How should I upgrade my computer?

[Canadianmonster]

I bought a really good computer this summer to help me with school (and to play FFXI and max image settings), and now want to increase its power, this coming summer, but I don't know what I should do to improve its power. I'm hoping to spend about $1000 to $1500 US doing upgrades, and don't want to waste any of it on parts that are not needed. Also to save cost, I plan to buy my parts off ebay, and would be happy to hear anyone’s opinion about that plan as well.

Here is my system as it stands right now;

Mother Board: ASUS P4C800-Deluxe 800MHz PSB
CPU: Pentium 4 3.06 Ghz 800 Mhz FSB & 512K
RAM: Two 512MB PC-3200 DDR 400 MHz
HD: Western Digital 250GB 7200rpm 8M
Graphics Card: Radeon All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
DVD Player: Sony DVD-RW-DRU500AX
Case: Thermaltake V2000

Other Features:
2.1 Sound System
19' LCD Screen from Samsung
All-in-one Printer from HP
400 watt power supply
Microsoft internet keyboard
Labtec optical mouse
Operating System: Windows XP

Also here are top ten improvements I have been thinking of doing;

1. Buy a GigaWorks S750 Speakers system from Creative Labs so I can utilize the 7.1 power of my sound card.

2. Buy two new sticks of 512MB PC-3200 DDR 400 MHz RAM so I have a total of 2.0 GB RAM space for my computer.

3. Buy a Radeon 9800 XT for my system so I have 256 MB of power instead of the 128 MB power of the All-in-Wonder I’m using
4. Buy a water-cooling system for my computer because it’s always at 40+ Degrees Celsius for temperature.

5. Either with or without the water system, I buy RAM cooling kits for my computer from thermaltake, along with a heating pipe system for my graphics card from thermaltake.

6. Buying a CPU with Hyper-threading or one at above 3.5 Ghz power

7. Upgrading my power-supply to a much quieter thermaltake power system.

8. A Zip-Drive for my computer system.

9. Buy three more WD 250GB 7200rpm 8M hard drives, so I can have a TB of storage space.

10. Buy two used 15’ LCD monitors so I can have one insane looking system.

Although buying all of these upgrades are out of the questions I would like to do the ones, which will give me the best bang for my buck. And I should also make this clear, that I can’t spend beyond $1500 no matter what, as I’m working at a fish factory during the summer to make this money, and every dollar earned is a pained to make. In addition I won’t be working for eight months after the summer, due to school, so these improvements need to help keep my computer near high-end in power, for that time period.

Other questions I have with my upgrades are as listed;

1. Could I run my Radeon 9700 All-in-Wonder Pro with a Radeon 9800 XT at the same time?

2. If I bought three more hard drives, how can I lower the heat, in my computer’s bays?

3. Where is the best place on the web to find answers to which computer part is the best on the market, and what is the best machine set up for graphics design, programming, and gaming?

4. Are there ways to vent heat better in a system, when using fans, so it’s pushed out much faster?

5. Are there programs out there to help improve computer performance?

6. Can one place insurance on their computer, if they wanted too?

Thank you to anyone who can help me in my plans for my computer.
8. A Zip-Drive for my computer system.

9. Buy three more WD 250GB 7200rpm 8M hard drives, so I can have a TB of storage space.

10. Buy two used 15’ LCD monitors so I can have one insane looking system.

Although buying all of these upgrades are out of the questions I would like to do the ones, which will give me the best bang for my buck. And I should also make this clear, that I can’t spend beyond $1500 no matter what, as I’m working at a fish factory during the summer to make this money, and every dollar earned is a pained to make. In addition I won’t be working for eight months after the summer, due to school, so these improvements need to help keep my computer near high-end in power, for that time period.

Other questions I have with my upgrades are as listed;

1. Could I run my Radeon 9700 All-in-Wonder Pro with a Radeon 9800 XT at the same time?

2. If I bought three more hard drives, how can I lower the heat, in my computer’s bays?

3. Where is the best place on the web to find answers to which computer part is the best on the market, and what is the best machine set up for graphics design, programming, and gaming?

4. Are there ways to vent heat better in a system, when using fans, so it’s pushed out much faster?

5. Are there programs out there to help improve computer performance?

6. Can one place insurance on their computer, if they wanted too?

Thank you to anyone who can help me in my plans for my computer. Criticism

[skoreanime]

Phew, took me awhile to read through all that :sweat:. I'll just say what I would usually do to beef up a computer :spin:.

First off, that CPU of yours is gonna last you for a damn good while, so I see no real reason to replace that part.

More RAM would do anyone good, so go buy more ;). I see your running on WinXP, 512MB of RAM is what I would consider the minimum amount to run it effeciently. There are also certain brands, corsair and kingston, that are basically 'overclocked' RAM you could say. You can get those, but I really don't see that much performance difference.

