What do y'all recommend in a new computer?

[Mazer18]

Hey y'all,

I'm looking at getting a new computer soon and I hope to upgrade a bit from my current one. Right now I can play PR semi-decent but plenty of room for improvement. This one is 5 years old and has been run HARD.

Current specs are:
Dell Dimension 8300
Windows XP
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
2GB RAM
ATI Radeon 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X

Anything else you need please let me know.

Does the processor's performance get worse with time and use? I know when I first started playing BF2 when this computer was new it ran so smoothly on high settings but now I get a bit of video/graphics lag.

Also, the new computer will be a Dell. Work has a pretty good discount on Dell parts.

If any of y'all can recommend what to get on a new computer to be able to run PR good on high I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

[Kruder]

I think u posted on the wrong section,however about your questions:

a)buy as much RAM as u can afford,its the cheapest but very efficient hardware to gain performance,and literally on every application you use.

b)No processor's performance doesnt degrade over time,however dust and dirt may have blocked the fan and/or slowed the rotation and decrease the volume of flowing air over time.Just open your case and have a look at every fan there is(CPU,GPU,CASE but NOT THE PSU)

[Dunehunter]

Moved to the correct forums.

[strickt]

There is honestly nothing more you can do with that computer, aside from getting more ram (which in the case of PR isnt going to help cause it only uses 2 gigs) eather way you have the best agp card on the market, there is nothing else to upgrade. My recomendation would be to learn the art of overclocking, by just overclocking your GPU you can gain an easy 5-10 FPS on most games, if you can get that CPU up to 3.5 you would also see A great increase due to the fact that it is most likely bottlenecking your GPU.

Other then the overclock there is nothing else you can really do to that computer

Edit: unless that motherboard is a 775 socket then you can upgrade to a dual core and possibly see some improvement.

[FuzzySquirrel]

There is honestly nothing more you can do with that computer, aside from getting more ram (which in the case of PR isnt going to help cause it only uses 2 gigs) eather way you have the best agp card on the market, there is nothing else to upgrade. My recomendation would be to learn the art of overclocking, by just overclocking your GPU you can gain an easy 5-10 FPS on most games, if you can get that CPU up to 3.5 you would also see A great increase due to the fact that it is most likely bottlenecking your GPU.

Other then the overclock there is nothing else you can really do to that computer

Edit: unless that motherboard is a 775 socket then you can upgrade to a dual core and possibly see some improvement.

No, Dell MBs disable overclocking. And if his mb was 775 it doesnt mean he could support a Dual core. At most he might beable to get a Pentium Dual Core because I doubt his MB will support anything past a 1066FSB.

His best option would be to get a new computer.

[VoXiNaTiOn]

Fuzzy, you forget that the Q6600, Q6700, QX6700 and QX6750 are 1066Mhz FSBs . Q8xxx and above is 1333Mhz (Or 1600Mhz for the QX9750.)


I'd advise a new computer in all honesty, and get away from Dell lol.

[FuzzySquirrel]

Fuzzy, you forget that the Q6600, Q6700, QX6700 and QX6750 are 1066Mhz FSBs . Q8xxx and above is 1333Mhz (Or 1600Mhz for the QX9750.)


I'd advise a new computer in all honesty, and get away from Dell lol.

True, but 1066 was a rough estimate, In all honesty the P4 is probably 800FSB, either way I agree get away from dell.

[AgentJadeD]

In all honesty its cheaper to just buy a mobo/cpu/ram upgrade package. And stay away from dell.