Old worn out pc - worth upgrade?

betsy

betsy

Geek Trainee
Hi guys,
Think my pc has finally kicked the bucket. It works but its not coping with my demands, firstly when I play games I get blank squares instead of pictures and I tried to have a look at the second life website and it said my graphics card wasn't good enough.
Can anyone advise if I can just adjust my current settings or if I should get a new graphics card, and if I get a new graphics card will I need to upgrade anything else? (Obviously the cheapest option with the best performance)

My current hardware:

Processor
700 megahertz AMD Duron
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
64 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Mobo
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6340(VT8363)
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 12/13/2000

RAM
624 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'BANK_0' has 512 MB
Slot 'BANK_1' has 128 MB

Hard drive
(NTFS on drive 0) 18.96 GB 3.50 GB free

Graphics
S3 Graphics ProSavage 8A26 (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]

Media
Standard Game Port
VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (WDM)

Can anyone tell me how I can make this into a super mean machine?!
 
It really depends on what you use it for. If it is just for text processing, e-mail, websurfing, etc... you could stick with it. If you plan to do any serious gaming or resource hungry tasks on that, (IMO) I would just get a new pc. Yes, you could increase performance through upgrading, but with that rig upgrading will only go so far.
 
Well, Besty.

I'm no expert and I'm sure other far more knowledgeable people will chip in with advice, but looking at the specs you have provided, it rather looks like you should be thinking of getting a new PC, as just about everything you have, apart from the amount of memory, seems rather old to cope with today's general sofware demands.

I'm not sure about the graphics issue re: you playing games, but the graphics you have in your PC are onboard (I think) and are probably generally considered as sub-standard as far as gaming is concerned.

I don't know which OS you are using - I'll assume it Windows XP- which is probably quiet demanding of the current specs that you have illustrated. Your present specs might perform better if you were to install one of the Linux distros as your OS, as opposed to using what I think might be Windows XP.

Other than that, I would say that you should consider the purchase of a new PC, that's specs will, overall, be considerably better than what you have at present.
 
Oh bum, thats not what I wanted to hear although it is what I expected.
I know its really old as when I bought it it came with millennium edition so it must be near enough 7 years old.
The only thing I have upgraded is the RAM.
I think a new pc is out of the question so do you think I can get a graphics card that will compatible with such low spec. I know the S3 prosavage is now obsolete but is there anything simular which will impove it.

I am using XP now and I only use it for downloading music, one game (sim city:rush hour) and the occasional transfer of home video to cd, other than that just emails, could I get away with just an upgrade for that use?
 
Okay, something like this might be worth a try if you have an AGP slot on your mobo (although I think there is probably a good equivilent for a PCI socket).

eBay.co.uk: New 128MB ATI Radeon 9250 8x AGP Graphics Card, Power (item 130071772192 end time 26-Jan-07 21:07:07 GMT)

The above is actually what I've got - I used to have the onboard Pro Savage, like you. I've found the card quiet good, but I can't vouch for how good it will be for playing the game you mention because I'm not a gamer. However, I'm wondering if your processor speed might be a bit on the low side for what you want re: gaming - perhaps others can advise.
 
It depends on what kind of graphics slot you have on that PC. Hopefully you have an AGP slot, if not an extra PCI slot.

Second Life isn't really that demanding, at least from the recommended system specs Iv'e seen. Here are the cards that I would get on a budget, iv'e personally used this one in my previous computer; it got the job done:

EVGA GeForce FX 5500 256MB DDR AGP 8X VGA DVI TV Out Video Card 256-A8-N313-LX at TigerDirect.com

It's an AGP card, if you don't have an AGP slot you have to get a PCI video card, which won't perform as well, seeing as PCI has significantly less bandwidth than AGP. Still, if you want to run any new games, you will need a complete system overhaul.

If you have the cash, you can get a card for a 40$ more that will run circles around the cheaper one, but you might need a new power supply:

XFX GeForce 6800 Xtreme 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8x Dual DVI HDTV Video Card PVT42KVDE3 at TigerDirect.com
 
Thats fantastic, thanks both of you. I'm pretty sure I don't have AGP but I do have a spare PCI slot.

One last question. Would I be limited to a certain range of card considering how old my set up is? I mean if I bought the best on the market would my processor struggle or should I just stick to a lower performance graphic card?
 
DavidNW said:
Okay, something like this might be worth a try if you have an AGP slot on your mobo (although I think there is probably a good equivilent for a PCI socket).
Click to expand...

Hold the phone! From the description, I would first check, in case you do have an AGP slot, what voltage it uses. Old motherboards tend to use 3.3V AGP slots and I am 99% certain that the ATI Radeon 9200 family use 1.5V (or thereabouts).

I could be completely off course here but it is worth checking before you fry a brand new G card.
 
sabashuali said:
Hold the phone! From the description, I would first check, in case you do have an AGP slot, what voltage it uses. Old motherboards tend to use 3.3V AGP slots and I am 99% certain that the ATI Radeon 9200 family use 1.5V (or thereabouts).

I could be completely off course here but it is worth checking before you fry a brand new G card.
Click to expand...

It might be worth checking out, but my mobo is actualy older than Betsy's and I have no trouble running my ATI Radeon 9250 card - that's why I suggested it in the first place.
 
betsy said:
Thats fantastic, thanks both of you. I'm pretty sure I don't have AGP but I do have a spare PCI slot.

One last question. Would I be limited to a certain range of card considering how old my set up is? I mean if I bought the best on the market would my processor struggle or should I just stick to a lower performance graphic card?
Click to expand...

You would not be limited, but your processor would be a real bottleneck for the processor; it would be not fast enough to supply a high end card with enough data to get the card's full potential. Not only would your CPU hold it back, but also your power supply. If the system you are using is a name brand, like dell, the power supply might not be able to deliver enough power to the system because of a new card. You should check into that. If it is a custom system, than you are probably fine.

Heres a nice tool to help you find how much power your comp uses:
eXtreme Power Supply Calculator - What Power Supply Do I Need

Well, happy to help, off to exams:)
 
well if you got the budget for it a newer pc ,even a cheap 350 dollar one would be stabliler and withmore ram more application oppwen and less chance of it failing out of the blue ,along with more storage ,fater loading ,and it would be shiney
 
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