got addicted to BG series, wanted a new pc, So I buitl him one:

Asus A7N266-VM $88
Duron 950 $34
256 DDR $40
60gig $79
Toshiba DVD $45
Samsung CDRW $79
Flat Panel Speakers $35
Case $30
Floppy $14
KB $15
Monitor (I already had an extra but a new one cost about $165)
Video, sound, nic are all onboard: Video is gForce2 Class, Sound is 6.1 digital, and nic is nic.

W/O monitor $459. Plays games quite nicely with all options turned on. Jedi Knight 2 looks great.

Don't let the hardware makers fool you, sure a 64 meg or 128 meg Radeon 8500 or gforce4 is nice and will play games faster and better, but a Radeon 7200 or a gforce MX class card will do the job as well.

[Tanoch Thas'ala]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: Thanks for the information, Hunter. That was a good site. I will not be keeping anything off of my old system, however. I'm giving it to my mom. So I need a complete system, top to bottom. I've found a site where I can get a complete system (including monitor) for around $600.00. That's also about the extent of my budget. The specs for that system are: Intel Celeron P3 1.3gh processor 256mg RAM 40gb HD CDWR drive (32x I believe) 64mg video card 300w power supply 17" monitor These are the components I "upgraded" in my selection. It also has a standard CD drive and a 1.44 floppy drive. I'm hoping to order a new system within the next two weeks. If anybody has another site that offers complete systems in this price range...I would GREATLY appreciate you listing them for me to check out Thanks again (and again) to EVERYBODY for tips and suggestions.

I would go with a true P3 instead of the celeron and I would swap the cdrom for a dvd drive which are now the same price as regualr cdroms..I would also go with a bigger harddrive instead of the 64 meg video card..a 32 meg card will work fine...however that is jsut my opinion.

[Rokenn]

personally I would go with a min of 512 megs of ram. With the cheap prices of SDRAM you can even get a gig of ram for a good price.

[Nachtrafe]

Originally posted by MILAMBER: Actually, the cheapest place to buy parts online is www.newegg.com. They are much cheaper than any of the sites on pricewatch, and the customer service is excellent.

Huh...I stand corrected. Thanks for the URL Milamber. Methinks I'm going to be perusing this site in the near future when I help my Cloudy upgrade her PC.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I now have my new computer system. [img]graemlins/yippee.gif[/img]

I wanted to thank ALL of you for the advice you gave. Even if I didn't take some of you up on your suggestions, I still greatly appreciate all the feedback I received. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

The official specs of my new machine are.....

AMD Athlon P3 1.4gh processor in a 300w case
40gb hd
256mg Ram/266(?)
DVD drive
40x10x40 Sony CDWR
GeForce 64mg video card
17" monitor

I decide to go with a Pro series instead of the Home series, because the motherboard was more powerful and had 1 or 2 extra ports.

The machine came WITHOUT an Operating System on it....so I purchased WindowsXP. So far, no problems. Baldur's Gate runs smoothly and quickly. Baldur's Gate II wouldn't load properly because of a faulty CD, so I'll have to address that later.

Thanks again to everybody.

[andrewas]

That 300w PSU gives some cause for concern. New CPUs and graphics cards draw a load of power, 300w is the very lowest I would consider. If you expand your system a bit you may need to replace it. But this is a minor point.

Other than that, nice one. Have fun with it.