Newbie gamer looking to upgrade computer.

L

libnewb

Geek Trainee
My daughter is a casual gamer and she's looking to improve our computer's performance, as well as graphics.

Computer specs:

1.6 GHz Intel Pentium M 730
12 MB DDR2 400 MHz ram
60 GB Ultra ATA Fujitsu 4200rpm hard drive
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 GM

I have a budget of about $200. Would it make more sense to only upgrade the RAM and video card? Your ideas are greatly appreciated!
 
12 mb ram????
are you sure its not 128

do me a favor and type in good PC wizard 2006 and download it
it will breakdown her pc specs

what kind of games does she play ,colorful one or battlefied 2,FEAR,Age of empire and such
 
and for me just looking you dont have specs right ddr2 lowest speed is 533 mhz and you say it 400 mhz perhaps it only DDR or maybe SD?

Well if she doesnt play demending games ,(how she would with the current set-up ) ,RAM is always good to have more of ,thought investing in a nvida GPU like this ,Newegg.com - BIOSTAR GeForce 6200A V6202AL26 Video Card - Retail (AGP slot i presume)

and than ram ill guess is ddr so like Newegg.com - WINTEC 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Desktop Memory - Retail

and that like what 100 dollars

you need to tell me cpu socket beacuse that CPU is lacking in power to keep up with the other stuff
 
Oops my apologies. Here are the specs again:

1.6 GHz Intel Pentium M 730
512 MB DDR 400 MHz ram

My processor socket is socket 479.

Also, I know that she plays Battlefield 2 and Age of Empire.

Thank you very much for your help!
 
Is this a laptop?

Those specs look like laptop specs to me, if it is then upgrading the video card will probably be a no-no.

OJ beater: you can get 400MHz DDR2, it's just not widely used that's all.
 
Upgrading this might be just a case of putting more RAM in.

A new graphics card probably isn't an option then, most laptops don't allow for that kind of upgrade.
 
yep ,wha kind of games does she play , no GPU upgrade with laptops , and if she want to play demadeing games everthing is lacking
 
She has only played World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2 and Age of Empire... Since I am not familiar, are these considered demanding?

What would I need to upgrade in order to make my computer more compatible for demanding games?
 
Well for

Battlefield 2-
Minimum Specification:
CPU: 1.7 GHz
RAM: 512 Mb
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700, ATI Radeon 8500 or ATI Radeon 9500
With 128 Mb of RAM


World of Warcraft-
Windows® System 98/ME/2000/XP OS:
* 800 MHz or higher CPU.
* 256 MB or more of RAM.
* 32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware Transform and Lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better.
* 4 GB or more of available hard drive space.
* DirectX® 9.0c or above.
* A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection.

So yes, the laptop is lacking, well for the most part all you can do is upgrade RAM, which won't do much if CPU or GPU is way under, she has integrated graphics which means it takes from her other system resources and overall downgrade performance also he CPU is fast enough but you will have to turn everything down

You could try upgrading RAM but that is pretty much all you can do, what about building a desktop, you will still have to drop more than 200 dollars
I have a laptop I got and it was about 1800 American, and it can play BF2 but I cannot turn anything up

Therefore, you may have to save up a bit and get a desktop or drop 800 dollars so she can walk around while fraging people............ (Very hard)

However, if you still want to try to upgrade ram go to Memory upgrades from Crucial.com - Determine My Memory Needs
You can tell me your results so I can point you where to buy the ram
 
Although WoW states a 56k min spec connection this really isn't feasible and would create so much lag that it would be unplayable. A Broadband connection is a minimum really.
 
Good advice. Ya know what, I think Im gonna put my money towards a desktop then. She needs her own computer anyhow and it just seems she'll have better performance with one, rather than with my dinky old laptop.

Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top