BleepingComputer.com: Building a computer, or buy a new one

I have..
dell dimension 8300
pentium 4 ht 2.8 ghz
512 mb ram
soundblaster audigy sound card

i am wanting to upgrade, or make it into a gaming computer.
i want to play counter strike source on high. but i cant cause it takes forever.. on this rig.

I can either upgrade it, or buy another computer like a amd,alienware used from ebay? what u think.


(Moderator edit: thread moved to more appropriate forum. jgw)

This post has been edited by jgweed: 24 March 2009 - 09:17 AM

Hi, the first question is ...what is your budget? I would prefer to buy new M/B, cpu,ram and video card..and I would look at a new P/S.

like 220,-250$ right now.

It won't be much of a Crysis worthy upgrade, but you will get a definate increase in performance. I'm updating a PC's motherboard, CPU, and RAM. It will have the ASUS M3A78 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz, and two OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kits. It costs about $241 to make the modifications. This sort of upgrade is more of an overhaul since it is very extensive.

This post has been edited by DJBPace07: 24 March 2009 - 03:05 PM