Help me out with my girlfriends rig.

A

-=Antimatter=-

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
3,343
I finally got a chance to peek inside her rig this week (It's some HP thing), and I found the following specs:

P4 3.0GHz Prescott
512MB PC3200 DDR Ram (1 stick, one slot free)
GeForce FX5200, passively cooled
HP ball mouse

I'm thinking of helping her upgrade it a bit as one of my options for a christmas present. She plays WoW casually and a couple older games, so it doesn't have to be a major upgrade. I think she would appreciate smoother framerates during raids, etc. I'm looking an $80 budget or so, so my options are as follows:

1. Buy more RAM
2. Replace FX5200 with 6600/6600gt AGP
3. MX518 along with some other gift

Which would you pick? Which one benefits WoW more? TIA
 
Get a 6600GT AGP card because the FX5200 has got to be severely limiting her performance.
 
I forgot to add that she plays in a fairly low res, like 1024x768 on a 17" LCD. I'm leaning more towards the RAM now, but eventually I'd like to do all 3.
 
RAM first. In addition to WoW improvements there will also be overall improvement which will be noticeable and appreciated. :)
 
General Crespin said:
RAM first. In addition to WoW improvements there will also be overall improvement which will be noticeable and appreciated. :)
Click to expand...


QFT...RAM would be my call first. Vid card second.
 
I'd say RAM. While a better video card would help with frame rates, more RAM would be noticeable in both everyday tasks and gaming. Besides, it's also cheaper. :)
 
The RAM is more expensive actually, the cheapest 1GB sticks are $90 on Newegg...I might consider grabbing 512MB for an even gig unless I can find some used RAM here.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
The RAM is more expensive actually, the cheapest 1GB sticks are $90 on Newegg...I might consider grabbing 512MB for an even gig unless I can find some used RAM here.
Click to expand...

Oh I thought you were upgrading to 512MB Ram. You can probably find a gig of ram for $80 somewhere in the For Sale Forum.
 
SarverSystems said:
She's your girlfriend right? You gotta ram her man!
Click to expand...

^_^

Looks like I'm going with a 512MB stick as one of my gifts. I actually don't remember if the fx5200 was AGP or PCI, so I don't want to risk blowing money on something she can't use.

Anyone know if I need to match timings to get it to run in dual channel mode? I think the stick in there is 3-4-4-8 or 3-8-8-8, I can't remember exactly.
 
InCogneato said:
http://www.buy.com/prod/Kingston_1GB_400MHZ_DDR_PC3200_DIMM_Memory/q/loc/101/10396963.html

check it out, 87 bucks shipped, just in case you are indeed looking for an 80 dollar 1GB RAM option.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but Google Checkout doesn't work for that item, I get the following message :"We're sorry, one or more of the items in your basket do not allow the use of this service."

In all honesty $90 is probably too much cash for me to be spending right now. I'll still RAM her, just not quite as much.
 
The ram first.... Wow really doesn't work well on 512, moving to 1 gig will make a massive difference in lag in ironforge and other big cities and raids..

The video card will make it look better but personally I'd rather look at a smooth, ugly screen than a pretty, laggy screen.
 
Get a used set of ValueSelect or similar 2x512 (sell the 512 you've got, in my expierence, OEM sticks from Nanya & similar usually have grossly high CAS latencies and don't play well with enthusiast/aftermarket sticks from Corsair, OCZ, etc)., then a used 6800(GT) or X800. Cheapest upgrade path that'll make that PC a useful workstation for another few years even when its past its gaming prime.
 
I've got a 1GB stick of Corsair that I'm selling; I'll let you have it for $105 shipped (my cost) if you're interested (thread in FS forum)?
 
drizzt81 said:
who knows if the PSU is up to that.
Click to expand...

I'm also not sure if she has an agp slot or not, see my post above.

Thanks for the offer General, but I really don't have the cash to blow right now, she'll have to settle for 512. Spending a lot on DDR these days doesn't make much sense to me with all the new systems using DDR2. It would be nice to have a matched pair of 2x512mb though.
 
I've got a pair of vs512mb400, corsair value select, cas 3, 2 x 512... $80 shipped.. dekard at overclockingwiki.org if you are interested.
 
If she doesn't have an agp slot, they make 6200's for PCI slots.
Only $30 ish at newegg. Should boost performance somewhat over the 5200.


Just FYI, you will get more thread views if you used the word "box" instead of "rig".
 
mobiux said:
If she doesn't have an agp slot, they make 6200's for PCI slots.
Only $30 ish at newegg. Should boost performance somewhat over the 5200.


Just FYI, you will get more thread views if you used the word "box" instead of "rig".
Click to expand...

lol
 
I have a perfectly good R9700P BBATI sitting in a sound card box getting no action that could go for about $40.00 shipped. Just drop me a line if interested. Much better FPS over a 5200. However I would get 1GB of ram 1st.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top