PC upgrade advice

[SaintHacker]

Thinking about upgrading my fairly basic pc so it can run some games a bit better. I'm thinking a bit more memory and maybe a graphics card. Its been years since I've done it so could anyone give me a bit of advice about what to go for?
The motherboard is a MSI A55M-P33 apparently. Looks like its only got 4mb or RAM and just the standard onboard graphics, running Win7.
Ta in advance.

 

[brendy]

Graphics card and an SSD drive (to replace the existing hdd) would be my first actions, another 4gb ram wouldn't do it any harm but the first two would give you the biggest burst in extra speed. SSD's make such a difference to windows tasks and gaming like you wouldnt believe compared to an old regular physical hard disk.

 

[guest100718]

depends on budget... SDD is a good idea, but ide be wanting to do a fresh install on that and re use the existing HDD for storage . what sort of games are you looking to play?

 

[PhilTheFragger]

What processor have you got with that? Coz if it's a dawg then no matter what you do, it'll still be a dawg

Hit start, right click " computer", left click "properties" will tell you the CPU details etc

Have you got a windows or system recovery disc?

Bear in mind that you can pick up a new box with an intel I5 CPU , 8 gb ram and a 1 Tb hdd for about £375

A 128gb SSD drive will be about £55 , you may need extra connectors to hook it up to the power supply unit.

About extra ram , go to www.crucial.com/uk and download their scanner, it will tell you how much ram your board can take and how much it will cost. It may well be that you have 2 ram slots with a 2 gb chip in each, so you will need to ditch them and buy 2x4gb which could easily be £75. Or you might be lucky and have a couple of spare slots so you only need buy 2x2 gb which will be cheaper.

Good luck and post back with progress

 

[SaintHacker]

Thanks chaps.
Processor is an Athlon XP3900+. Looking at that crucial scanner it has one 4GB memory stick and a free slot.
I use it for simulation type games so I don't need ridiculous processing power, but something that will just keep the frame rate ticking along when the scenery gets a bit dense.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

I don't need ridiculous processing power,

Just as well dawg alert

 

[SaintHacker]

That good eh? Thanks Phil!

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Just to check go back to start, right click computer, left click properties and hit the bit about windows experience index
It will give your CPU a mark out of 7.9
If it's under 5 I wouldn't bother doing any sort of upgrade, but if it is 6 or over then it's got a bit of life left in it

 

[SaintHacker]

6.1, a little bit of life in the old dog! Probably a bit more than in its owner to be fair...
The graphics only come out at 3.9 so ebay has just been bashed and a shiny new 1GB graphics card is on its way.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Woof woof

 

[Foxholer]

For (used Ebay) memory, dr_memory if you want a UK based supplier or focus_memory for a (cheaper, but slower delivery) Hong Kong one.

I've used both quite happily.

 

[drdel]

Bear I mind if you upgrade the processor your software might see it as a new machine and then you might require new licences.