upgrading suggestions???

yalreet there doods... Was just wondering...I've got a ASUS P5N-MX motherboard on my system, it's runnin at 32 bit at the mo but apparently It can run At 64bit...How do I upgrade to that??? Also, how do I upgrade my Graphics?? It's currently got the inbuilt NVIDIA GeForce 7050/nForce 610i chipset..And I was wondering about boostin it up??? Any suggestions?? I'm only just gettin into gaming but I use alot of 3d animation programmes. Any Ideas...
Your help and advise would be gratefully recieved.:-D

 

I am guessing from Google you have an Intel 775 socket CPU. A video card would be a big improvment from the onboard video. To upgrade to 64 bit, you would need to install a 64bit operating sysem: XP 64bit and Vista 64bit are a couple.

 

as for the graphics, you just have to find out what kind of graphic card sockets you have. agp, pci-express? if you dont have a lot of ram, a gig or less is usually "not a lot", you should up it to 2GB or more if you can. that will help as well.

 

I have a pci-e socket on this mobo. I'm running with a 2GB stick...although, Its running at 1.96GB at the mo...i think thats because o the built in chip???

 

FredG. its a Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU E1200 @ 1.60GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz CPU.Is that good??

 

Actually "2GB" really means a bit under 2GB.....having 1.96 GB in reality is what two gigabytes really is. It all has to do with how you are defining a "gigabyte".......that is completely normal

 

you have a lot of good pci-e options man. check out newegg or tigerdirect. i only have 2gb of ram on my home computer and its ok.

i have a 7950 gt. http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7950.html runs good.

 

Cheers King....I'll check it out

 

It's probably because of your onboard video taking up some space in your RAM. You don't need to go to a 64-bit OS unless you want to use 4GB RAM or more on your Micro ATX board, 4GB is the max anyways so that's out, besides perhaps upgrading your 3D animation application which may cost extra bucks.

As to a video card upgrade, I would really check the dimensions of the card before buying one as you have very little space on that board. I doubt very much that you could put a 9800GT dual slot video card in there as those things are huge.

As to the CPU, you could put a nice Quad in there, all depnds on the bucks you have to spend. It might be better to just get a full sized motherboard and case. You'll have to do the math.

 

Just bin on them sites you suggested King.. Problem is that they'll charge an arm and a leg for postage...i'm in the uk see mate...but I looked at a place near me and there is a store selling a Nvidia Geforce 9500 GT 512MB PCI-E Graphics Card for £49.99...which is about $74..Is that a good Graphics card and will it work on this mobo??

 

cheers augiedoggie...thats cleared that up then....
:-D

 

is there any sites outthere that any one knows of that'll show compatible graphix cards with mobo's??? Just might give me more info is all??

 

ooh sorry man i didnt realize youre in the UK. looks like a good card to me. its a little out dated i think, but that wont hurt. if its pci-e i dont see a reason it wouldnt work unless you cant get drivers for it or something..

 

i'll I might just get it after christmas...cheers mate

 

By today's standards that's quite slow, and I'm talking about budget systems here, not the screamers. Ignore what I said about getting a quad, it wouldn't be worth it. You have plenty of RAM so a video card is the way to go as those onboard usually suck. You didn't mention your budget for the upgrade as that would help us to help you better.

 

oh yeah.....well i'm looking at spending around £100-£200 but, again the cheaper the better really

 

So that's about $300 USD max. minus the VAT of course, what's that %15? Yes, the Geforce 9500 GT 512MB PCI-E is a good card, at least much better than what you have now. Only thing that might impede you is your power supply, see if you can find out the wattage. Usually marked on the side when you open up the case, and even then it's usually the cheapest power supply that is installed in a pre-built. I don't want to see you get the card and then not able to run it.

 

I would look into something like this if I were upgrading your rig.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail

You should have no problem finding them for $170 or less.

I see your budget now, I think I would just get a good video card. The Nvidia 9800's are around $120 US.