I am looking to upgrade my motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card, primarily to make the system capable of playing Grand Theft Auto 4. On my current system, GTA4 refused to run due to my video card not being sufficient to run the game. I don't care about running the game with every option maxed out, but I would like to run it with a decent frame rate. BTW, I am planning on installing WinXp Pro on this, as I see no signifcant benefit to updating to Win 7.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: within 1 month
BUDGET RANGE: Around $500 or less (upgrading 4 parts)
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, movies, e-mail, web browsing
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, case, sound card, disk drives, possibliy hard drives
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: None - Will probably buy the parts from a local shop. Links may be useful to check out the parts.
PARTS PREFERENCES: None
OVERCLOCKING: Not interested. Never done it. Don't see a significant enough benefit.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: unsure. The monitor is really old and will be replaced in about 6 months
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
I would like to get a motherboard that has two lan ports, as I use this computer to create a network through which my other computers can access the internet.
I also use the computer for watching movies, which I do through a cable connected to my TV, so I am looking for a decent gaming video card with TV out.
I am hoping to keep this upgrade under $500, and would like to go even less than that, as long as I am not going to compromise functionality.
I may get new hard drives, but I haven't priced them at all lately. I would think I could get like a 1 terabyte SATA drive for storage, and perhaps a decent sized solid state drive for windows and game/software installs.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: within 1 month
BUDGET RANGE: Around $500 or less (upgrading 4 parts)
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, movies, e-mail, web browsing
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, case, sound card, disk drives, possibliy hard drives
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: None - Will probably buy the parts from a local shop. Links may be useful to check out the parts.
PARTS PREFERENCES: None
OVERCLOCKING: Not interested. Never done it. Don't see a significant enough benefit.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: unsure. The monitor is really old and will be replaced in about 6 months
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
I would like to get a motherboard that has two lan ports, as I use this computer to create a network through which my other computers can access the internet.
I also use the computer for watching movies, which I do through a cable connected to my TV, so I am looking for a decent gaming video card with TV out.
I am hoping to keep this upgrade under $500, and would like to go even less than that, as long as I am not going to compromise functionality.
I may get new hard drives, but I haven't priced them at all lately. I would think I could get like a 1 terabyte SATA drive for storage, and perhaps a decent sized solid state drive for windows and game/software installs.