To upgrade or replace

[richard]

I'm thinking about either upgrading or replacing my main Windows PC at home at the moment but am unsure what would give better value for money.

The PC's spec's are as follows:

Pentium 4 3.0 GHz CPU
Ausus P4P800-VM Motherboard
2 GB DDR 400 Ram (4*512 sticks)
256 MB GeForce 6600 Graphics Card
320 GB Western Digital Sata drive
NEC Dual Layer DVD Rewriter

The machine currently runs Windows XP pro at present and I don't have any plans to upgrade to Vista yet.

I use the machine for a little bit of gaming, video editing and photoshop shop and but am possibly looking at doing more gaming as I now share a house with 3 other gamers.

So any suggestions?

[_Bat_]

Heck... I don't really think a PC with that spec needs upgrading IMO unless you are a real hardcore gamer.

My PC at home is trivial compared to that. I'm still with half a gig of RAM

[molesm]

As far as I can see the only way for you to improve the perfoamce would be to replace the processor, and hence the motherbaord, and hence the RAM and (mayby) hence the graphics card. That is if you need the extra performnace, I have got a core 2 2.4GHz and it does eveything i ask of it

[richard]

I was toying with replacing the RAM with 4*1Gig sticks but don't think that the performance boost that I would get would be huge. The only other thing could be changing the graphics card but as its AGP I think I'm going to be quite limited with the choices available.

[Geoff]

Chuck the machine and buy a new one if your serious about gaming. It's cheaper in the long run than throwing money at an old rig for half the performance improvement.

[richard]

I never used to be a serious gamer apart from things like Neverwinter Nights but I have now been introduced to F.E.A.R. and am getting hooked

[maniac]

If you really feel the need for a new machine, I would tend to build a new machine from the ground up, possibly keeping the HDD as this is still a good capacity.

Mike.

[richard]

HDD's are not an issue as I have another 320 GB SATA and 2 160 GB SATA's floating around at home at present

[Geoff]

It's cheaper to buy prebuilt systems than build your own these days.

[_Bat_]

I personally get my computers custom made from the local computer shop. Obviously they get the parts cheap because they are bought in bulk, which is why I don't build them myself. They are not brilliantly cheap, but certainly better spec and prices then the stuff you get at places like PC World.

[Ric_]

If you do upgrade, dual-core and a better graphics card are the two to change (of course the processor upgrade will require a new mobo and probably new RAM so you may as well replace).

[richard]

To be honest I think I might be better off speccing out a new machine and then looking at the costs of either building it my self or buying it though to be honest I don't really need to buy a new monitor as my 17" TFT is perfect for my needs at present.

[SteveT]

I've used these : linky for overclockers in the past to put together rigs to my spec but a lot cheaper than I can source. Problem is they do so much tasty kit that there is a great temtation to over-spec!!! ops: ops: ops:

[Geoff]

Indeed, my current machine is an overclockers built system.