Fixing Up My Rig

[Zaune]

So, my current 'proper' machine (as opposed to the shitheap I'm making do with currently for reasons not worth going into here) is a bit of a mixed bag. I bought it used about two years ago, and as far as I know it's a custom-built one that was stripped of most of the extras before being sold on.
It has a dual-core 3GHz CPU (Intel, not sure which chipset but no HDMI output jack) but only 512MB of RAM and no external graphics or sound card. Halo: Combat Evolved and Max Payne both play just fine as-is, but anything more modern is going to struggle. Hard drive space comes in at 160GB total (two 80GB drives), which is as much as I really need.
Operating system is currently a dual boot between XP and Ubuntu. I don't currently have any plans to upgrade to 7. My monitor is an old 16-inch CRT with a maximum resolution of 1024x768, which I can live with; it's not great, but it's not bad enough that I can justify the cost of a replacement until the tube craps out, so I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Keyboard and mouse are both no-brand PS/2 ones that do the job but are nothing to write home about, speakers are some pretty decent Logitech ones.

My questions are as follows:

1. How much money can I justify spending on this machine before it becomes more economical to start from scratch? At this point I only intend to buy a 4850 and a couple of GB of RAM, keep it as my main PC until XP leaves extended support and then put it into semi-retirement as a media centre and legacy support machine. Will it stay viable much beyond that point if I go for something a bit more extravagant?
2. When my monitor does finally bite the dust, I've been giving serious thought to buying myself a projector instead of a flatscreen. Am I going to get anything worth having for the same money as a basic widescreen monitor? The retailers whose websites I've researched this on have not been enormously helpful.
3. Related to the above, I have a limited amount of space in my apartment, and I'm probably going to need my PC desk to double as a workbench for other machines I'm fixing. Is it worth buying a trackball?

[Mr Bean]

Ram, Ram, Ram Ram, RAM
Yeah you need frigging ram. Throw a 4850 in there and 4 gigs of ram and you'll be looking good for any modern game out there today. Not in 1920x1200 in 4x AA/16x 60 FPS glory but you'll be doing okay with just those two upgrades.

[Zaune]

Heh. I'd gathered that much, though I had a sort of okay workaround for a while after acquiring the second hard drive; a 1GB page file on another disk does wonders for performance.
Then I installed Ubuntu on the wrong hard drive by mistake, giving me a dual-boot system I didn't really want and obliterating all my porn. I learned a valuable lesson about backup strategy, and my landlady's husband learned a lot of colloquial English that has undoubtedly come in handy since he got a job as a cab driver.

[Mr Bean]

Heh. I'd gathered that much, though I had a sort of okay workaround for a while after acquiring the second hard drive; a 1GB page file on another disk does wonders for performance..

Oh wow...
Let me translate that
"I lost the keys to my car ignition so I just jammed a coat hanger in there and with this nine volt battery I can still get it started, so that's just as good"

I have 4 gigs and 8 gig page file, 2x to 2.5x your ram for your page file is pretty much required but I've run computers with 512 ram on XP. It's painful since only one or two programs will run without the computer going insane.

Ram Ram Ram RAm RAM.
Get that ram ASAP if you do nothing else.

[Zaune]

What can I say? I was broke.

[Zaune]

Okay, some more information now I've got the machine sitting in front of me. And frankly, it's not looking all that great.

A bit of searching informs me that this is the board it's using, with a Pentium 4 clocking in at 3GHz. I'm also going to need a new power supply, as mine is only rated for 300W.

Can I justify spending much money on this thing?

[Mr Bean]

Which kind of Pentium 4? There have been several kinds of Pentium 4 over the years because sooner or later the marketing department freaks out on any number higher than five and will re-brand the product.

[Enigma]

Why not start saving up and rebuild it? Gut the whole thing and start over but keep any parts worth saving. How much can you spend right now? How much will you be able to save in a couple of months?

[Edward Yee]

Notes -- if you're going to stick with using a 32-bit OS, then get no more than 3 GB of RAM, since the 32-bit Windows OSes have a built-in limit (I believe about 3.25 GB) that they can detect and use, whereas with using 64-bit Windows (at least in Windows 7) the system can detect and use at least up to 16 GB RAM.

[Zaune]

Which kind of Pentium 4? There have been several kinds of Pentium 4 over the years because sooner or later the marketing department freaks out on any number higher than five and will re-brand the product.

It appears to be this one.

Why not start saving up and rebuild it? Gut the whole thing and start over but keep any parts worth saving. How much can you spend right now? How much will you be able to save in a couple of months?

That's what I was going to have to do anyway, and barring an unexpected stroke of incredible luck like getting off the dole, I should have about £300 by April. If I can find a Core 2 Duo for £100 or less by then, I think this should be manageable.

Notes -- if you're going to stick with using a 32-bit OS, then get no more than 3 GB of RAM, since the 32-bit Windows OSes have a built-in limit (I believe about 3.25 GB) that they can detect and use, whereas with using 64-bit Windows (at least in Windows 7) the system can detect and use at least up to 16 GB RAM.

Only got two DIMMs on the board and it can't take DDR3, so I'm kind of limited whether I pony up for Windows 7 or not. Though I somehow managed to obliterate XP when I was upgrading to Ubuntu 10.10 -think I had a jumper in the wrong position or something- so I might not have much choice.

[Enigma]

Why not start saving up and rebuild it? Gut the whole thing and start over but keep any parts worth saving. How much can you spend right now? How much will you be able to save in a couple of months?

That's what I was going to have to do anyway, and barring an unexpected stroke of incredible luck like getting off the dole, I should have about £300 by April. If I can find a Core 2 Duo for £100 or less by then, I think this should be manageable.

I've been looking around a website on a company (All Solutions)in your city (still Dorset?) and I got these quotes for barebones system.

ASUS PC V7-P5G41E
I do not know if this includes a CPU or not. No dedicated video card instead it is integrated and no hard drive. Another down side is that it has a 380W PSU. But it isn't bad for £85.09.

ACER 18.5'' WIDESCREEN LCD TFT MONITOR
Doesn't look too bad and the price (£70) seems ok.

If you just want parts instead of a replacement system then there's these: (Unfortunately, I could not find the video you were looking for. The site has 5850s but no 4850s

INTEL DUAL CORE E5500
Less than £49.

ELIXIR 2GB 800MHz (PC2-6400) - DDR2 CL5 DIMM MEMORY
About £24.

Parts alone will set you back £71 plus tax, £141 plus tax if you include the monitor. Add £20 if you want a 620W PSU.

Hope this helps you in any way.

[Zaune]

Fantastic. Thanks a lot, that's a huge help; I've been having second thoughts about the 4850 anyway given that my current motherboard is a microATX.