Gaming PC on a VERY limited budget

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by rgauthier, Oct 6, 2005.

  1. rgauthier

    rgauthier Private E-2

    My son recently approached me to ask what could be done to alleviate his online gaming performance issues. He's recently gotten back into EverQuest and his 4-yr old PC isn't quite cutting it. If upgrading his existing system is not feasible he'd like a new system.

    Let's start with his existing system a 4-yr old Gateway with a 1.3GHz Pentium and 758MB of PC800 RAMBUS memory. His video card is a GeForce FX5200 AGP w/128MB of RAM. Considering the age of the system board I would guess that we'd be lucky if the AGP support tops out at 4X.

    Now that you've stopped laughing maybe you'd be willing to offer some constructive advice ...

    I don't know if an additional 256MB of system RAM and a better video card is going to buy a significant improvement in gaming performance. I don't have the expertise in that area which is why I'm tapping you guys. I also hate to throw a lot of money at components that either won't migrate to a new system or that I can't use somewhere else when I get around to replacing the entire system.

    I thought about a new barebones system but my budget is limited to say $600 to $700, $800 max. I know I can't buy too much for that amount of coin so I was hoping to come up with a lower-end gaming solution that would alleviate my son's current performance woes for another year or two while giving him decent upgrade flexibility down the road.

    A co-worker of mine suggested that I might be able to accomplish my goal by purchasing a decent motherboard, AMD 64-bit CPU and RAM while moving my son's existing GeForce FX5200, hard drive and peripherals to the new system. Do any of you think this will work or am I barking up the wrong tree?
     
  2. mcadam

    mcadam Major Amnesia

    Yup I'd do that, up the mobo, cpu and ram and keep the video card until later. It's still a 128mb card so will support latest games, just not to an amazing performance.
    A 3400+ Athlon 64 processor would do nicely (I'm running a 3200+ and it performs amazingly well), any Asus, Abit or Gigabyte motherboard in my opinion, and at least 512mb ram, preferabley a gig if it's for gaming.

    Hope that's a bit of help :)
     
  3. suesman

    suesman First Sergeant

    You will most likely want to get a new case as well. The old Gateway case is not going to provide sufficient cooling for the new parts. I also completely agree with mcadam.
     
  4. Tourangh

    Tourangh Master Sergeant

  5. rgauthier

    rgauthier Private E-2

    Actually I've got my eye on the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 mobo. (http://www.asrock.com/product/product_939Dual-SATA2.htm) The main features that are getting my attention are the fact that it will support a wide range of 64-bit AMD processors and it supports both AGP 8x/4x and PCIe. The downside is that the board is not available from any online vendor that I've ever dealt with (MWave & Newegg). Are you guys aware of any other mobos that support both AGP 8x/4x and PCIe?
     
  6. ibbonkers

    ibbonkers First Sergeant

  7. Insomniac

    Insomniac Billy Ray Cyrus #1 Fan

    Try to find a board with an nForce 4 chipset or nForce 4 ultra.

    They are currently the best performing chipsets.
     
  8. ibbonkers

    ibbonkers First Sergeant

    true enough but this board does support sata2 agp AND pci-e so the agp card can be still used for a while till pci-e is feasable budget wise
    incidently on benchmarks and tests the ULI chipset only falls about 5 % behind nforce4 and with the flexibility available it would be well worth it
     
  9. Tourangh

    Tourangh Master Sergeant

    I guess you found that mobo but here is another site you could look for stuff on www.tigerdirect.com
     
  10. Triaxx2

    Triaxx2 MajorGeek

  11. Insomniac

    Insomniac Billy Ray Cyrus #1 Fan


    I don't put much weight into benchmarks, especially with todays hardware.

    A few fps that the eye can't detect is irrelevant to me.

    What I'm worried about is driver quality, updates, and support.

    I've never heard of ULI.
     
