PC Upgrade Help

[inthezoneac]

Current PC:

Dell Dimension 4500
Windows XP Home
Pentium 4 2.0ghz
Nvidia GeForce MX420 64mb AGP card
Dell 20gb hd, primary
Sygate 120gb hd, slave
Dell 256mb DDR PC2100 Ram, slot 1
Kingston 512mb DDR PC2100 Ram, slot 2
CD/DVD Player

Ok, I am looking to upgrade the video card, ram, and motherboard. I want to know if it is possible, not familiar at all when upgrading hardware like video cards or motherboards. I do not want to spend the $$$ on a new pc.

1. Would like to upgrade motherboard, preferably stick with Pentium 4, but supports more than 1gb, 2gb or more is good. I do not know which is better AGP or PCI or whatever else.

2. If I can upgrade the motherboard I am looking for 128/256 video card, preferably nvidia. As long as I know what type of card the motherboard supports I'm good to go. Does anyone know how well the GeForce 6200 compares to the 6600 or 6800? Like could someone list the pros/cons for each.

3. If I upgrade the motherboard I will probably need new types of RAM. Does anyone know of any good companies that make RAM, but aren't expensive.(Dell sells 512 ram for my pc for $80, same thing can be found on newegg for $40 from kingston).

4. Depending on how much this costs I may look into getting a flat screen monitor for my pc since the thickness of the monitor is longer than my keyboard.

Price ranges for each upgrade.

Motherboard, video card both $100 or less(If motherboard is higher please let me know, I don't need to best one, just one that has a faster processor and supports at least 2gb RAM)

Ram, depends on motherboard, but let me know which place makes the best ram for their price.

Monitors, depends.

Sorry if it's a little sloppy, but any help would be appreciated.

[malice2501]

1) PCI-Express 16x is better than AGP8x
2) For all your card comparing needs: http://www.gpureview.com/
3) Kingston is ok from my dealing with them, but wait for a more experienced persons advice on that.
4) I like flat screens too

I dont have the time/energy to do the price searching for you, so here are some sites i use.

www.newegg.com
www.shopping.com
www.bottomdollar.com

hope this helps

[inthezoneac]

thanks! Would a motherboard that supports PCI cost a lot like $200+?

[Borman]

The key is finding one that supports your processor

[zero_defekz]

dont forget a new case to go with that mobo... thats gonna go with that proc.. since its a dell.. smart money says its proprietary.. so the new mobo might not (read.. more than likely WONT) fit into the dell case.

also.. agp is faster than pci... pci-e is faster than agp.. it all depends on what you wanna do...

if you go pci-e, your gonna have to get a new proc too.. pci-e also means new socket for the proc.. so a new mobo is a must if you go that route

pretty much.. all you should need is a new mobo, (make sure the proc socket on your old mobo.. matches the one on your new one) new case

ie.. p4 is usually socket 478, so youd wanna find a socket 478 board..
once you pick out your board that matches your proc, make sure it (the board) will fit into the new case.. go with an atx case to be certain..

once thats done.. you can gut your dell for the hardware (cd /dvd drives, memory harddrives, )

new vid card might help too.. depends on how high end you wanna go.. personally.. i like nvidia.. ive had a few bad exp with ati.. but theyre both good cards..

hope this helps a bit.. although it prolly caused more confusion than help tho lol

*edit*

as far as pricing goes.. newegg.com has awesome deals on hardware.. i bought a 120 gig drive for like 83.00 i think

if you want great memory.. personally.. my best expirence has been with corsair (although its a bit pricey)

if you want just "regular" ram.. pny is a good brand

[sniperrfl1011]

1. I can almost bet money that your current motherboard supports 2gb of ram. You simply replace both ram modules with 1gb modules.

2. AGP and PCI-E offer no performance difference AS OF YET. although the highest end cards are not availible for AGP anymore, AND the same card costs more on AGP than PCI-E, PCI-E is the way to go. however, I think you will be better off keeping your old motherboard and using AGP because getting a new motherboard with PCI-E means also getting a new cpu(s775), new ram(ddr2), and a new case(ATX).

