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[tipsyhitman]

Ok I Have $230 to spend, and im thinking of getting a new motherboard and video card. Could someone post a link to them on newegg. Also i want a decent processor not like the one i have now. Im prolly also going to get a new cpu case, i prolly have to anyway.
My Computer Specs:
HP Vectra VL
nVidia Geforce 440mx
320 ram
450mhz processor
Floppy Drive
2x 4GB HardDrive
Wireless Internet
Windows 2000
Floppy Drive (I dont use it)
CD-Rom (used for cd games)


Or am i better off getting a barebone kit?

[Catfish]

With that setup, I'd toss most of what you have and look at a new motherboard and processor... you can survive w/the 440mx for a while if you can get a decent CPU/board (and probably memory).  Anything P4 or K7 (Athlon XP) or newer... best case would be to just save the cash for a bit and get some more to put towards a system.  You're basically putting band-aids on a severed limb right now :/

[Supermercado]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but what do you intend to use the computer for? It's not a very powerful machine by any stretch so odds are, it'd be best-used as a router or something along those lines.

[tipsyhitman]

Well gaming.
Here is a list of games that I play on it already
Quake 3: Arena
Quake 2
Jedi Outcast
Enemy Territory
Tribes 1

[Catfish]

Are we talking actually play them on that computer, or do you play them on something that sits on that computer, hence "play on it"...

lol, seriously though, if you're looking at gaming of any sort, it's time to hang that rig up and move on... though, I do really REALLY miss Tribes now that I see that in the list, heh (/me goes searching through 10-year-old CDs)

[tipsyhitman]

Tribes is now free, get it from fileplanet. But i actually play these games using this computer.

[Catfish]

"To celebrate the upcoming release of Tribes: Vengeance, Vivendi Universal Games and FilePlanet have partnered to bring you a free download of the award winning PC action game Starsiege: Tribes."

meh, ain't that somethin...


And I'd still recommend a new box, I don't think it's worth trying to find anything to fit into what you have... can it be done, probably... is it worth it, probably not :/

[LostArtofRolando]

here's what I got like 6 months ago, and it runs real well... not top of the line, but a bargain leaving you room to still get other stuff

MOTHERBOARD
ASUS A8N5X $72.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569

CPU
AMD ATHLON VENICE 3500+ $74.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533

VIDEO CARD
XFX GEFORCE 7300 GT 512MB DDR2 $114.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2493757&CatId=1826

My video card is actually an XFX GeForce 6800 512MB DDR3 that I got for around $120 but I didn't find it anywhere.

So for about $250, you can run with something that will blow your old system out of the water.  It's only a middle of the pack compared to what's out there though.

EDIT: YIKES, I just looked at teh RAM you have... That needs to be bumped up to at least 512MB, if not 1GB.  I run with 2GB, which may be unneccessary.  maybe wait until you have another 50 bucks to throw towards RAM.

[jitspoe]

Save up about $1000 and buy a real gaming machine if you can.  There's really nothing worth keeping in your old one - it sounds about 10 years outdated and 3 or 4 generations behind.  For $230, you might be able to get a new motherboard and processor, but none of your old hardware is going to be compatible.  You'll need new memory and a video card, and 8 gigs of space isn't going to get you anywhere with modern games. That's enough for about 1 game.

[tipsyhitman]

Well im not going to play those newer games cause if they are good my bro buys em for his comp and plays it on his and i can play most of time

[LostArtofRolando]

well, then I'd go to a computer fair or something like it.... you can buy second hand stuff for dirt cheap.

[tipsyhitman]

Ok, is it possible to build a computer, using a barebone kit, buying some ram, a vid card? I got a OS, a cdrom drive and a 10-15gb harddrive with 2x 4gb harddrives. Is this all i need? I was looking at the partitions on the 2nd harddrive, and saw 3 gigs of used space on another partition other then the primary one. I looked at and stuff. It was linux, i was like wtf. So i deleted it and added the space to the primary one. So its a 6gig harddrive

[anarchy]

isnt 200 bucks for a new mother board and video card kind of...limiting?

wont he need a new processor too?

[Supermercado]

Almost definitely. You're not going to find a new motherboard that will take a processor that old. Probably a PII or something, isn't it? I bet you could find a motherboard/processor combo and then tack on a video card on top of it. It's going to be hard to do for $200, though.

[SkateR]

Uhm, i suggest you just save up money for a new computer. That thing is terrible, lol. Just save around 500 bucks and you can get a decent computer thats 100x better than that thing.