http://www.amethystandjade.com/amethyst-inc/
Your opinion on what i should buy to make my comp better/faster.?
Here are my specs…
Mainboard :MSI AMETHYST-M
Chipset :ATI RS482
Processor :AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ @ 2200 MHz
Physical Memory :2048 MB (4 x 512 DDR-SDRAM @200MHz)
Video Card :ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1300 Series (@400MHz Core Clock)
Hard Disk :ST3300831AS (300 GB)
Hard Disk :Maxtor (400 GB)
Monitor Type :X193W – 19 inches
Monitor Type :L22W-5 – 22 inches
PSU: 300W
By the way, i am someone who uses their comp 10 hours a day and im heavily into gaming and working on office 2007 etc.
Thankyou!!
Most of your system is pretty good and will do fine for everything except a really really high end gaming rig, which would require you to replace all your stuff.
From what you’ve said there I’d say you have two to three main problems:
Video Card: An X1300 is an old low end card which totally sucks. I did some calculations and because of your 300W power supply and old power hungry processor, you will have to upgrade it. That said, I think the 9600GT is a great card and that is what I would recommend if you’re willing to put down $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121229
about 10% slower you got your 8800 GS for $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130332
If that’s too much, the 8600 GT or HD 2600 XT with DDR3 are good options. Given your monitor I’d take the 512mb gddr3 2600XT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102703
Just to give you an idea about these cards, 9600GT’s are about 10% faster than 8800 GS’s and about 100-200% faster than 2600XT’s.
Regardless, I checked and you have to change PSU to use any decent card:
This OCZ is 500W, which is plenty for almost any non-SLI/CF system, cheap, and good quality:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012&Tpk=OCZ%2b500W
Lastly, the one other problems you MIGHT have is your memory. If it is DDR-200 then it’s really slow and you should change it out for DDR-400. That said, if you are giving the single data rates not the double data rates, then you have the best ram for your board and you’re good.
You will be able to max most games on the 9600 GT like Bioshock and Frontlines, but Crysis will probably be a medium game. You might have to tone down the settings a bit for the 8800GS. The 2600XT will run most news games like bioshock on medium+ and crysis on medium/low.
As for office apps, the best thing to speed up your computer is to whipe windows and get a nice clean slate. There are really no upgrades left besides video card for your machine without changing out mobo, cpu, and ram, which is expensive and IMO not worth while unless you’re willing to pour about $600 into your machine.
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