free desktop

[homersipes]

so I got a free desktop today, its a compaq evo d300v.  I am computer dumb and cant afford a 2000 dollar setup but I figured this would be a start.  I looked it up and says I can replace original grapics card with one of the following:  NVIDIA GeForce2 MX200 16-MB AGP 251954-B21
 NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 32-MB AGP 227003-B21
 Matrox G550 32-MB AGP VGA 250227-B21
 Matrox G550 32-MB AGP DVI 251435-B21
 Matrox G200 MMS PCI Quad with DVI Cables 179597-B21
 Matrox G200 MMS PCI Quad Analog Cables 159513-B21
 DVI Cables for the G200 MMS PCI Quad 170840-B21
so this is all jibberish to me some help would be muchly appreciated as I am building on a budget lol will be a little while before I start the build, not sure what else I can and shold replace.

[Ack-Ack]

I'm sorry to say but this computer will barely, if at all, run AH.  It's a computer that is around 7 years old and there isn't really anything you can upgrade to make it play AH in any reasonable quality.  The best you could do is use an ATI 4650 AGP card but it would be useless because everything else would bottleneck performance and make any upgrade to the video useless.  RAM is limited by the motherboard to 1.5gigs, the CPU is an ancient Pentium 4 clocked at 1.7Ghz. 

ack-ack

[homersipes]

I cant imagine that it would be worse than my 7 year old toshiba laptop I play on or could it   lol just figured it might be a little better to play on as only a gaming pos vs our laptop which the wife puts all kinds of pics and the internet on.

[Ack-Ack]

If the computer can run those AGP cards listed then it should be able to run an ATI 4650 AGP but you'll need to invest in a larger power supply.  The bottlenecks will be the RAM being hard locked by the motherboard at 1.5gigs and the P4 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz.  Forget running AH with any of the graphical options in anything but low resolution.

You're right in that it can't be any worse than running the game on your old Toshiba laptop but it's not going to be any better on the other hand.

ack-ack

[Bizman]

The list of graphics cards originates from the time your evo was new. The GeForces were aimed for budget gamers, the Matroxes had the best 2d picture available (for CAD and such).

As Ack-Ack said, an ATi HD4650 AGP card, although being the best, would cause bottlenecks to all other components. Something between the list and the 4650 would not cost a fortune and would outperform your laptop. A quick search in ebay ("radeon agp") gave some interesting looking options for under $30, like 9800 Pro or X800 or X1950 (the hundreds in Radeon cards tell the efficiency range, ##800 and up were top cards back then. The digits before hundreds tell the age.) Your neighbourhood computer builder could have some items waiting for you, too, in the same price range. Or your friends...

I can't help with NVidia product numbering other than that MX means poor... There's Wikipedia articles about them, though, giving you information about card generations and manufacturing dates. Same goes for ATi cards.

[homersipes]

thanks for the help and info as I said this is all jibberish to me   so if I understand right I could buy the 9800 pro, x800 or the x1950, and that will be just a plug in and install the drivers and thats it or would I have to install other parts as well.  I am trying to get a dedicated sim pc as the wife dont like my HOTAS and pedals in the living room, I will be living in the basement lol

[Bizman]

IMO that's right, they should fit right in without any other upgrades. Of course, all of the components are aged, so you never can tell which part will fail next. If you stay with the "got-a-free" line, twiddling with that rig can eventually improve your skills with hardware. Trying to get the best (yet stable) performance with minimal investments taught me, now I do computer teching for living.

[gyrene81]

thanks for the help and info as I said this is all jibberish to me   so if I understand right I could buy the 9800 pro, x800 or the x1950, and that will be just a plug in and install the drivers and thats it or would I have to install other parts as well.  I am trying to get a dedicated sim pc as the wife dont like my HOTAS and pedals in the living room, I will be living in the basement lol

you would be wasting money and time putting anything in that thing. take it down to the goodwill drop off and get a receipt for your taxes. i just threw away 2 systems that smoke that thing and both could only run ah at bare minimum settings.

[Bizman]

Gyrene, we don't know much about homersipes's economical situation other than that he can't afford a $2000 setup. Some of us can dump three year old top gaming rigs, someone has been playing on a seven year old Toshiba laptop. Now, the Compaq Evo was free and that should also be the starting price for suitable components of its era. I'd be glad to send something, but mailing costs from Finland to Vermont, USA would be more than the domestic second hand price. But I know there are people like me over there, who would be glad to deliver yesterday's top hardware to a good home for free or a nominal cost.

[Skuzzy]

I think it is quite impossible to run the game on a video card that has less than 128MB of video RAM.  If it runs, it will be because it is using system RAM for the video, which is going to be horrifically slow and unstable.

Anything less than 2Ghz for the CPU is going to cause stutters as the CPU struggle to do all the calculations for each frame.

[gyrene81]

Homersnipes, i know you can't afford latest/greatest but there may yet be help. i have a nearly new dual core amd athlon2 255, that i know can handle ah, also 2 sticks of pny gold series 2gb ddr3 1066mhz ram, and an 80gb 7200rpm sata2 hard drive that i would be willing to ship to you no charge. if someone else has an amd chipset mobo, decent power supply and video card, you could put together a much better system than that freebie you just got.