I have slowly rebuilt my computer over time from a store bought one years ago, right now it has no old hardware from when I bought it, even a new case. :)
Right now I have a this motherboard;
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1559072&CatId=182
A 3.2ghz intel celeron cpu they don't even sell anymore.
2GB DDR DIMM
and this gfx card http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1641739&CatId=697
My problem is the performance of my computer in games like World of Warcraft. My frame rate is usually 15-20 which I know is horrible. Right now the only option I see to fix the problem would be to buy a new gfx card which would have to be the new PCI express kind which would mean I need a new motherboard which would also require a new CPU and ram... which is quite costly.
Do you guys know of any other way I could go about increasing the performance to something more like 50-70 fps, cheaper?
2007-04-25 03:08:21 · 7 answers · asked by Kaysee 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Also, is it better to get PCI express graphics cards or AGP slot graphics cards?
2007-04-25 03:23:30 · update #1
Are you sure you are using that slow PCI card on the link you gave and your 8x AGP slot is empty? If that is the case, go buy a good AGP card. Consider:
9600 Pro - Cheap and w/ good overclocking headroom
7300GT AGP - Faster but more expensive.
7600GS AGP- Fast but may quickly take away a hundred dollars from your wallet.
Faster cards could stress both your power supply and your wallet.
Happy Gaming w/ a faster card!
2007-04-25 03:35:54 · answer #1 · answered by Karz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The problem is your video card. The NVIDIA 5500 chip is an old, outdated 3D graphics processor. Not only that, but the video card isn't even an AGP type.
If you want, you can just buy a cheaper AGP card and use that as a stop-gap until you're ready to upgrade your motherboard, RAM type (DDR2 from DDR), CPU, etc.
I don't think it would make sense to buy a pricey AGP card when you're going to upgrade to a PCIe motherboard in the near future. (PCIe video cards are faster and slightly cheaper than their AGP counterparts.)
With your CPU and RAM, your computer still has lots of life yet. Something around the $100-120 range should be good.
2007-04-25 10:25:37 · answer #2 · answered by Balk 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hard drives have nothing to do with fps, so don't worry about that. You could just get a better gfx card that is agp, you can get pretty high end cards from both ati and nvidia in the agp format.
The biggest thing I would suggest is to get rid of the celeron, those are junk, they have a super low bus speed and don't process worth ****. Get at least a P4.
2007-04-25 10:27:13 · answer #3 · answered by gobuuku 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately, this year all the internal guts of a PC has changed, from the Mother Board right the way through. RAM is now DDR2..Ethernet is now FAST Ethenet2. HD's are also of the FAST access type hence the duel core processors. I had to start from scratch in Jan to get my PC up to spec. I suggest do as I did. obtain a motherboard and processor first. DO NOT BUY these items separate as the a bugger to try to match up. buy them already set up on the mother board. Also care should be taken concerning the power pack as this was also upgraded so it would probably be advisable to buy your case first and make sure it is suitable for the motherboard you intend to buy. Sorry I can't give you any more advice. but you will be able to transfer all your data from one PC to your new one as XP have that program built into it. Hope this has helped PC MAN.
2007-04-25 10:26:07 · answer #4 · answered by coofooman 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, assuming you have an AGP slot and not a regular PCI slot, you can get several Nvidia or ATI cards that use AGP. With the GeForce, I think you can even get a 7600 in AGP, and with ATI, I think you can get a X1950 in AGP, just search newegg.com. That should get your framerates up.
PCIExpress is better, but most motherboards will only support one or the other. Unless you have an ASRock Dual SATA II motherboard which supports both.
2007-04-25 10:16:31 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I would recommend changing out you Celeron processor for a P4 or P4 w/ HT. Your board should still support the faster processor, double check the board specs before you change it though. I changed my son's 2.0 GHz processor with a 2.8 P4 and had no problems.
You can still find some of the older processors at tiger direct.
Good Luck
2007-04-25 10:25:02 · answer #6 · answered by Kenn N 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have a PATA hard drive, replace it with a SATA one
turn off any unnecessary programs that load at startup
2007-04-25 10:21:24 · answer #7 · answered by Harbinger 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