Looking to upgrade my rig, any suggestions?

[BlackScarletLove]

I'm playing STALKER Clear Sky and at max settings I'm lagging. I hate playing any games at less than optimal settings, and I also recognize that it's been years since my last upgrade and it might be time again.


I am using XP,

2G DDR2

Processor a
2.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium Dual
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache


Main Circuit Board
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5K SE Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0401 07/19/2007

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
LGE T710BH [Monitor] (15.7"vis, March 2003)


I'm looking to upgrade to somethign that will run my games a little smoother as well as my photoshop cs4, get at least a gig more of ram, but the main thing I wonder is should I up my vid card, and to what? I'm looking for affordability but quality,

also if I were looking for a new monitor, what's a good lcd or led monitor with black blacks and not-overexposed whites (eg, a graphic designer's monitor) that you'd reccommend?

 

[Perris Calderon]

I wonder how windows seven is with games, I also wonder if the games you play are supported in 64 bit, if so go there, and do get more then 4 gigs memory so you can begin the real benefits of 64 bit

 

[LordOfLA]

windows 7 is fine with games, as is vista and XP

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

windows 7 is fine with games, as is vista and XP

+1

 

[LeeJend]

The old Pentium Dual Core is not very good with games, the Core 2 Duo (or latter) is better. CPU's get bogged down on the newer games handling main memory throughput and the complex physics calculations fdor motion or AI.

You'll get the most bang for your buck with a better video card. The 8600 is not what I'd call a gaming card. For a decent gaming video card you're looking at $200 and up (USD at USA card pricing vs the high Canadian import duties, not sure how that would price out in Canadian dollars these days, the exchange rate is close to 1:1 but the import duties are high.)

Not sure if your current power supply will support a faster video card or if your MB has video card PCIe slots (vs the older AGP). If the PC is over 2-3 years old it usually ends up needing a total replacement ($600) to get something good for gaming.

Going from 2 to 3 GB RAM will not affect games that much and you will have to go up to 4 GB odd number RAM stick can cuase issues.

There is no such thing as a "graphics designer LCD monitor". The color space of an LCD monitor is too limited. If you are just doing web design then an LCD is acceptable since it is what most computers use to view the end product.

Hit a website that caters to web designers for info on the LCD monitor with the best color quality. They hack up consumer monitors so badly with contrast overdrive and other features to get rid of smearing when viewing movies to compensate for poor inherent quality of the LCDs. I would not recommend any of the ones I've seen in the last 2 years for general use let alone design work. A whole years buy of "top name" 22-26 inch LCD monitors at work are so bad at least 50% have been returned.

 

[Arniestan1]

I wouldn't put any money in the system you currently have, but if cost is an issue, the videocard is the thing to upgrade for games. More memory for photoshop. Photoshop will benefit too from videocard upgrade as well. IMHO.

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

Ditto on just replacing the entire machine. Any computer with a 2GHz Pentium D will not be upgradeable enough IMHO to get what you're looking for.

I would argue that $200 isn't necessary for gaming though. I paid $120 for mine (see my signature) and I can very NEARLY max out the settings (if I max out the resolution I had to cut the Anti-Aliasing setting back from 8 to 0, but if I played on my old big screen TV at 1024x768 then I could absolutely max out the AA too). But if you don't mind spending the extra cash it certainly won't hurt.