BleepingComputer.com: Upgrading My Computer?

Here are my PC's specs:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3500+
MSI RS482M2/RX482M2 (MS-7093) (3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
ATI Radeon Xpress 200, AMD Hammer
1280 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
NVIDIA GeForce 6200SE TurboCache™ (256 MB)

I would also like to ask that,does my motherboard support the adding of two graphic cards?I need your opinions on what to upgrade.The PC is primarily used for gaming.

Your motherboard only has the one PCI-E X16 slot, this means that you can't run Crossfire or SLI. There are a couple of things that you can do in increase your performance though, adding more RAM will help, and upgrading the graphics card can help as well. If you upgrade the graphics card be sure that your PSU's 12V rail will support not only the wattage, but the amperage as well.

This motherboard is capable of running the RAM in dual channel. This requires that the modules be run in pairs, and must have matching specifications. You have four expansion slots with a maximum capacity of 1GB per slot.

You could go to Crucial and use their scan to see what you have for RAM and see what they suggest to match it.

This post has been edited by dc3: 18 September 2008 - 08:04 PM

I was running a similar rig awhile back and I found that for gaming (which I do a fair amount of myself) A video card and RAM upgrade got better results for frames per second and upgrading from XP home sp2 to XP pro sp3 seemed to stop my games from crashing as often. I have only had 2 gaming sessions crash on me since the upgrade and they were both my own fault for playing before I updated the games. For truly great performance though (in my own opinion) I had to start a system from scratch. If you want to see what a good Crysis rig ( the game Crysis) for around 500$ looks like go to my profile and see what I'm currently running. Thats a pic of the new rig under my user name. One other little note, crossfire and sli modes do provide a better gaming experience but are not required. I have not tried either mode myself as of yet. the video card I recently installed in my new rig has delivered rock solid performance so I haven't felt the need. If you want to save a couple bucks and still have a great game experience just use one great video card and buy more ram. ram is cheaper than two video cards and you won't have to buy a new mobo yet.

This post has been edited by zedsed420: 18 September 2008 - 01:26 PM

Deleted, wrong thread .

Louis

This post has been edited by hamluis: 18 September 2008 - 05:26 PM

Although you have one PCI-E x16, you can get a 9800 GX2 or a 4870 X2 and get close to the same framerates as a SLI or Crossfire system.

I recently checked the prices of RAM and a 1 GB stick costs only around SGD70!!Is it really that affordable?

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Can anyone explain to me that answer above?I didn't know that upgrading your card requires upgrading power supply/amperage.

This post has been edited by j0nath4n: 19 September 2008 - 03:01 AM

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Quite simply the newer cards require more power. Older cards used to be powered right off the bus on the motherboard. Newer cards take6 or 8 pin Molex type plugs with 3 or 4 separate 12V circuits
I don't know the specs. or voltage requirements for what you want off the top of my head, but with my 9800 I'm using a 750 watt Seasonic

I did some checking and the average price for a gig of ram is around 30 dollars. Video cards with enough ram to achieve decent frame rates for gaming are much more expensive than that

Does this mean I have 2 RAM Sticks inside?Since I keep getting BSOD randomly and I strongly suspect a faulty ram is the cause.

This post has been edited by j0nath4n: 19 September 2008 - 11:27 PM

If you believe you have faulty memory run Memtest86 for a few hours. That should help you determine if you have memory problems.

I know but do I have 2 ram sticks inside?

Download SIW and click on memory, it will list what you have.

another great tool for easily viewing your pc specs can be found here Belarc advisor Its very informative and really easy to use and understand. I've neen using it myself for many years. And its completely free.

This post has been edited by zedsed420: 20 September 2008 - 09:14 AM

Sorry for reviving this thread....I'm upgrading to a Geforce 8800 GT and maybe a faster AMD X2 processor.Do I need to upgrade my PSU too?

NVidia suggests a bare minimum of 400W for an 8800GT. I suggest getting more than that, perhaps a 500 watt or higher. NVidia's recommendation factors in the CPU and other peripherals, although actual power consumption will vary due to differences in the components.