  12. rgauthier

    rgauthier Private E-2

    http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2471

    " ... ULi is what remains of the ALi chipset division of Acer, and this now independent chipmaker has been very busy in several arenas. In addition to South Bridges which can work with the chipsets of other manufacturers, ULi also makes single-chip and dual-chip solutions for Athlon 64. ..."

    http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/motherboards/1549_1.html

    " ... ULi began life in the computer industry a short 3 years ago in 2002. Founded in December of 2002, ULi is a independent subsidiary of ALi Corporation. In 2004, ULi introduced the world's first PCI Express South Bridge. Earlier this year, ULi introduced the first chipset capable of supporting PCI Express x16, AGP 8x and PCI graphics at one time. ..."
     
  13. Insomniac

    Insomniac Billy Ray Cyrus #1 Fan

    I'm familiar with Google. :)

    Point I'm trying to make is that it's a cr@ppy chipset compared to what's available.
     
  14. rgauthier

    rgauthier Private E-2

    I haven't run across any reviews so far that would support that opinion. If you have I'd appreciate a link. Not having a lot of experience with gaming systems the whole purpose of this exercise was to use this forum as a sounding board/second opinion. If you know of a better chipset that supports 64-bit AMDs AND both AGP 8x/4x and PCIe on the same motherboard, please let me know what it is.
     
  15. Insomniac

    Insomniac Billy Ray Cyrus #1 Fan

    You are limiting your options by requiring a motherboard that supports both AGP and PCI X.

    And for a motherboard to do both, then it has to make compromises. It's that simple.

    I understand why you want both, but you would be better off going with a dedicated PCI X board and saving for a new video card.
     
  16. rgauthier

    rgauthier Private E-2

    Absolutely agree.

    Yes. I'd expect that. The reviews I've read so far however, have indicated that this board seems to do both quite nicely.

    Actually that was my plan with this board. 64-bit performance w/1GB of PC3200 RAM and my son could get a new PCIe video card next year. I haven't found an entire new system including a decent PCIe video card that fits within the budget.

    Maybe I'm aiming too high on the mobo/RAM specs. Another approach would be to buy a lower-end system and include a new AGP 8x video card. I can always find uses for the new system if my son wants a new one a couple of years down the road. I'm just hesitant to spend a lot of money on a decent 8x AGP card that's obsolete when that standard gets abandoned in favor of PCIe.

    BTW, I used to have a better grasp of the time diff between U.S. CDT and Sydney time when I used to listen to/watch thebasement.com.au (DAMN! I miss those guys!). It's quitting time for me here - pick you up on the flip side.
     
  17. Colemanguy

    Colemanguy MajorGeek

    IMHO I wouldn't go with that board as most of the reviews are on the negitive side and if your wanting a gaming machine thats ready for the future.
     
  18. rgauthier

    rgauthier Private E-2

    I'm thinking about shifting gears here. I'm considering going for a mobo w/nVidia 6150/430 letting my son use the onboard graphics and planning to get a new PCIe video card next year. I'm looking for some good motherboard recommendations.

    A couple of boards that I've run across are Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS and EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra. Do any of you have experience with either of these mobos or do you have another recommendation? I'd like to find a mobo w/some dedicated RAM and BIOS that will let you carve out at least 128MB of system RAM.

    Keeping in mind that for now I only need some improved gaming performance over a 4-yr old Gateway 1.3GHz Pentium w/758MB PC800 RAM and a GeForce FX5200 do you think this approach will work?
     
  19. Omegamerc

    Omegamerc MajorGeek

    foxconn/epox are generic type mobos i believe.
     
  20. Insomniac

    Insomniac Billy Ray Cyrus #1 Fan

    FoxConn are, or at least used to be, the motherboard "arm" of LeadTek.

    rgauthier, I don't quiet understand what sort of board you are after.
     
  21. Triaxx2

    Triaxx2 MajorGeek

    I suggested this earlier, but it's a Nforce chipset mobo, with AGP, and PCIe, along with SATA hard drives, and A64 processors (754).

    http://3btech.net/msik8nneat641.html

    It's a very reliable site, I haven't bought anything from them that didn't work.
     
  22. hugh750

    hugh750 MajorGeek

    You might want to look at motherboards made by intel,thats what i got in my gateway computer and it's a good motherboard. ;)
     

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