Complete N00b needs advice

[charliereddog]

Hi all, first post here. I'm a complete novice when it comes to the inner components of a PC. In the past I've managed to fit first a CDR, and then a DVD drive and upgrade my RAM, but that's about it. At the moment, my current pc is:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 2.13Ghz
1.5Gb DDR PC3200 200mhz RAM
GeForce FX 5200 w 128mb DDR
Motherboard - MSI MS-6570 k7n2 Delta (L\\ILSR)
I've got two HDD's, a CDRW and a DVD-R as well as a floppy.

Now at the moment, my PC is doing pretty much what I want it to. It plays most games ok, Operation Flashpoint still being my main game, although it runs Brothers in Arms ok mostly on medium settings. However, I am looking at upgrading to be able to run Armed Assault, which seems to have extremely high end requirements.

I'm guessing I have two or possibly three routes,
1) Complete new system (but what to do with the old, and how to get all my software ported over etc
2) Upgrade a few bits here and there from new
3) Upgrade a few bits here and there from second hand.

My problem is that I don't have a scooby about what goes with what. While my pc was a custom build in the sense it was done in someone's garage, the only input I had was \"I want to play this, and I want to be able to do that\" etc. Am I going to be able to upgrade this in any meaningful way?

I've a budget of about £200 at the moment, but if it requires a new system, is it going to be possible to make any savings, or recoup any cash from my present system?

Sorry for the long post, don't want to end up not giving the right information. Your help is much appreciated.

Gavin

[Belso]

If you have the cash i recommend build yourself a Intel Conroe system.

Sell everything from your last system, but keep your HDD's, DVD-R and Floppy.

Move everything you want to keep from the main hard drive to the spare one.

Make a note of software and program's ect... where to find them..

Once the new computer arrives, build it, and install Windows on the main hard drive.

Insert the spare as a slave and you will have kept all your data.

Reinstall programs and games.

Jobs a Good'UN!!! 8)

[charliereddog]

Thanks for the reply. As I said, I've a budget of about £200. How much cash am I likely to recoup from selling bits? (i'm guessing here you mean Ebay or the like? Is there a better place? Is my stuff even worth anything?)

Secondly, a conroe system is likely to be what £? My hunch is that it's going to be significantly more than my budget and any cash I can recoup.

[charliereddog]

Would this http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=25036 be able to slot into my AGP slot on my mobo? Is it any good? Obviously I am thinking that it's going to be a significant improvement over my 5200? one of the criticisms of Armed Assault has been that it needs a lot of CPU power, and also a decent graphics card to make it work at all.

[Firerat]

Well...

the cheapest Conroe
http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.a...age=1&SortBy=1
is going to leave you with about 74 quid left for MainBoard, Memory, Graphics card and PSU :shock:

[Belso]

Read the post a little to fast.

You really need a new processor and graphics card tbh mate.

So maybe... a Sempron AM2, New Motherboard PCI-E Slot., PCI-E Graphics Card and a New Power Supply and a 1GB of ram with looking to upgrading that to 2GB when you can?

:wink:

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[charliereddog]

Again, thanks for the replies.

I can't add any more cash to the budget than i've already done. As for the credit card, well I get interest free for a month anytime of the year, so your suggestions just plain silly

Unfortunately, we're not all graced with the bottomless pockets of the technology chasers. I've a mortgage to pay, a new front door to buy, a new central heating boiler and system.... the list goes on. £200 really IS the limit. If I can't get where I want, ie Armed Assault, then i will stay as I am. At the end of the day, I've got till february till its released but I can't realistically see any great increase in funding becoming available.

Can anyone comment on the compatibility of the graphics card I posted?

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[charliereddog]

So, no need to jump down my throat eh?

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause offence, hence the word silly and the smilie, rather than \"F off\". Anywhoo, moving on. Thanks for the more indepth answer. I see what you are getting at now with the credit card statement. Might be something to look into I guess.

If I'm going to be looking at a totally new system, I guess I'd definately need to sell my current pc, or parts of it. I'd obviously keep my two HDD's and DVD Drive. Is that all I would be able to retain? Again, my question remains, what sort of money would i expect to be recouping? Are we talking tens of pounds, or a hundred?

When it comes to speccing out a whole new system, i really don't know where to start.

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[Belso]

If your system can hold out for a bit longer mate i would look at upgrading just after the new year.

Try and save up another £100 or so and sell your system for around £100+ your looking at a better budget of around £400+ 8)

[charliereddog]

So there's nothing worth keeping at all, not even my RAM and HDD's and DVD drive? I suppose I could buy another smaller HDD to put in?

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[charliereddog]

right, OK, I've bitten the bullet and faced facts that I will need to get a new computer if I'm to play ArmA or indeed any new game. Having said this, I've never built a pc, so I've picked out the following as an initial benchmark. Unfortunately it comes to £656 without anything I've forgotten/omitted which is about £200 more than I can reasonably justify.

Processor - C2D E6400 Retail (saves me £55)OR
E6600 Retail. £199.62

MoBo - Asrock Conroexfire-eSATA2 775 - £56.36

GFx - Gainward Bliss 7900GS 512mb PCI-E - £164.44

HD - 200GB Seagate Barracuda 10 SATA2 £52.82

RAM - Arianet High Perf 1GB DDR2 667 - £76.32

Case - Aspire X-Plorer Black Neon Midi - £52.88

PSU - Xilence ATX2.0 480w PSU - £53.99

As said, this is way over my budget so 3 questions,

1) How can I bring the cost down sufficiently but retain the performance

2) Are the components above all I would need, anything missing (I've omitted floppy and DVD which I have in current system. I would look at buying new for the pennies they are but I can't afford the current total )

3) Are the above components compatible. Have I made any cockups?

Oh, and I'll also be needing to get an O/S for it, as my current rig is, shall we say, not going to be earning any Bill Gates Loyalty bonus's

Cheers.