OT: hardware upgrade advice, please?

[olperfessor]

I need to upgrade hardware to play this game. Is it possible to simply replace the motherboard, CPU, and video card after gutting my tower, if I make sure these three components are compatible? Then add memory?

My current system (please don't laugh) is a 5 year old HP with sissy on-board graphics. It actually lets me play WiTP, thank goodness.

Thanks for your advice.

[Erik Rutins]

olperfessor,

Please post a DxDiag file and we'll have a better chance of advising you. Upgrade decisions vary greatly from PC to PC. Good sites are www.tomshardware.com, www.anandtech.com and www.newegg.com for researching upgrade info. It's often more cost/performance effective to buy a new PC if your previous one is getting very old and incompatible with many upgrade components.

Regards,

- Erik

[Mr.Frag]

A five year old HP is probably similar to a compaq layout ... don't expect anything to be upgradable for what you are willing to pay.

I once had to dish out $3,200 for a motherboard for one of those things since it can't use standard parts.

Here's todays world:

Pentium 4 requires a specific socket type each revision so you need a new motherboard each time. (AMD does the same pretty much).

Ram standards change and speed changes which means new memory each time (cause you have to match the motherboard).

Video standards are pretty standard now unless you really want high end. Any 256 meg AGP card will do (nVidia or ATI).

Sound cards ... If it doesn't say Soundblaster Audigy/2 or better, don't stick it in a machine.

Your power supply will need to match the motherboard. Plan on a new case as the motherboards keep changing layouts.

Hard drives are < $1 a Gig, buy a a couple of 200's (seems to be best price point these days) and raid them together for speed. All newer motherboards generally have built in raid controllers.

A DVD rewritable drive is a < $100 so why bother with a CD drive anymore.

A floppy is about the ONLY thing that really hasn't changed [:D]

Stay away from Dell & Gateway & any of the other big wholesalers, they use crap components to make better margins.

Best bet is the local ma & pa clone shop. Take your software there and say flat out "It runs this perfectly or you don't get paid". One of the advantages of buying locally.

Extended warranties are a waste of money, electronic components either die in 2 weeks or run for years. Be wary of "manufacturer warranty" as it means *no* warranty unless you happen to be willing to ship the part to god knows where to collect on the warranty. I have heard horror stories of people getting lemons where it is in the shop more then they have it. Find out exactly what the policy is on a lemon system.

It's a dirty business and people get taken all the time. An educated consumer is the ONLY protection.

[olperfessor]

Thanks, Eric, and thanks, Mr. Frag. I guess I'll just try again to buy a system from ABS computers (I tried to buy but they were always missing one component or another). I've had good luck with them in the past, and they use name-brand components; their customer service record is apparently mixed. My HD's are new, so I can just switch them over.

I appreciate your taking the time to help me out with this.[&o]

-- olperfessor