3. For ram just go with newegg. Usually G.Skill is pretty cheap on newegg and is pretty good value ram.

4. the LCD monitor is up to you. you can look for deals on that. I know i've seen 17" ones go for as low as $160

Regarding what was said about you needing to change cases if you change motherboards:
I believe you can make do with your current motherboard, as there is no reason to change it(assuming you want to keep your current cpu). Even if you want to upgrade the motherboard, you can still get a replacement uATX(aka microATX, mATX) motherboard which WILL fit in your dell case. Getting a decent midrange AGP should suit you fine. A 9800pro or a x700 runs for as low around $120 and would be much faster than a 6200, and a tad faster than a 6600(non-GT). If you want more performance than that, a x800gto or a 6800gs ($200) would be a good choice, since either of those have a very high chance of being unlockable.

[malice2501]

sniper is mostly right about the PCi/AGP diff. The only benefit you see right not is you will not need an extra power connector for the card. But it is the future and AGP will become extinct soon enough. (will give good rep to you all tomorrow, im feeling nice )

[inthezoneac]

well do you guys think games will still support agp cards later down the road? I want to upgrade for now, just going to play games that the ps3 won't have. I'll most likley get a new pc once I want to upgrade again(probably once windows new OS comes out)

[Ultimate X]

thats not too bad a rig actually id just get a new video card and save up for a new computer all together since later on you might want a 64 bit processor cuz the new windows will probably have a 64 bit version

if you decide to go ahead and upgrade pci-e mobo is the was to go and ati actually has 512mb vid cards that arnt too expensive

if you decide to only upgrade the the vid card id go with an ati since nvidia abandoned agp after the 6600gt i personally have a radeon x850pro wich i got for $230 but youll find better deals online since i bout it from a store also make sure you have agp 8x and not agp 4x and that your psu can support a new card cuz you dont want that new card to blow up

[inthezoneac]

yea the little 64mb I have is agp8x I believe.

[Ultimate X]

no not the card the the slot cuz most cards work with are 8x/4x so theres a posibility that your card isnt working as good as it could since the slot on your mobo might be a 4x like my last mobo

[CWarriorX]

I don't know how much dell has you locked out of but you can usually check if you have 8x AGP support in your BIOS config screen. If so there are plenty of inexpensive vid card choices though I wouldn't recommend any GeForce less than the 5200 (for lack of DX9 Support). I've had no luck with ATi, but that's just me. I recommend browsing newegg.com video card section and selecting 4x/8x AGP and DirectX 9 support (while the games won't look great with a cheap DX9 card, at least you'll be able to play them). If you have the money to spend I would recommend a 6600GT.

[sniperrfl1011]

AGP card lineup speed comparison(slowest to fastest):
(these are accurate to my understanding, some may be a LITTLe bit off)

GF1,2, ATI radeon 7000, 7500, et al
Gf4mx
Gf3 Ti
Fx5200
Gf4 Ti (low end)
Fx5500
Gf4 Ti (high end)
Fx5700
Radeon 9200
Radeon8500/radeon 9100
Fx5900
radeon 9550
radeon x300
radeon 9600
geforce 6200
fx5950ultra
radeon 9700
radeon x600
geforce 6600
radeon 9800
radeon x700
geforce 6600gt
radeon x800
radeon x800gto, gto2
geforce 6800gs
geforce 7800gs (not yet released)
radeon x850
radeon x850xt

[polobunny]

Fx5700
Radeon 9200
Radeon8500/radeon 9100

...
WTF
Radeon 9250 128bit 128mb is DirectX 8.1 while an FX5700 128mb is DirectX 9. The Fx5700 is overall 125% more powerful than the Radeon 9250, too.

Also lol, there's alot of other errors. 850 at the best??

Here's a good chart BTW.
http://forums.emuparadise.org/showthread.php?t=42377
Accurate one.

[Ultimate X]

i have a x850pro that 8x agp and youll prolly get it under 200 online

dont worry about people not sayin they had problems wit ati cuz most of the time they dont upgrade the ati catalyst