PC update help

Looking to upgarde my PC . I got the Saitek x45 joystick system, and put in an additional 512K mem chip in. I want to replace the other 256K simm with another 512K and put in a graphix accelerator card. Any recommendations on what brand and card to get my system going good. it's a Gateway 1.8M system with the added upgrades mentioned above. I play NFSU, MSFS2004, CFS ans B-17 a lot and want to make it run better.

Thanks. :Oo:

Originally posted by BBStacker83@Dec 7 2004, 02:04 AM
I got the Saitek x45 joystick system...

I just wanted to jump in here and say :thumbup: to that

I'll let the resident techies answer the rest of your questions...

and welcome to Hell.

look at the ATI X700pro and the Nvidia 6600. There only $200 and they give some really good gaming power. If you dont want to spend that much I would look at some of the midrange ATI cards.

Originally posted by BBStacker83@Dec 7 2004, 08:04 AM
Looking to upgarde my PC . I got the Saitek x45 joystick system, and put in an additional 512K mem chip in. I want to replace the other 256K simm with another 512K and put in a graphix accelerator card. Any recommendations on what brand and card to get my system going good. it's a Gateway 1.8M system with the added upgrades mentioned above. I play NFSU, MSFS2004, CFS ans B-17 a lot and want to make it run better.

Thanks. :Oo:

Hi

First off, you can't go wrong with 1024 MB Ram. That's what new games need to run smooth.
The rest depends though. I couldn't find the processor speed of your Gateway 1.8M (?).
So if you can find that out, it would be very helpful to decide on the other parts. (If you don't know how to, press [Start] -> [Run] -> type dxdiag and see the results there.)

But in general, it depends also on the amount of money you'd like to spend on it. If price doesn't matter, I'd reccomend another Mainboard and CPU if your CPU Speed now is lower than 2 ghz. You can buy AMD Processors such as a AMD64 3000+ really cheap. However, with such a processor and 1024 MB Ram, I'd suggest a videocard that performes appropriate. In this category would be for example a ATI x800Pro or a nVidia 6800 GT. But said cards would cost you a bit, around $350 or more.
CPU: AMD 64 3000+ = $148
Mainboard: Asus AV8 Deluxe = $99
Videocard: ATI/nVidia = $390 - $420


If you want a pricey solution, you may want to look further in to this card: nVidia 6600 GT AGP.
Make sure you look around for an AGP model, others won't fit in your mainboard. Without upgrading your processor, this card would cost you around $240.

Keep in mind that we can't give you a good suggest without knowing your whole configuration yet. It would be helpful to know such things as CPU, Mainboard, Videocard now, Soundcard and your Operating System.

Hope this helps a bit

Thanks for the welcome, Bucky.

I'll def check out those cards, thanks for the info, AH. My wife says it's either a carbon fiber hood, an exhaust system or cheap sport seats for my 99 eclipse or lavish and unecessary upgrades for my PC. Thought about an gaming chair, wireless 3d glasses and voice recog software from e-dementions, but figure that's all superfluous bubblegum i don't really need to add. So I opted for a pre order on GT4 for PS2, a graphix card and a 512 simm for the puter.

Originally posted by AntiHero@Dec 7 2004, 08:20 AM
look at the ATI X700pro and the Nvidia 6600. There only $200 and they give some really good gaming power. If you dont want to spend that much I would look at some of the midrange ATI cards.

The X700 is PCI Express only and I highly doubt that his mainboard supports that. Buying this card would result in changing CPU and mainboard also.

Don't really have the details on my home puter. I'm at the office. Off the top of my head though, I'm thinkin' 1.86 GHz pent4. The only upgrades I've done so far (internal) are the additional 512K mem chip. it's got the oem sound and no graphix card that i'm aware of. I'll have to post later with the actual details. My budget for anything I add though will have to be up to up to 500 bucks.

Thanks

its a 512 MB module, not 512 k chip

If you have already upgraded one stick of Ram then make sure the other stick is of the same make/quality/speed.

As Akherousin said, the X700 is PCI-E only so you will not want one of them.

I would suggest a second stick of Ram (512Mb) and a Radeon 9800XT, this will boost your gaming experience no end. :thumbup: :thumbup: