Hi, i need some advise on some PC parts. Im gunna buy a PC off a mate but without the graphics card and RAM. It has a 2.56 Ghz Intel processor and a 160Gb Hard Drive. Im getting it for £70 so, no complaining here. It has no PCI-Express Slot, only AGP and PCI. Im gunna upgrade the Mobo and Processor at a later date.

Is this Graphics card - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=GX-162-SP - good for gaming, like CSS and Half-life etc, what FPS would it get?

Is 2gb of RAM enough to handle future games? is there a limit to the amount of RAM you can put into a PC? can i put any speed RAM into the PC without worry?

Thanks

That should be OK for CS and Half-Life 2, I'd say at least 60fps on high at up to 1600x1200, as for RAM 2GB would be fine for most things and more than enough for everything else, even games like Crysis don't need much mire.

id only be running games on 1280x768. Is there an FPS difference in running games windowed as to full screen?

The GPU is alright, just keep in mind its performance will suffer more than it's Nvidia counterpart when you start enabling anti-aliasing etc.

Not to say Rifleman is wrong, but depending on what model that CPU is exactly the FPS for those settings could be as low as 40 stable, rather than 60.

Remember we are talking about old source engine builds however though I still see your point.

Its an Intel Celeron D 2.56Ghz Processor. Only problem with it is that the socket for it is '478', i can't seem to find any dual-core ones of the same socket...

I did the stress test on all high dx9, no aa, no af, no hdr and colour correction disabled with simple reflection water at 1280x768 and got 60fps, this is on a 1GB RAM Celeron D 3.3GHz but a worse graphics card of 7600GS. If I use the same settings with DX 8.1 I get 66 FPS.

well is there:

A motherboard with: 'PCI-Epress' - Socket '478' - 'PCI' Slots

or

A better 'AGP' Graphics Card for less than £90

Well in source it's quite CPU limited, especially in that range of processors but the only better card for £90 would perhaps be an x1950pro, as far as I know you won't find a 16x PCI-E boards in 478.

I've been stuck with socket 478 unable to upgrade anything too for the past 3 years. Happy days. I think there was PCI-e motherboards for it, or at least I remember hearing about one once, but good luck finding any still in production/stock

get a better pc soon, k hun? <3

alright thank alot for the help.

You too, k lover? <3

Ok, ive come to a conclusion. Is this a good gaming rig (im not a hardcore gamer) and is it good for Image and Web design etc.:

Intel Celeron D 2.5GhZ
2GB DDR2 800MhZ (2x1GB)
ATi Radeon HD2600 XT 256mb
HP w19 monitor
160GB Hard-Drive
(all other things like soundcard etc. are basic ones)

Im not wanting a PC for Next Gen games, just for games like HL2, CSS etc.

The Celeron will hurt you, but yeah if you literally just want to play Source or older games then it'll be ok.

But you won't be playing then on high. dx9 with bells and whistles.

really? i have:

AMD 1.8GhZ - 1GB DDR2 - ATi Radeon 200Series

and i get 40fps on high on CSS... would the new build only get me similar? and would it be even in FPS to a 8600GT, a mate just got one for xmas and he gats like 200fps and when ive looked at tests for the ATi card its always similar...

He said in DX9.

oh, so for source etc. i will be fine, future games i will lack on?

Source is DX9.

ok, thanks olot for the help. Now, can any motherboard take DDR and DDR2?

No.

There are motherboards that accept both DDR and DDR2 but there aren't many.

how can you find out what it accepts?

It usually says, only one out now is an Asrock but you might as well get some ddr2 it's so cheap.

the PC is second hand, i just wanna know how you check so i can find out

The one Asrock board in question is a heap of shit, not just because it's Asrock, but in supporting both it sacrifices available slots limiting the total amount you can have. It's also discontinued as far as I know which for the sake of simplicity is why I did say, no it doesn't exist, don't bother.

Just get whatever the RAM the board supports... If you don't know what that is look up the board / read documentation. If you're having issues with this you might just want to take it to someone who knows what they're doing to do it for you.

only problem with that is: DDR is more expensive than DDR2... on overclockers.co.uk

That's because it's old now, so either stay with what you have or upgrade your pc altogether if you don't want to waste money on DDR.

alrite, ye makes sence. Thanks for the help btw.

This is my new build. Im gunna still buy the Hard-Drive off of my mate, that way ill be getting a HDD and OS cheap.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ 2.50GHz - £65
ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB - £95
Foxconn 6150M2MA-KRS2H Micro ATX - £35
4GB (4x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 - £50
XClio 6030 PLUS Black Midi Tower Gaming Case - £35
Hiper 530w HPU-4M530 SLi Certified ATX 2.2 PSU - £40

Will all this work togeather? It comes to £320, i was gunna get a 8800GT 512mb but it pushed the price to £400 and thats gunna take me longer to get.

I'd just wait until you can afford a Core 2 setup and perhaps an 8800GT, that power supply is a little too cheap to be good, one way to save money if you are going with that build would be to get 2GB of ram, you won't really be needing 4GB any time soon.

Doubled.

The 2.5+ intel processor are quite expensive and im not a serious gamer, I have a choise between:

ATi Radeon HD3850 Pro 256mb
ATi Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB
PNY GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB
or save and get...
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 256MB

All similar price at £95, apart from 8800GT which is £130

You don't need a 2.5GHz one, A 2.0GHZ Core 2 beats that AMD and can be had for £60 or less.

But out of those get the 3850 if you want to spend less than £100 but if you can stretch to that 8800 then You'll certainly notice a difference ut the 3850's are quite good value for money.

alright ill save for the 8800GT, what am i looking out for for fittings on Hard-Drives?

Fittings on hard drives? Installing them is really easy, the case should have all the fittins you need, if you want to know what to get I'd say an 160GB+ 7200rpm 16MB cache, something like a seagate or western digital.

does the HardDrive fit to the moBo, like with a cable if so is there differnet sizes or is it all universal? Is 3.5' the Case unversal size?

oh, and can you transfer everything (inc. OS) from on Hard-Drive to another?

It'd be best to backup music, pictures, bookmarks etc instead of the whole thing. That way you dont get a load of old drivers and what have you.

no.. erm.. right. A mate is gunna give me his old PC's Hard-Drive with the OS on it, its 80GB and has XP. This way ill save like £120. Im gunna use the HDD untill i have the money for a new one. I want to know how i can transfer the OS from one to another, thus making it so i dont have to buy an OS when i get a good Hard-Drive.

That's not possible from any conventional method really, big hardware changes can also set off Windows activation/registration/bullshit thingy I think? Just get the disc.

ok, thanks.

Ps. every time you post i laugh at your avatar... doesn't get old...

You can find out the key though and install it again if you can find a new disk.

does that SystemInformation Program tell you?

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml

Ignore the crappy site.

one more thing. Are you saying that: Intel Core2Duo 2.20ghz is better than AMD 2.5ghz?

yep

ok.. i lost for motherboards now.. would it be possible for some one to find me one to fit a:

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB)

on: www.overclockers.co.uk

Thanks

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....rodid=MB-000-OK
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....id=5&subcat=913
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....id=5&subcat=174
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....id=5&subcat=326
??