What to do with dad's computer ?

[tdotcbc84]

Hey guys,


just wondering what you guys would do...

my dad has a "old" P4 2.6ghz (OC'ed to 2.85), 1 gig of ram, 80gb HDD, DVDRom, DVD-R/RW, Asus P4P800 Mobo, and a Geforce3 Ti200 64mb AGP.


now, for my dad's everyday use, it is more than enough, however, for me, i come back on the weekends from University to visit my parents.... and this P4 Rig isn't cutting it for me anymore.... whats the best thing to do ? keep in mind, money is always a problem~! yet gaming is always priority for me hahaha


one thing i've been looking into was: get a nice AGP card and upgrade the PSU (since better videocard probably wants more than just 300watt generic!)

what do you guys think ?

[mau108]

LOL, well if gaming is priority, you should get most games to work well if you had an agp card in there.

I have a p4 2.0ghz with 1 gig SDRAM (yes pc133), 200 gig hdd, sapphire radeon 9800 pro and it plays NFSMW perfectly (thats the only game i play)

Wow if you consider that machine old, my machines ancient lol.

[Daijoubu]

If it's slow, try to clean up windows or format it
Such hardware is far from being slow

[jollyeskimo]

one thing i've been looking into was: get a nice AGP card and upgrade the PSU (since better videocard probably wants more than just 300watt generic!)

Sounds like a plan... if you need to play games THAT badly, I suppose.

[willy]

Such hardware is far from being slow

I agree ... I wouldn't consider a 2.85GHz P4 + 1GB RAM 'slow' ... I think the bottleneck of the system is the very old GF3 video card. Get a used (fairly inexpensive) 9800Pro AGP.

[terrybear]

I'd recomend looking into 1 of those Sapphire X1600 Pro AGp videocards if ya want to put some life into the computer & they go for aobut $150 new

[windwaker]

Just get a console that you can port back to and from your dorm. Solved. No more upgrade money issues.

[Amourek]

Video card, PSU, and see if you can clock that 2.6 any higher. If it's a 2.6C you should be able to get at least 3.0Ghz w/stock voltage.

[stixxx]

Get a 9800 pro or more and yes a 300 watt PSU is needed.

[tdotcbc84]

well thats the thing.....


i dont know if it is even worth getting a "new" agp videocard...


I was looking into more on the lines of a Geforce 6600GT AGP 256mb or 128mb


cant seem to find any good ones on the BST forums :S prove me wrong plz!

any suggestions on a new PSU ? i have a Modstream 450w on my Own compuater.... but dont really feel like dishing out $100~!

[Daijoubu]

If you're lucky, you may be able to get the Antec SmartPower 2.0 450W for $34-42 before tax at Staples

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=246588

[stixxx]

i got a no brand 400W with 9800pro, 2500XP-M overclocked to 2600,sounblaster 2 ZS abd a videoediting car plus 2 120m fans attach to the PSU..n it never gave me problems..maybe it could be because of my mobile cpu..

[CRXGSR]

now, for my dad's everyday use, it is more than enough, however, for me, ... this P4 Rig isn't cutting it for me anymore.... whats the best thing to do ?

Maybe you should be looking into getting your OWN computer.

[PSiBeR]

Use it as a fileserver lol

[sumrandomguy]

have you thot about putting it on the BST forum?

i call dibs