PC Upgrade Help

[Admiral Valdemar]

Okay, I'm thinking of upgrading my PC (Medion 1.7GHz, 256 SDRAM PC133, Win XP).

Now, according to Crucial.com I can get 256MB RAM like that on my machine now for £41.11 per unit (I'll buy two to get the best part of a gig). That seems to be sorted out, I assume there are two more SDRAM ports in my motherboard, but I'll check before I upgrade in August.

Now, I also want a decent videocard since my GeForce 2 MX400 is starting to whine when modern games like GTA: VC are run with high graphics. I just noticed the GeForce 5FX AGP released this month, anyone know if it's a good deal to get or should I buy Radeon?

Thirdly, I may, just may, get a new soundcard, my current one is only 16-bit but serves me well. Any advice on a decent, yet affordable card to get if I bother?

I'll be installing this myself and I know how to take the case off the PC now without unscrewing the powersource as well (damn thing wasn't marked clearly). I also will do it stark naked a la Largo from MT.com since I have no static clear lab.

[phongn]

Okay, I'm thinking of upgrading my PC (Medion 1.7GHz, 256 SDRAM PC133, Win XP).

Now, according to Crucial.com I can get 256MB RAM like that on my machine now for £41.11 per unit (I'll buy two to get the best part of a gig). That seems to be sorted out, I assume there are two more SDRAM ports in my motherboard, but I'll check before I upgrade in August.

Should be no problem here, but do check. If you can, try to get a 512MB stick if your mobo supports it (most do).

Now, I also want a decent videocard since my GeForce 2 MX400 is starting to whine when modern games like GTA: VC are run with high graphics. I just noticed the GeForce 5FX AGP released this month, anyone know if it's a good deal to get or should I buy Radeon?

Both are good, though some people have issues with ATI's drivers (and some with nVidia's drivers). The R9600 is fast as are the GFFX cards. Both should run GTA:VC just fine.

Thirdly, I may, just may, get a new soundcard, my current one is only 16-bit but serves me well. Any advice on a decent, yet affordable card to get if I bother?

16-bit is fine. Hercules makes some good ones; Philips makes a decent one, the C-Media based cheap ones are fine.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Should be no problem here, but do check. If you can, try to get a 512MB stick if your mobo supports it (most do).

I'm going to check when I get home, pull the lid off and have a look. Crucial only do 256MB sticks, though they have non-parity and CAS latency is in the 2 region. I only want at least half a gig of RAM, that'll do me easily since I don't have Photoshop or do any 3-D modelling (due to my major suckage at the arts other than writing ).

Both are good, though some people have issues with ATI's drivers (and some with nVidia's drivers). The R9600 is fast as are the GFFX cards. Both should run GTA:VC just fine.

Well the games still run quite well, only a little slow down in instances where I may have other proggies on at the same time, same with Splinter Cell. But this is part of my upgrade initiative for HL2 coming out soon and Doom 3 and they certainly will be memory and graphics hogs. I looked at the R9600 but the GeForce 5 is newer and all shiny. Plus nVidia never gave me problems with the old TNT and GF2.

16-bit is fine. Hercules makes some good ones; Philips makes a decent one, the C-Media based cheap ones are fine.

Ah buggerit then, I'm not too bothered about sound provided it isn't warble and is still audible, I do need new speakers mind, the ones I have are PoS ones from my old 166MHz PC 8 years ago.

[phongn]

Should be no problem here, but do check. If you can, try to get a 512MB stick if your mobo supports it (most do).

I'm going to check when I get home, pull the lid off and have a look. Crucial only do 256MB sticks, though they have non-parity and CAS latency is in the 2 region. I only want at least half a gig of RAM, that'll do me easily since I don't have Photoshop or do any 3-D modelling (due to my major suckage at the arts other than writing ).

Crucial UK is selling 1GB DIMMs @ 210.31 inc. VAT. They're selling 512MB DIMMs @ 49.34 inc. VAT. The former is CAS3 and the latter is CAS2.

Well the games still run quite well, only a little slow down in instances where I may have other proggies on at the same time, same with Splinter Cell. But this is part of my upgrade initiative for HL2 coming out soon and Doom 3 and they certainly will be memory and graphics hogs. I looked at the R9600 but the GeForce 5 is newer and all shiny. Plus nVidia never gave me problems with the old TNT and GF2.

The R9600 runs on the newer R350 core (with the GFFX running on either the NV30 or NV35 depending what you get) but is actually slower than the R9500 it replaces. Look around and see what your best bet is.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Hmm, the GF5900 is around £400 for the high end models on Dabs.com compared to around £150 for the GF5600, but I'll probably wait until September and see what happens, they're new now but prices soon drop.

There's loads of bonus technologies in the nVidia GPUs that sounds good, but I'm not ever going to condone spending more than £200 on a videocard.