Upgrading a few components - need advice

[plonker]

Hi guys,

 

 

 

Well I've had my good ole trusty Dell for a while now (around 3 years) and am looking to upgrade a few components so I can play some better games, perhaps use some more resource needy programs like video editing etc. I'm not too tech savvy so bear with me :)

 

 

 

Specs atm:

 

Mother Board: Dell Dimension 4600

 

Intel Pentium 4A, 2666 MHz (5 x 533)

 

512 MB DDR SDRAM (Two sticks of 256)

 

SAPPHIRE RADEON 9200SE ATLANTIS 128MB (AGP)

 

60 GB Hard Disk

 

 

 

What I'm looking to do:

 

- Upgrade memory to 1 RAM, just another stick of 512?

 

- Add some more storage, is this easily done? Maybe add another 80 or 120Gb?

 

- Most importantly a new graphics card, because my current one is not compatible with quite a few games for some reason. Not sure what would be best with my mother board? I don't need something totally top end, just something decent for top sec games and not too pricey.

 

 

 

Looking for some good advice - and I need products from UK websites please. For example: http://www.it247.com . However if you're used to US or Aussie sites or whatever, feel free to convert currencies and I'll try to find a UK retailer.

 

 

 

Upgrade budget is ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã150-200 max and hoping the PC lasts for another 3 years at least without further upgrades. Thanks in advance :)

[mdogg33]

For the Video Card:

 

 

 

Try an ATI Radeon x1000 series or 9550. they're good cards and will keep you up to date on games for under 100 dollars. i've got an x1300 and i play call of duty 2, WoW, and Guild Wars. very easy to upgrade and come in AGP and PCI-e slots.

 

 

 

for the RAM: invest in 1 gig stick and take out the old 512mb. this way when its time, you can just stick in another 1 gig stick.

 

 

 

hard disk is extremely easy to upgrade. you can get it pretty cheaply off sites like http://www.newegg.com.

[plonker]

Thanks for the reply - for the video card I can probably afford ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã100 rather than $100 so I could go for a better ATI Radeon. After reading around and looking through different options, this looks quite good for ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã93.94 which is just over $150.

 

Sapphire X1600 Pro 256MB DDR2 AVIVO TV-Out/DVI (AGP)

 

 

 

As far as memory goes, I don't want to waste my current 512 and prefer to just add another 512 on top, even if it will have to come down to the slower speed of the current memory which is at 166Mhz. I found this rather good value deal for ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã28.14 which is just over $45.

 

Crucial 512MB DDR PC3200 CAS3

 

 

 

Lastly for the disk drive - can I just slot in a second one or have to replace my current one? I'm not sure how it will work because I haven't done an upgrade myself before. It looks like I'll have to go for an IDE drive rather than a Serial ATA because I don't think my motherboard will support it so I found this for ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã50.47 which is around $84:

 

Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 160GB ATA-133 8MB Cache

 

 

 

Total: ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã172.55 ($285)

 

 

 

What do you guys think?

[count_chocula]

yeah the parts look good. for the hard drive you can just add it as a slave drive. look at the IDE cable that plugs your hard drive in and there should be another place to plug a drive in at the end of the cable.

 

 

 

hopefully you will have room in your computer for the drive, if not you can buy a new case or just let the drive rest on the case floor. you have to be careful about not having it in a bay though, because i accidently fried an old drive at school by letting the circuit board on the bottom touch the metal case.

[mdogg33]

yes for gods sake please remember to ground the mobo or you will fry it. how many rpms does the hard disk run at? that's all i really look for when upgrading HDD. and yes x1600 is a great card and its good that you've chosen the 256mb because that's essential for in game graphics. all those purchases look good and good luck on upgrading. if you run into any problems remember to post here.

 

 

 

edit- sorry about the pound to dollar thing. i thought you said you had two sticks of 256mb for the RAM. if you have 2 of those you're gonna have to buy 1gig because it would work out to be cheaper than two sticks of 512mb. Maybe you have more than 2 RAM slots....

[plonker]

Hard Disk is at 7200RPM which my current one also runs at, so thats fine.

 

 

 

As for the memory, sorry I guess I misunderstood you. After double checking, I found out I made a mistake - I have one stick of 512 (not 2 x 256) so can just add another stick.

 

 

 

Thanks both for the advice, will post when I'm done successfully (I hope) :D