New Graphics Card or Motherboard

[suntzu131]

Hi guys,

I wanted to get some feedback and opinion on which way to go. I currently have a really basic computer (pentium 4 2ghz) (2.5g ram) (no graphics card). The motherboard looks like it will only take a PCI (not E) graphics card. My whole point to upgrade my computer is to play the new Total War: Empire with fuill graphics.

My budget is around a $100 for this month and will probably have another 100 next month to shop.

Should I purchase a 1gb 128 bit regular PCI graphics card to float for the time being (hopefully will be correct settings to play the game) or should I invest in a motherboard now and wait one more month to buy a new AGP or PCI-E card?

 

[jyjjy]

I hate to tell you this but there's no way you are going to be playing that game on that computer. The processor is well below the minimum requirements and PCI video cards are just terrible for gaming in general.
What you will need is a not just a new motherboard, but also a new processor along with a video card. If that isn't DDR2 ram you will also need to replace it. The good news is that all of that doesn't need to be very expensive. A dual core processor several times better than your current chip can be had for $60ish(e5200 or an athlon II x2) and a cheap motherboard for it would cost about the same. An HD4670 is a good video card for low resolutions and can be had for $50-60 after rebate. 2 gigs of DDR2 is $40 these days.
That said if you are going to upgrade I would recommend spending more in the $300-500 range and doing it right so it will last a while(quadcore, 4 gigs of ram, better motherboard, new PSU/case, ect.)

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I hate to tell you this but there's no way you are going to be playing that game on that computer. The processor is well below the minimum requirements and PCI video cards are just terrible for gaming in general.
What you will need is a not just a new motherboard, but also a new processor along with a video card. If that isn't DDR2 ram you will also need to replace it. The good news is that all of that doesn't need to be very expensive. A dual core processor several times better than your current chip can be had for $60ish(e5200 or an athlon II x2) and a cheap motherboard for it would cost about the same. An HD4670 is a good video card for low resolutions and can be had for $50-60 after rebate. 2 gigs of DDR2 is $40 these days.
That said if you are going to upgrade I would recommend spending more in the $300-500 range and doing it right so it will last a while(quadcore, 4 gigs of ram, better motherboard, new PSU/case, ect.)

^ +1

Sorry but its time for a new computer if you want to game at all.

 

[megamanx00]

Save you're money. You're better off getting a barebones kit from CompUSA or something. Well, if you're really tight on money I would say go to new egg and get an AMD CPU/Motherboard Combo with a 785G motherboard and a cheap Athlon II. From there all you need to add is RAM and you should be able to use your old optical drive and hard drive. You may be able to use your Old PSU, maybe, but it would be best to get a new one.

 

[buzznut]

I like mega mans idea. There are some pretty nice combos in the range of $200 like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819103714&SubCategory=343&SortField=0&PageSize=10&page=1

I actually like the $300 deal better, but there are other deals available on the athlon II cpu's.

My sister has a dell from that era, they had agp then. In fact her stupid motherboard has oinboard agp graphics but no AGP slot?!? I tried to find a VGA card for her, but they didn't have enough memory. Anyway I have finally convinced her to upgrade that beast!