Need help upgrading computer

Well when you sell a 8500 GT for 150(Which I bought for 60 with shipping) you know there is something wrong.

 

Precisely. The electronics store Maplin (good for electronic components, useless for PC parts due to the immense cost) were selling an AGP FX5200 for £89.99.
Scan.co.uk sell an X1950 Pro on PCIe for £92!
It's hardly surprising to see that the exact same model in that shop is still unsold after a year.

 

The only problem is, I have alot of gift cards worth around approx. $300-450 and will be getting more for the summer so it would be wizer to buy a comuter from it and save alot of money

 

Yep, but even with $400 of gift vouchers, a premade PC will still be cheaper. Best Buy really are that expensive. Best thing is to get a PC elsewhere, and use the vouchers on, say a monitor or speakers.

 

But I already have a good mouse, speakers, keyboard, monitor, etc.

 

Then getting a custom built PC will be nice and cheap! Seriously, all those gift vouchers are doing are reducing the price to what the PC SHOULD cost.

 

You could always get some Verbatim DVD media. When Best Buy has their sales on media, they beat the prices of Newegg, ZipZoomFly, and others.

The only computer equipment that I would get at Best Buy, is a mouse and maybe a flash drive.

 

Hmm yeah. Media sales are often good at places like that, but very little else.

 

Unfortunately, i am not getting the computer becuase i am spending the computer budget on something more important so i will have to stick with my sony vai. Buy what should i upgrade?

 

Upgrading your RAM is the cheapest option for performance. CPU upgrading and video card upgrades (if allowable) can be deadly expensive, especially with laptops. Hi guy's, hope ya don't mind me chimimg in. Prices for SONY VAIO RAM chips are going to make your heart skip a beat... LOL

 

Fortunately, since it's a desktop you will be able to make some form of upgrade.

I'd say RAM first, and then Graphics card, you can get away with that processor for a lot of games, just not the heavyweight ones like Supreme Commander. If you want to play games like that well, you'll need to change CPU, which'll mean changing motherboard.
Also note that to upgrade your Graphics card you'll probably want a more powerful PSU.

Overall, the amount you need to make that PC play games well will be almost the same as building a new PC, so start with what's most important and then work up. RAM first, then Graphics & power supply together, CPU/Motherboard last.

 

Thanks for all your help. I ugraded my ram from 512 mb to 1536 mb (added 1 gig ram stick) and I see a tremedous performance boost. Now my computer is extrememly fast in start up, multitasking, etc. I can now burn a dvd, go on the internet, download stuff and still see no loss in performance and still play a game like battlefield 2. Thanks for the tip it really helpeed.

 

You're welcome, 512MB RAM is a bit tiny for playing games these days.

 

Thanks for all your help. Currently my computers performace boost has helped me alot, especially in competing work. I could never get work done whith the 512 mb of ram but with 1536, getting work done is much easier. My computer feels like its a core duo becuase of the speed boost.

 

Hehe, not quite...

 

lol

 

Wait til you get a duo core, then you'll really see a performance boost.
(I just built myself a new one with a duo core and a 8800gts card and a nice sammy 22" wids screen monitor,god i'm in heaven LOL)
If i was you, just like others have suggested find a good custom computer shop in your area and get them to build one for you.
I personally build my own for friends and for me.
Also computers from big box stores have poor or low quality motherboards and alot of noname parts in them.
Good luck with it.
Peace all

 

You're in heaven with a 22"? Where am I with a 30?