Upgrade for my computer

[redsox]

Hey everyone, here's my current specs for my PC.

Dell Dimension DM051

Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz

512 MB of RAM

RADEON X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory

Can you guys recommend a good upgrade for this system? I would like to upgrade to a system that I can use for at least another year or so (mainly for gaming purposes). My initial target is to be able to play NBA 2k9 (and hopefully MLB 2k9) with everything set at high, but one of my friends recommended that I benchmark it based on the requirements for Crysis.

But it just seems like for me to run a game like Crysis, I may have to just buy an Alienware (and I am not too keen on buying a new PC at the moment).

Anyway, I am sure there's a limit on upgrading this system, but how would I find out? Would increasing the RAM be enough? If so, to what? And what is the price range that I should look to by for?

Thanks a lot for any help, y'all can provide me.

EDIT: Found this on sale at BestBuy. From the reviews it seems like a pretty good product. Would this be reasonable to buy?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1200703058743

[BigPaPa]

Dell in the past has been notorious for purposely making PC's difficult to upgrade a whole lot so they have to buy a new dell PC, i dont know about now tho, but anyway if you can get out to 2 gigs of ram you;ll prolly be alright for another year-ish.

[wrigleyville33]

IMO, you should just make a new computer off newegg.com. That is what I'm doing for my xmas present.

[RdSoxFan618]

Make your computer.

It's cheap.

It's easy.

It's fun.

There's tons of guides out there, and you don't need to be a genius to build it. If you can follow directions for each part (packaged w/ the part), then you can build a computer...

If you need suggestions for parts, just ask.

[redsox]

Dell in the past has been notorious for purposely making PC's difficult to upgrade a whole lot so they have to buy a new dell PC, i dont know about now tho, but anyway if you can get out to 2 gigs of ram you;ll prolly be alright for another year-ish.

If that's the case, then do you suggest that I buy the memory that I posted in my first post? It's a 2GB upgrade, but doesn't each computer have a certain capacity that you can't exceed? As you can see, I am really not familiar with this aspect.

IMO, you should just make a new computer off newegg.com. That is what I'm doing for my xmas present.

I thought about building a new one, but figured I would just upgrade my current computer. I would much rather spend money on a RAM upgrade (and by checking out some sites, seems like it's not that costly to upgrade now) than pay more for a brand new computer.

....If you need suggestions for parts, just ask.

You can tell me if the above memory can be compatible with my computer or not. :)

[Jim825]

When it comes to buying memory (especially for my Dell machines), I always go to http://www.crucial.com

They have a Memory Advisor Tool, where you select your PC manufacturer, product line and model and they list the memory that is guaranteed to work with your PC.

Also, what do you have for a video card right now?

[BigPaPa]

Don't get a new computer unless your mother board lacks a slot for a good graphics card. (PCI-Express 2.o is best but AGP works fine too) if you can still fit a decent graphics card on your motherboard everything else is fine.

They try to sell you all the duala nd quad core stuff and while it is nice for certain things it is really not needed for gaming because when a game only uses one thread so only uses one core and 3 ghz is plenty.

I betting the max Mem for you motherboard is 2 gigs. If you go to best buy with you Computer Model and Maybe your Motherboard model number and tell them you want to upgrade your memory to at least 2 gigs theyll make sure you get the right kind. Memory is cheap enough these days that you will probably get a decent price. Your PC may not accept the super high end gaming ram but thats mostly for show anyway and the performance of it is not noticeably above your everyday stuff, Its more important to get 2 or mroe gigs then it is to get hihg performance memory.

Buy 2 gigs though and discard what you have now. Other than that i think youll be fine for a year.

The memory you linked to isnt compatable with your computer, and nothing like it will be your compter runs PC2 type memory, which slower then DDR2 but again worry about size not speed for the moment.

Helpful Sight to find memory upgrades for Brand Name Comps: http://www.memory-up.com/

[MarkB]

What's the actual model number of your PC, redsox? DM051 is just the short code-name that's used for the system - if I remember correctly, it's for the Dimension 5150, but that's a guess as we don't really use them - even at work. It should have a design on the front that says what model it is.

If it is a 5150, again, IIRC, that's still a pretty new system, so you shouldn't have any troubles just going with component upgrades like RAM & graphics card without having to get a whole new system. First thing I'd go for if you're looking for gaming upgrades is an increase in RAM, and as Jim said, what type of graphics card do you have just now?

[RdSoxFan618]

Is your RAM DDR2 800? If so than you can use it...but if it cannot handle 800, (and can only do like 333 or 667) then I'm not sure if the speed of it gets lowered. It might, but I don't know. I know that if you can use DDR2 800 and you buy 2 sticks of DDR2 667, then it will be backwards compatible, but I'm not sure if you can go to a higher speed like that.

[redsox]

Thank you very much for the responses everyone.

