Author Topic: Upgrade Question (Read 364 times)

Zaphod · « **on:** October 19, 2003, 05:38:43 PM »

Hey everyone,

I have a P4 1.8g
256mg ram
Nvidia Gforce Ti200

Its a Dell and I cant upgrade the motherboard. Would I better off just buying a new computer or would an extra 256 mg of ram and a new ATI video card make that much of a difference for me?

Thanks, Zaphod

Ghosth · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2003, 10:19:00 PM »

I suspect a new ATI video card would make a big difference.

Another stick of ram wouldn't hurt any.

I wouldn't think you'r that cpu lacking with a 1.8, heck I'm still running a 1.6 & hope to get another year out of it.

bloom25 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 20, 2003, 12:11:40 AM »

If that's a GeForce 3 Titanium 200 that you have, yes you would see a difference going to a better video card.

As for the amount of ram, changing that alone won't make a massive difference. I'd say if you are running Windows 2000/XP you might want to consider going up to 512 MB, but don't expect miracles. If this is Windows 98/ME you won't get much of a performance boost at all by going to 512 MB.

Personally, I'd wait and see what your framerate is with future betas. I'm sure there is plenty of debugging code to be removed and optimizations that can be made to AH2 before it goes final.

Zaphod · « **Reply #3 on:** October 20, 2003, 04:24:30 AM »

Thanks for the input all.

I am running Windows XP Home.

Anyone have a few suggestions for ATI cards? I would like to keep the cost as low as possible and still have a noticable improvement.

Zaphod

Ghosth · « **Reply #4 on:** October 20, 2003, 09:15:22 AM »

There is a wide range of relitively inexpensive ATI cards available.

I'm running the 9000 pro 128 mb card & have been pretty happy with it.

However the 9500's are coming right down in price. Just shop around on pricewatch.com

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #5 on:** October 20, 2003, 09:34:34 AM »

Question: What stops you from upgrading your motherboard?

Zaphod · « **Reply #6 on:** October 20, 2003, 04:06:58 PM »

Apparently the motherboard in a Dell can only be replaced with another Dell. Dell won't sell a motherboard for my machine to me other than a direct replacement.

Zap

liaka · « **Reply #7 on:** October 20, 2003, 05:23:55 PM »

Zap,

Firstly, your puter would run a lot faster if you cleaned the doughnut dust out of it.
Secondly, I got the ATI 9800 in my Dell and it smokes.

Zaphod · « **Reply #8 on:** October 20, 2003, 07:29:54 PM »

Douggggggggggggggggggggnnnnnn nnnutttttttttttttttttttttttss sssss!