You've got a lot of hard drive space, but the 7200rpm 8MB buffer is the down side for it's capacity. If you have the money to blow, get a raptor. But then backing up all your files and such will be a pain, so it's up to you :cool:.

As everyone knows, the graphics card is the heart of smooth gameplay. The radeon all-in-wonder is an excelllent card, should last you for quite awhile. However, it is not the best of the best anymore. If you really have the money to blow, the radeon 9800pro/XT or the NVidia FX5950 Ultra would boost your performance. Personally, I'm a ATI fan :thumbsup:.

I'm not much of a sound card person (I usually buy the cheapest one I can find :zzz: ) so I can't help you here :sweat:.

I really see no real reason to buy a Zip drive. Believe me or not, I know no one who uses them.

If your really set on buying more HD's and beefing up your computer, get that 400W replaced with a 550W, MORE POWER :thumbsup:.

2 monitors? Unless you have to motherboards, a waste of money. Monitors aren't cheap, you could use that money for something more practical, say, a new chair :angel:. I play FFXI for hours on end...having an uncomfortable chair really sucks :mad:.

To answer a few of your questions...

1-I believe both those card requires an AGP slot, so no, you cannot piggy-back them

2-There a fans tha mount directly on a HD, like this for example. Link (http://cbit.ca/images/FAN-316-13331-6133.gif)

3- Link (http://www.tomshardware.com). I use this one frequently.

4-I have 2 mounted in the front, 2 mounted in the back and one mounted at the top. The 2 front ones push in, the 2 back ones push out, and so does the one at the top. Best thing way to vent heat is air flow. If the inside of your tower is a mess of wires, expect heat to get trapped and build up. I also use high performance Suwon fans, bit loud but does the job of keeping my system cooled at a respectable 37degrees.

5-Programs? Bah, waste of my time and money. At most, I have only 25 applications running. Anything more than that, I start shutting some off.

6-Don't know about this, but I would hang on to all the warranty stuff you have.

Hope what I said helps :thumbsup:.

[sweetooth]

Well if I read correctly, you have 2 512 ram chips, so a Gig of mem.

You don't need more for gaming, but if you do lots of heavy graphics work, then upping might be useful, otherwise that upgrade is a Waste.

Of your list, the speakers are the best upgrade. Those are the only place your system is really "lacking"

I agree with skoreanime, with that temp in your system, you need to spend more time than money.

Buy some Great cables and Fans to setup a nice cooling system for your Rig, Hardcore Cooling (http://www.hardcorecooling.us/) is an example of where you can get some stuff, but there are many out there if you search.

Most online comp stores are going to have prices equal to ebay, and are full fledged stores, so will have probably better customer support. Unless the price is much better, I wouldn't go with E-bay for parts.

Unless you have problems in your life and need to feel better showing off your rig, forget those over the top Items like the monitors, really. To solve that problem you need to uppgrade yourself :)

Again, I agree, your graphics card could be upgraded. ATI has been working hard to equal the driver support of Nvidia and has a better top of the line Card now. Nvidia had there stuff speced to handle stuff out now, not looking to the future, so they are playing checkup now with top end directX 9+ support. ATI would be my suggestion.

One thing though, if you have that All In Wonder for things other than gaming, then a top of the line gaming card might not really meet your needs. For screen motion capturing, pumping out to a whole seperate box with the recording software running there is really Best.

I like the Chair suggestion too, don't look just at your rig, look at your whole setup. Nice chair? Nice table? Stands and setup for those 7 speakers you are getting? Those will really make the overall experience a better one.

I didn't look it up, is your Mobo a serial ATA one?

That might be an area to upgrade. I don't think you need a better CPU, you likely won't notice any difference with a 3.5 ghz on a gaming rig, but with a faster hardrive and a serial Mobo, you might get a little more speed and efficiency.


From a system point of view, tweaking your system will help more than adding some software.

Check Black Viper's website (http://www.blackviper.com/) to see about removing and turning off system services that are using cpu cycles that you aren't even making use of, and run Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/) to make sure nothing has loaded that might be doing things in the background that slows things down, or that you just don't want running.

The Ninja Micros Site (http://www.ninjamicros.com/) is probably the coolest techy site I have found for forums where you can get some info on things. Though not highly populated, these people really know their stuff, so asking a question doesn't usually end up with tons of speculation posts like many other places I have seen.

(Edit) Oh, I was assuming you used Broadband, if you don't you should alot some money to the monthly increase for getting that :)
SpeedGuide.net (http://www.speedguide.net/) Has a broadband page for registry hacks to speed up your connection.

Good luck on upgrading your Rig

[Exzavier]

Do not upgrade the CPU overclock it.
Buy a good water cooling kit.
You can also water cool the video card and overclock that.
With your 3ghz you can probably overclock
to maybe 3.6 or 3.8.
You will have to run the ram at a high mhz then 200
maybe 220, 230 maybe even 250.

Also may sure your ram is in dual channel mode
and the CAS is 2

The 9800xt would be faster but new video cards are
coming out soon so wait.