Mark, you are right. It's Dimension 5150. And I currently have a RADEON X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory. Jim, I will look through those websites and find out which will suit me.

I guess the only thing I would really need to upgrade is my RAM and I can just add one to an empty slot on top of the 512MB I already have?

Again, thanks for the replies. Much appreciated indeed.

[MarkB]

If it were me, unless there were any huge need for a RAM upgrade to higher than 1GB (planning on installing Vista or Crysis any time soon?), I'd throw another 512MB DIMM in there and upgrade to 1GB, and add a better graphics card for gaming. The X300 is a good value, entry-level card which coped admirably with relatively new games when it was released, but it'll start to struggle using higher resolutions for newer games and won't compare to the cards available today.

I'd have a look around for a card that will suit your needs now, but won't cost too much and isn't future-proof to more than a scale of 1 year. If you're looking at playing NBA 2k9, you'll want at least a shader model 3 card, which most cards come with these days, so if you can get a SM3 card with either 256MB or 512MB of memory that doesn't break the bank, you should be fine. That will last you for a few years until you're ready for a full system upgrade.

Bear in mind, though, that a 3GHz CPU is rather good (unless it's a Celeron or some other such trash) and when building a new system, if the old one will either be placed in a cupboard and not used or scavenged for spares, you might want to just transfer that CPU into your new system. The 3GHz barrier took a while to break, and it's getting closer to the limit now of how much speed and power can fit on one chip that's the same size as in previous years without becoming unreliable.

[Jim825]

Here's what Crucial's Memory Advisor Tool came up with for your Dimension 5150:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp...imension%205150

[redsox]

Thanks to Jim's link, I have decied to go with the 2GB 240-pin DIMM upgrade. I am just planning on removing the 512MB that I have in there at the moment and installing this new one.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.as...50BD882A5CA7304

And I am going to follow Mark's advice as well and try and get a reasonable graphcis card. Is there one y'all can recommend that will be a good upgrade? What kind of card should I be on the lookout for and what kind should I stay away from? Also, what is a reasonable price for a good graphics card?

Thanks again for any help y'all can provide.

[Jim825]

What kind of video card slot do you have -- AGP? PCI-E? That will determine what kind of card you can get. AGP slots are in older PC's (like mine that I bought in 2004), so your choices are limited. I recently picked up an Nvidia 7600 GS (512 MB RAM) with a lifetime warranty from TigerDirect.com for $100:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...2161&CatId=2234

PCI-E slots have been around a few years and there are more choices for video cards

[redsox]

Thanks for the reply Jim. It has a PCI slot for the graphics card.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...1.htm#wp1052310

[Jim825]

Thanks for the reply Jim. It has a PCI slot for the graphics card.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...1.htm#wp1052310

Actually, it's PCI-Express (PCI-E). Make sure you look for that when you look for a video card, and not just a plain PCI card (although I don't know if they still make plain PCI video cards). Make sure you look for a PCI-E card.

[redsox]

Will do. Thank you.

[angryrat]

you are going to like the jump from 512mb to 2gb when it comes to doing your graphics work in Photoshop. Back when I had 512mb photoshop and my 3D modeling software felt unusable.

[redsox]

I went ahead and ordered my memory upgrade - http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.as...2ED4B87A5CA7304

Also went ahead and bought NBA 2k9, but found out that I might need a new video card as well (got the blank screen when trying to run the game and found out that I would need an updated video card to play the game).

Anyway, is there any specific video cards that y'all can recommend? What is a reasonable price that I should be targeting? Thank you again.

[redsox]

you are going to like the jump from 512mb to 2gb when it comes to doing your graphics work in Photoshop. Back when I had 512mb photoshop and my 3D modeling software felt unusable.

Agreed. I am looking forward to running that software smoothly. I usually have multiple layers in my PSD and after a certain point, I can feel the performance slipping drastically.

[MarkB]

redsox, just in case you've never heard of it, a site I've used in the past is GPUReview.com. It allows you to compare video cards, provides reviews, best in range tables, things like that. Worth a look if you're still on the hunt for one that fits your needs.

[redsox]

Mark, thanks for the link. Here's the video card that I am thinking of buying.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814133205

Many have said it's a great card, but what I am worried about is the card over-heating. Which card can you suggest that is around the same price ($100-$120) and you think is a good video card.

[BigPaPa]

Mark, thanks for the link. Here's the video card that I am thinking of buying.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814133205

Many have said it's a great card, but what I am worried about is the card over-heating. Which card can you suggest that is around the same price ($100-$120) and you think is a good video card.

the PNY line of cards in general run a bit hot for me, i had this card for a long time until recently and it did very well for me: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814121268

other then that XFX, EVGA and ASUS cards are the best Nvidia chipset brands, tho the single-wide version all tend to get a bit hot at times no matter the brand.

if your looking at ATI also this card is very nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102730 i just installed one of these in a friends computer and hes been running games real smooth.